Tag Archives: History
The Mysterious Death of Yuri Gagarin
On a snowy, blustery morning in March 1968, a two-man MiG-15 UTI jet took off from Chkalov air force base outside Moscow on a routine training flight. Barely ten minutes later, the aircraft’s pilot radioed air traffic control, announcing it was cutting its flight short and requesting permission to land. Then, the transmission went dead.… Read More »
How Did the Wright Brothers Win the Race Into the Air?
On the morning of Thursday, December 17, 1903, two brothers stood on a windswept beach outside Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and prepared to make history. After winning a simple coin toss, one of the brothers climbed into a strange wood-and-canvas craft dubbed the Flyer. With a clatter and a whir the twin propellers spun up… Read More »
Jim Thorpe’s shoes were stolen just before he competed in the Olympic decathlon. Wearing mismatched…
What the Heck is a “Dum-Dum” Bullet Anyway?
Near the end of the groundbreaking 1988 hybrid live-action/animation film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? hardboiled detective Eddie Valiant is in hot pursuit of three villainous cartoon weasels, who escape through a tunnel into the animated ghetto of Toon Town. Before following them in, Valiant pulls out and loads a cartoon gun given him by none… Read More »
New Jersey’s Assembly voted to make Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” the state’s rock anthem, but…
Elvis Presley was naturally blond, but he dyed his hair black for a more “edgy” look, even using…
The Secret Drone Program That Killed JFK’s Brother
Of all prominent American families, few are more popularly associated with tragedy than the Kennedys. Most infamous of these misfortunes are, of course, the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy and that of his brother, Robert, in 1968. Also well-remembered is the death of John F. Kennedy Jr, his wife, and his sister-in-law in… Read More »
Silent Seas: The Top Secret, Greatest Cold War Naval Espionage Mission
If ever there was an ultimate weapon of war, it would have to be the nuclear submarine. For more than 60 years, ballistic missile-armed submarines have prowled the world’s oceans, ready to unleash nuclear armageddon at a moment’s notice. Meanwhile, fast attack boats track and stalk the missile-armed ‘boomers’, the two rivals locked in a… Read More »