When second officer Charles Lightoller took his new position on the Titanic, he neglected to ask his predecessor for the keys to the locker where the binoculars were stored. On the fateful night, a lookout spotted the iceberg with his naked eyes. The ships engines were immediately stopped and Read more…
One of the worst jobs was being a crewman on a German u-boat in WWII. Your life expectancy was poor. The death rate was around 75% and yet the submariners were volunteers. They were pampered ashore, but for the month to six months at sea, it was a life Read more…
There were many copycats to Coke and usually Coke was successful in suing them out of business. In 1893, a North Carolina pharmacist named Caleb Bradham came up with “Brad’s Drink” which he renamed Pepsi-Cola to imply pepsin which was good for stomach ailments. His company went bankrupt due Read more…
Garfield was shot in a railway station on July 2, 1881 by disgruntled office-seeker Charles Guiteau. One bullet glanced off his arm and the other entered his back, hit a rib, and ended up in his abdomen. His medical care was poor from the start. He was taken upstairs to Read more…
The greatest mass escape from East Berlin during the period of the Berlin Wall occurred on the nights of October 3 and 4, 1964. It all started because a boy wanted to reunite with his girl. Joachim Neumann had escaped in 1961 using a borrowed passport, but he had Read more…
When King Prasutagus of the Iceni tribe in Roman Britain died, he left half his kingdom to the Romans to pay off his debts to them. The Romans, being greedy, decided they wanted the whole kingdom. When Prastagus’ wife stood up to the Romans, she was flogged and her Read more…
John Churchill was born on Sept. 16, 1906. He graduated from Sandhurst military academy and served in Burma. In 1936, he left the army and became a newspaper editor. He also modeled. He became a world class archer and competed in the 1939 World Archery Championship. His archery skills Read more…
You could argue the South lost the Civil War on Sept. 13, 1862. That was the day Corporal Barton Mitchell of the 27th Indiana Volunteers found a paper wrapped around three cigars at a campsite near Frederick, Maryland. The camp had been used by the Army of Northern Virginia Read more…
Calvin Graham wanted to serve his country after Pearl Harbor. The problem was he was only 12. However, the recruiter either did not have a good eye for age or didn’t care, so with the help of forging his mother’s signature, Calvin became the youngest serviceman in the U.S. Read more…
On July 19, 1943 Rome was bombed with significant damage. This was the last straw for Mussolini’s reign. A week later, the Grand Council took a vote of no confidence and the next day Il Duce was summoned to the palace. He was surprisingly shocked to learn that he Read more…