HISTORY – Page 48 – TwistedSifter

This Day In History – June 29th

ST-HILAIRE TRAIN DISASTER – JUNE 29, 1864

The St-Hilaire train disaster was a railroad disaster that occurred on June 29, 1864 near the present day town of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec. A Grand Trunk train carrying between 354 and 475 passengers, many of them German and Polish immigrants, were travelling from Quebec City to Montreal.

At around 1:20 a.m. local time the train was approaching a swing bridge known as the Belœil Bridge on the River Richelieu. The swing bridge had been opened to allow the passage of five barges and a steamer ship. A red light a mile ahead of the bridge signalled to the train that the crossing was open and it needed to slow. However the light was not acknowledged by the conductor, Thomas Finn, or the engineer, William Burnie, and the train continued towards the bridge.

At 1:20 a.m. the train came onto the bridge and fell through an open gap. The engine and eleven coaches fell through the gap one after another on top of each other crushing a passing barge. The train sank into an area of the river with a depth of 10 feet. 99 people aboard the train were killed and 100 more were injured. Among the dead was Thomas Finn and the fireman aboard the train. The engineer was hurt slightly in the accident but was able to escape the wreck. The disaster was blamed on the conductor and engineer for failing to obey the standing order to stop before crossing the bridge. The engineer, who had only been hired recently, claimed that he was not familiar with the route and that he did not see the signal.

The disaster remains the worst railway accident of Canadian history. [Source: Wikipedia]

‘MIRACLE ON GRASS’ US VS ENGLAND WORLD CUP – JUNE 29, 1950

Photograph via Who Ate All the Pigs

At the time, the English considered themselves the “Kings of Football”, with a post-war record of 23 wins, 4 losses, and 3 draws. Conversely, the Americans had lost their last seven international matches (including the 1934 World Cup and 1948 Summer Olympics) by the combined score of 45–2. The odds were 3–1 the English would win the Cup, and 500–1 for the U.S.

The American team consisted of semi-professional players, most of whom had other jobs to support their families. Walter Bahr was a high school teacher, Frank Borghi drove a hearse for his uncle’s funeral parlor, and others worked as mail carriers or dishwashers. The team had also been hastily assembled, and had only been able to train together once, and that was the day before they left for Brazil, which happened to be against the touring English team featuring Matthews. “We have no chance,” recently-appointed coach Bill Jeffrey told the press.

In the thirty-seventh minute, Bahr took a long shot twenty-five yards out, but as Williams moved to his right to intercept, Gaetjens dived headlong and grazed the ball enough to put it to the left of the English goalkeeper, whose momentum prevented him from changing direction, and into the back of the net. The crowd exploded as the U.S. improbably led and eventually won, 1–0.

England lost their next match and failed to qualify for the Final Round, finishing the First Round with a record of 1–0–2.
The U.S. lost their next match 5–2, versus Chile, ending their 1950 World Cup run with a First Round record of 1–0–2. They would not qualify for the World Cup again until 1990. [Source: Wikipedia]

Photograph via SportingIntelligence

1ST FEMALE HEAD OF STATE IN WESTERN HEMISPHERE – JUNE 29, 1974

Isabel Perón, is a former President of Argentina. She was also the third wife of another former President, Juan Perón. During her husband’s third term as president, Isabel served as vice president and following her husband’s death in office, Isabel served as president. She was the first non-royal female head of state and head of government in the Western Hemisphere.

Juan Perón suffered a series of heart attacks on June 28, 1974. Isabel was summoned home from a European trade mission and secretly sworn in as interim president the next day on June 29th. Juan Perón died on July 1, 1974, less than a year after his third election to the presidency.

Although she seemed to lack Evita’s charisma, the nation at first rallied to the grieving widow in this, her role of a lifetime. Following a string of mysterious murders, public threats from leftist extremists and a wave of industrial strikes in September, 1974, her popularity began to decline. The greatest source of contention between her and the voters was the increasing undeniability that José López Rega, the Minister of Social Welfare, set the agenda over a broad swath of Mrs. Perón’s policies. Vetting nearly all domestic and foreign policy, he became de facto prime minister.

In 2007, an Argentine judge ordered the arrest of Isabel Perón over the forced disappearance of an activist in February 1976, on the grounds that the disappearance was authorized by her signing of decrees allowing Argentina’s armed forces to take action against “subversives”. She was arrested near her home in Spain on 12 January 2007. Spanish courts subsequently rejected her extradition to Argentina. [Source: Wikipedia]

MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV DEFECTS TO CANADA – JUNE 29, 1974

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz

Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov (born January 27, 1948) is a Soviet-born Russian American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974 for more opportunities in western dance. After freelancing with many companies, he joined the New York City Ballet as a principal dancer to learn George Balanchine’s style of movement. He then moved to New York to dance with the American Ballet Theatre, where he later became artistic director.

Baryshnikov has spearheaded many of his own artistic projects and has been associated in particular with promoting modern dance, premiering dozens of new works, including many of his own. His success as a dramatic actor on stage, cinema and television has helped him become probably the most widely recognized contemporary ballet dancer. In 1977, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe nomination for his work as “Yuri Kopeikine” in the film The Turning Point.

On June 29, 1974, while on tour in Canada with the Bolshoi Ballet, Baryshnikov defected, requesting political asylum in Toronto, and joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. He also announced to the dance world he would not go back to the U.S.S.R. He later stated that Christina Berlin, an American friend of his, helped engineer his defection during his 1970 tour of London. His first televised performance after coming out of temporary seclusion in Canada was with the National Ballet of Canada in La Sylphide. He then went on to the United States. [Source: Wikipedia]

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz

THE SAMPOONG DEPARTMENT STORE COLLAPSE – JUNE 29, 1995

The Sampoong Department Store collapse was a structural failure that occurred on June 29, 1995 in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea. The collapse is the largest peacetime disaster in South Korean history – 501 people died and 937 were injured.

The Sampoong Group began construction of the Sampoong Department Store in 1987 over a tract of land previously used as a landfill. Originally designed as an office building with four floors, it was changed to a large department store during its construction by Lee Joon, the future chairman of the building. This involved cutting away a number of support columns in order to install escalators. When the original contractors refused to carry out these changes, Lee ignored and fired them and hired his own building company for the construction.

The building was completed in late 1989, and the Sampoong Department Store opened to the public on July 7, 1990, attracting an estimated 40,000 people per day during the building’s five years of existence.

Later on, a fifth floor was added, which was first planned to be a skating rink to comply with zoning regulations that prevented the whole building from being used as a department store. Lee changed the original plan for the fifth floor to include eight restaurants instead. When a construction company tasked to complete the extension advised that the structure would not support another floor, they were fired, and another company finished the job.

The restaurant floor also had a heated concrete base with hot water pipes going through it, as patrons sit on the floor of traditional Korean restaurants, which added a large extra load due to the increase in thickness of the concrete slab. In addition, the building’s air conditioning unit was installed on the roof, creating a load of four times the design limit.

Lee Joon was charged with criminal negligence and received a prison sentence of 10.5 years. However, Joon’s sentence was reduced to seven years on appeal in April 1996. Joon died of health complications on October 4, 2003, a few days after being discharged, relating to heart failure, high blood pressure and diabetes. [Source: Wikipedia]

1ST US SHUTTLE DOCKING TO MIR SPACE STATION – JUNE 29, 1995

Photograph by NASA

STS-71 was the third mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir Program, which carried out the first Space Shuttle docking to Mir, a Russian space station on June 29, 1995. The mission used Space Shuttle Atlantis, which lifted off from launch pad 39A on 27 June 1995 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The mission delivered a relief crew of two cosmonauts, Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin, to the station, along with recovering American Increment astronaut Norman Thagard, and was the first in a series of seven straight missions to the station flown by Atlantis.

The five-day docking marked the creation of the largest spacecraft ever placed into orbit at that time in history, the first ever on-orbit changeout of Shuttle crew members, and the 100th manned space launch by the United States. During the docked operations, the crews of the shuttle & station carried out various on-orbit joint US/Russian life sciences investigations aboard Spacelab/Mir and a logistical resupply of the Mir, along with the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment-II (SAREX-II) experiment.

Docking occurred at 9 am EDT, 29 June, using R-Bar or Earth radius vector approach, with Atlantis closing in on Mir from directly below. When linked, Atlantis and Mir formed the largest spacecraft ever in orbit, with a total mass of about 225 metric tons (almost one-half million pounds), orbiting some 218 nautical miles (404 kilometres (251 mi)) above the Earth.

The returning crew of eight equaled the largest crew (STS-61-A, October 1985) in Shuttle history. To ease their re-entry into gravity environment after more than 100 days in space, Mir 18 crew members Thagard, Dezhurov and Strekalov lay supine in custom-made recumbent seats installed prior to landing in the orbiter middeck. [Source: Wikipedia]

Photograph by NASA

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The 1939 Pontiac Plexiglass Ghost Car

Photograph by AARON SUMMERFIELD for RM AUCTIONS

Unveiled at the General Motors Highways and Horizons pavilion at the 1939-40 World’s Fair in New York, the Pontiac ‘Ghost Car’ was buit on the chassis of a 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six. In collaboration with Rohm & Haas, a chemical company that had recently developed Plexiglass, the concept for a transparent car was conceived and it was the first one ever built in America.

This one-of-a-kind vehicle will be put up for auction on July 30, 2011 by RM Auctions in Plymouth, Michigan. The car is estimated to fetch between $275,000 – $475,000. Additional information and photographs of this beautiful vehicle below, enjoy!

Photograph by AARON SUMMERFIELD for RM AUCTIONS

THE 1939 PONTIAC PLEXIGLASS ‘GHOST CAR’

– The highlight of the 1939-40 World’s Fair in New York and the first transparent car ever built in America
– Series 26. 85 bhp, 222.7 cu. in. L-head six-cylinder engine, three-speed manual transmission, coil spring independent front suspension, live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs, and four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes.
– The structural metal underneath was given a copper wash, and all hardware, including the dashboard, was chrome plated. Rubber moldings were made in white, as were the car’s tires
– Cost a reported $25,000 to build (using Consumer Price Index to estimate inflation, it is approx. $388,000 in 2010 US dollars)
– Car still rides on its original white tires with odometer reading of 86 miles (138 km)
– Does not have a conventional vehicle identification number

Photograph by AARON SUMMERFIELD for RM AUCTIONS

1939 pontiac plexiglass ghost car see through (5)

Photograph by AARON SUMMERFIELD for RM AUCTIONS

1939 pontiac plexiglass ghost car see through (7)

Photograph by AARON SUMMERFIELD for RM AUCTIONS

1939 pontiac plexiglass ghost car see through (17)

Photograph by AARON SUMMERFIELD for RM AUCTIONS

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This Day In History – June 22nd

DELTA KAPPA EPSILON FOUNDED – JUNE 22, 1844

Delta Kappa Epsilon (also pronounced D-K-E or “Deke”) is a fraternity founded at Yale College in 1844 by 15 men of the sophomore class who had not been invited to join the two existing societies (Alpha Delta Phi and Psi Upsilon). They therefore formed their own fraternity to establish a fellowship “where the candidate most favored was he who combined in the most equal proportions the gentleman, the scholar, and the jolly good fellow.”

The fraternity was founded June 22, 1844, in room number 12 Old South Hall, Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut. At this meeting, the Fraternity’s secret and open Greek mottos were devised, as were the pin and secret handshake. The open motto is “Kerothen Philoi Aei” (“Friends from the Heart, Forever”).

DKE members have included five of forty-four Presidents of the United States: Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a member of the Alpha Chapter of DKE at Harvard; however, the chapter was de-recognized by DKE International due to the chapter’s stance on dual membership with other fraternities. Other notable members include: J.P. Morgan, Jr., William Randolph Hearst, Cole Porter, Henry Cabot Lodge, Dick Clark, Tom Landry, and George Steinbrenner. DKE flags were carried to the North Pole by its discoverer, Admiral Robert Peary and to the Moon by astronaut Alan Bean. [Source: Wikipedia]

SECOND ARMISTICE AT COMPIEGNÈ – JUNE 22, 1940

Photograph via German Federal Archive

The Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed at 18:50 on 22 June 1940 between Nazi Germany and France. Following the decisive German victory in the Battle of France (10 May–21 June 1940), it established a German occupation zone in Northern France that encompassed all English Channel and Atlantic Ocean ports and left the remainder “free” to be governed by the French. Adolf Hitler deliberately chose Compiègne Forest as the site to sign the armistice due to its symbolic role as the site of the 1918 Armistice with Germany that signaled the end of World War I with Germany’s surrender.

By 22 June, the German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) had lost 27,000 dead, more than 111,000 wounded and 18,000 missing, against French losses of 92,000 dead and more than 200,000 wounded. The British Expeditionary Force had lost more than 68,000 men.

Hitler decided to sign the armistice in the same rail carriage where the Germans had signed the first armistice in 1918. In the very same railway carriage in which the 1918 Armistice was signed (removed from a museum building and placed on the precise spot where it was located in 1918), Hitler sat in the same chair in which Marshal Ferdinand Foch had sat when he faced the defeated German representatives. After listening to the reading of the preamble, Hitler – in a calculated gesture of disdain to the French delegates – left the carriage, as Foch had done in 1918, leaving the negotiations to his High Command of the Armed Forces Chief, General Wilhelm Keitel. [Source: Wikipedia]

Photograph via German Federal Archive

GERMANY INVADES THE SOVIET UNION – JUNE 22, 1941

Photograph via German Federal Archive

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km (1,800 mi) front. In addition to the large number of troops, it also involved 600,000 motor vehicles and 750,000 horses.

The Red Army repelled the Wehrmacht’s strongest blow, and Adolf Hitler did not achieve the expected victory, but the Soviet Union’s situation remained dire. Tactically, the Germans had won some resounding victories and occupied some of the most important economic areas of the country, mainly in Ukraine. Despite these successes, the Germans were pushed back from Moscow and could never mount an offensive simultaneously along the entire strategic Soviet-German front again.

Operation Barbarossa’s failure led to Hitler’s demands for further operations inside the USSR, all of which eventually failed, such as continuing the Siege of Leningrad, Operation Nordlicht, and Battle of Stalingrad, among other battles on the occupied Soviet territory.

Operation Barbarossa was the largest military operation in human history in both manpower and casualties. Its failure was a turning point in the Third Reich’s fortunes. Most important, Operation Barbarossa opened up the Eastern Front, to which more forces were committed than in any other theatre of war in world history. Operation Barbarossa and the areas that fell under it became the site of some of the largest battles, deadliest atrocities, highest casualties, and most horrific conditions for Soviets and Germans alike — all of which influenced the course of both World War II and 20th century history. [Source: Wikipedia]

THE BATTLE OF OKINAWA ENDS – JUNE 22, 1945

The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until 22 June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall).

The battle has been referred to as the “Typhoon of Steel” in English, and tetsu no ame (“rain of steel”) in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Japan lost over 100,000 troops killed or captured, and the Allies suffered more than 50,000 casualties of all kinds. Simultaneously, tens of thousands of local civilians were killed, wounded, or committed suicide. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused Japan to surrender just weeks after the end of the fighting at Okinawa. [Source: Wikipedia]

CUYAHOGA RIVER CATCHES ON FIRE – JUNE 22, 1969

The Cuyahoga River is located in Northeast Ohio in the United States. At one time it was one of the most polluted rivers in the United States with the reach from Akron to Cleveland was devoid of fish. There have reportedly been at least thirteen fires on the Cuyahoga River, the first occurring in 1868. The largest river fire in 1952 caused over $1 million in damage to boats and a riverfront office building.

Fires erupted on the river several more times before June 22, 1969, when a river fire captured the attention of Time magazine, which described the Cuyahoga as the river that “oozes rather than flows” and in which a person “does not drown but decays.”

The 1969 Cuyahoga River fire helped spur an avalanche of water pollution control activities resulting in the Clean Water Act, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. [Source: Wikipedia]

GEORGE CARLIN PASSES AWAY – JUNE 22, 2008

George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums. The first of his fourteen stand-up comedy specials for HBO was filmed in 1977. He often commented on contemporary political issues in the United States and satirized the excesses of American culture. His final HBO special, It’s Bad for Ya, was filmed less than four months before his death.

In 2004, Carlin placed second on the Comedy Central list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time, ahead of Lenny Bruce and behind Richard Pryor. He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era, and hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live. In 2008, he was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Carlin had a history of cardiac problems spanning several decades, including three heart attacks (in 1978, 1982 and 1991), an arrhythmia requiring an ablation procedure in 2003, and a significant episode of heart failure in late 2005. He twice underwent angioplasty to reopen narrowed arteries. In early 2005 he entered a drug rehabilitation facility for treatment of addictions to alcohol and Vicodin.

On June 22, 2008, Carlin was admitted to Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica after experiencing chest pain, and he died later that day of heart failure. He was 71 years old. His death occurred one week after his last performance at The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. In accordance with his wishes, he was cremated, his ashes scattered, and no public or religious services of any kind were held. [Source: Wikipedia]

Click here to read Jerry Seinfeld’s Op-Ed for the New York Times on remembering George Carlin

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This Day In History – June 15th

WASHINGTON APPOINTED COMMANDER IN CHIEF – JUNE 15, 1775

George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) commanded the Continental Army in American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and was the first President of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. Because of his central role in the founding of the United States, Washington is often called the “Father of his Country”.

Washington played a leading military and political role in the American Revolution. His involvement began as early as 1767, when he first took overt political stands against the acts of the British Parliament. After the war broke out with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, his role became military with his appointment as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army on June 15, 1775.

In the early years of the war Washington was often in the middle of the action, first directing the Siege of Boston to its successful conclusion, but then losing New York City and almost losing New Jersey before winning surprising and decisive victories at Trenton and Princeton at the end of the 1776 campaign season.

One of Washington’s most important contributions as commander-in-chief was to establish the precedent that civilian-elected officials, rather than military officers, possessed ultimate authority over the military. Throughout the war, he deferred to the authority of Congress and state officials, and he relinquished his considerable military power once the fighting was over. [Source: Wikipedia]

Artwork by EMANUEL LEUTZE

Leutze’s depiction of Washington’s attack on the Hessians at Trenton on December 25, 1776, was a great success in America and in Germany. Leutze began his first version of this subject in 1849. It was damaged in his studio by fire in 1850 and, although restored and acquired by the Bremen Kunsthalle, was again destroyed in a bombing raid in 1942. In 1850, Leutze began this version of the subject, which was placed on exhibition in New York during October of 1851. At this showing Marshall O. Roberts bought the canvas for the then-enormous sum of $10,000.

Artwork by JOHN TRUNBULL

This painting depicts the forces of British Major General Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (1738-1805) (who was not himself present at the surrender), surrendering to French and American forces after the Siege of Yorktown (September 28 – October 19, 1781) during the American Revolutionary War.

ARLINGTON ESTABLISHED AS MILITARY CEMETERY – JUNE 15, 1864

Photograph by U.S. Army

Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s wife Mary Anna (Custis) Lee, a great grand-daughter of Martha Washington. The cemetery is situated directly across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

In an area of 624 acres (2.53 km2), veterans and military casualties from each of the nation’s wars are interred in the cemetery, ranging from the American Civil War through to the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pre-Civil War dead were reinterred after 1900.

Arlington National Cemetery was established by Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs, who commanded the garrison at Arlington House and appropriated the grounds on June 15, 1864, for use as a military cemetery. His intention was to render the house uninhabitable should the Lee family ever attempt to return. A stone and masonry burial vault in the rose garden, 20 feet (6.1 m) wide and 10 feet (3.0 m) deep, and containing the remains of 2,111 Civil War dead, was among the first monuments to Union dead erected under Meigs’ orders. Meigs himself was later buried within 100 yards (91 m) of Arlington House with his wife, father and son. [Source: Wikipedia]

Photograph by Sgt. Jim Varhegyi, U.S. Air Force

Thousands of Christmas wreaths are nestled against headstones in Section 27 at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Dec. 15, 2005. Hundreds of volunteers gathered at Arlington to place more than five thousand donated Christmas wreaths on head stones in the cemetery. The 14th annual wreath laying event is a result of Worcester Wreath Company owner Morrill Worcester’s boyhood dream of doing something to honor those laid to rest in the National Cemetery.

JAPAN’S DEADLIEST TSUNAMI KILLS 22,000 – JUNE 15, 1896

The 1896 Meiji-Sanriku earthquake was highly destructive, generating one of the most devastating tsunamis in Japanese history, destroying about 9,000 homes and causing at least 22,000 deaths. This magnitude 7.2 event occurred at 19:32 (local time) on June 15, 1896. The magnitude of the tsunami was much greater than expected for the estimated seismic magnitude and this earthquake has been regarded as being part of a distinct class of events, a tsunami earthquake.

The epicenter of this earthquake lies just to the west of the Japan Trench, the surface expression of the west-dipping subduction zone that forms part of the convergent boundary between the Pacific and Eurasian plates. [Source: Wikipedia]

ALCOCK & BROWN: FIRST NONSTOP TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT – JUNE 15, 1919

British aviators Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop transatlantic flight in June 1919. They flew a modified World War I Vickers Vimy bomber from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. Winston Churchill presented them with the Daily Mail prize for the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in ‘less than 72 consecutive hours’ and they were knighted at Windsor Castle by King George V.

Alcock and Brown flew a modified Vickers Vimy IV twin-engined bomber powered by two Rolls-Royce Eagle engines, each of 360 hp, taking off from Lester’s Field in St. John’s, Newfoundland at around 1:45pm, June 14, 1919. When in poor visibility they misidentified a bog as a suitable grass field to land, their aircraft technically crashed on landing (53°26?N 10°01?W) near Clifden in Connemara in County Galway, Ireland, at 8:40am on June 15, 1919. They had spent around fourteen-and-a-half hours over the North Atlantic crossing the coast at 4.28pm, having flown 1890 miles (3040 km) in 15 hours 57 minutes at an average speed of 115 mph (185 km/h). Their altitude varied between sea level and 12,000 ft (3,700 m) and upon take-off they carried 865 imperial gallons (3,900 L) of fuel on board.

The flight nearly ended in disaster several times owing to engine trouble, fog, snow and ice. It was only saved by Brown’s continual climbing out on the wings to remove ice from the engine air intakes and by Alcock’s excellent piloting despite extremely poor visibility at times and even snow filling the open cockpit. The aircraft was badly damaged upon arrival due to the attempt to land in what appeared from the air to be a suitable green field but which turned out to be the bog on Derrygimlagh Moor, but neither of the airmen was hurt. Their first interview was given to Tom ‘Cork’ Kenny of The Connacht Tribune. [Source: Wikipedia]

Alcock and Brown and spectators in St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1919 Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador

WWII BATTLE OF SAIPAN BEGINS – JUNE 15, 1944

The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June-9 July 1944. The Allied invasion fleet embarking the expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was launched. The U.S. 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, and 27th Infantry Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Holland Smith, defeated the 43rd Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito.

Bombardment of Saipan began on 13 June 1944. Fifteen battleships were involved, and 165,000 shells were fired. Seven modern fast battleships delivered twenty-four hundred 16 in (410 mm) shells, but to avoid potential minefields, fire was from a distance of 10,000 yd (9,100 m) or more, and crews were inexperienced in shore bombardment. The following day the eight pre-Pearl Harbor battleships and eleven cruisers under Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf replaced the fast battleships but were lacking in time and ammunition.

The landings began at 07:00 on 15 June 1944. More than 300 LVTs landed 8,000 Marines on the west coast of Saipan by about 09:00. Eleven fire support ships covered the Marine landings. The naval force consisted of the battleships USS Tennessee and California. The cruisers were USS Birmingham and Indianapolis. The destroyers were USS Norman Scott, Monssen, Colahan, Halsey Powell, Bailey, Robinson and Albert W. Grant.

Careful Japanese artillery preparation—placing flags in the bay to indicate the range—allowed them to destroy about 20 amphibious tanks, and the Japanese strategically placed barbed wire, artillery, machine gun emplacements, and trenches to maximize the American casualties. However, by nightfall the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions had a beachhead about 6 mi (9.7 km) wide and .5 mi (0.8 km) deep.

The Japanese counter-attacked at night but were repulsed with heavy losses. On 16 June, units of the U.S. Army’s 27th Infantry Division landed and advanced on the Aslito airfield. Again the Japanese counter-attacked at night. On 18 June, Saito abandoned the airfield.

Saipan, one of the 15 chain islands of the Mariana, was only approximately 1,300 mi (1,100 nmi; 2,100 km) away from home islands of Japan. It was a very important strategic point for the U.S. during the second world war in the pacific theater. It was the key position for the Americans to bring the war to Japanese home land.

After the battle, Saipan became an important base for further operations in the Marianas, and then for the invasion of the Philippines in October 1944. Bombers based at Saipan attacked the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands and Japan. In response, Japanese aircraft attacked Saipan and Tinian on several occasions between November 1944 and January 1945. With the position secured, American army could also make advancement in the Philippines and also make direct contact with its Chinese ally. [Source: Wikipedia]

THE 1996 MANCHESTER BOMBING – JUNE 15, 1996

The 1996 Manchester bombing was an attack carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 15 June 1996 in Manchester, England. The bomb, placed in a van on Corporation Street in the city centre, targeted the city’s infrastructure and economy and caused widespread damage, estimated by insurers at £700 million (£1 billion as of 2011). Two hundred and twelve people were injured, but there were no fatalities.

Formed in 1969, the Provisional IRA adopted a strategy of violence to achieve its aim of a united Ireland. Although Manchester had been the target of IRA bombs before 1996, it had not been subjected to an attack on this scale, the largest device detonated in Great Britain during peacetime. The bombing was condemned by the British and Irish governments, along with US President Bill Clinton. Five days after the blast the IRA issued a statement in which it claimed responsibility, but regretted causing injury to civilians.

Several buildings close to the centre of the explosion had to be demolished, while many more were closed for months for structural repairs. Most of the rebuilding work was completed by the end of 1999, at a cost of £1.2 billion, although redevelopment continued until 2005. At the time of the explosion Manchester was playing host to the Euro ’96 football championships; a match between Russia and Germany was scheduled for the following day at Old Trafford, and the city had the year before won its bid to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The perpetrators of the attack have not been caught, and Greater Manchester Police have conceded it is unlikely that anyone will be charged in connection with the bombing. [Source: Wikipedia]

Photograph by Parrot of Doom

The epicenter of the 1996 Manchester Bomb in 2009

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This Day In History – June 8th

THE DEATH OF MUHAMMAD, PROPHET OF ISLAM – JUNE 8, 632

Mohammed receiving his first revelation from the angel Gabriel. Miniature illustration on vellum from the book Jami’ al-Tawarikh by Rashid al-Din, published in Tabriz, Persia, 1307 A.D.

Muhammad (also spelled Muhammed or Mohammed) (ca. 570/571 – June 8, 632), was the founder of the religion of Islam, and is considered by Muslims to be a messenger and prophet of God, the last law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets, and, by most Muslims, the last prophet of God as taught by the Qur’an.

Muslims thus consider him the restorer of an uncorrupted original monotheistic faith of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets. He was also active as a diplomat, merchant, philosopher, orator, legislator, reformer, military general, and, according to Muslim belief, an agent of divine action.

Born in 570 in the Arabian city of Mecca, he was orphaned at an early age and brought up under the care of his uncle Abu Talib. He later worked mostly as a merchant, as well as a shepherd, and was first married by age 25. Discontented with life in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection. According to Islamic beliefs it was here, at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that “God is One”, that complete “surrender” to Him is the only way acceptable to God, and that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Islamic prophets.

Muhammad gained few followers early on, and was met with hostility from some Meccan tribes; he and his followers were treated harshly. To escape persecution, Muhammad sent some of his followers to Abyssinia before he and his remaining followers in Mecca migrated to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, which is also known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the conflicting tribes, and after eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grown to 10,000, conquered Mecca.

In 632, a few months after returning to Medina from his Farewell pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam, and he had united the tribes of Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity.

The revelations-which Muhammad reported receiving until his death–form the verses of the Qur’an, regarded by Muslims as the “Word of God” and around which the religion is based. [Source: Wikipedia]

Photograph by Omar Chatriwala

Al-Masjid al-Nabawi, often called the Prophet’s Mosque, is a mosque situated in the city of Medina. As the final resting place of the Prophet Muhammad, it is considered the second holiest site in Islam by Muslims (the first being the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca) and is one of the largest mosques in the world. [Source: Wikipedia]

Photograph by Swerveut

ARCHITECT FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT IS BORN – JUNE 8, 1867

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City

Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank Lincoln Wright, June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works. Wright promoted organic architecture (exemplified by Fallingwater), was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture (exemplified by the Robie House, the Westcott House, and the Darwin D. Martin House), and developed the concept of the Usonian home (exemplified by the Rosenbaum House). His work includes original and innovative examples of many different building types, including offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, and museums. Wright also often designed many of the interior elements of his buildings, such as the furniture and stained glass.

Wright authored 20 books and many articles, and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. His colorful personal life often made headlines, most notably for the 1914 fire and murders at his Taliesin studio. Already well-known during his lifetime, Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as “the greatest American architect of all time”.

Photograph by Sturmvogel 66

Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The home was built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains.

Hailed by Time shortly after its completion as Wright’s “most beautiful job”, it is listed among Smithsonian’s Life List of 28 places “to visit before you die.” It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966. In 1991, members of the American Institute of Architects named the house the “best all-time work of American architecture” and in 2007, it was ranked twenty-ninth on the list of America’s Favorite Architecture according to the AIA. [Source: Wikipedia]

Photograph by Jeff Zoline

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Studio

Photograph by Dan Smith

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House on the campus of the University of Chicago

Photograph by J. Crocker

The Nathan G. Moore House in Oak Park, IL by Frank Lloyd Wright

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS IS FOUNDED – JUNE 8, 1912

Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Universal Studios is one of the oldest American movie studios still in continuous production. On May 11, 2004, the controlling stake in the company was sold by Vivendi Universal to General Electric, parent of NBC. The resulting media super-conglomerate was renamed NBC Universal, while Universal Studios Inc. remained the name of the production subsidiary. In addition to owning a sizable film library spanning the earliest decades of cinema to more contemporary works, it also owns a sizable collection of TV shows through its subsidiary NBC Universal Television Distribution. It also acquired rights to several prominent filmmakers’ works originally released by other studios through its subsidiaries over the years.

Its production studios are at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City. Universal Pictures is the second-longest-lived Hollywood studio; Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures is the oldest by a month. [Source: Wikipedia]

GEORGE ORWELL’S 1984 IS PUBLISHED – JUNE 8, 1949

Nineteen Eighty-Four (sometimes written 1984) is a 1948 dystopian novel written by George Orwell, about an oligarchical, collectivist society. As literary political fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four is considered a classic novel of the social science fiction subgenre. Since its publication in 1949, many of its terms and concepts, such as Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, and Memory hole, have become contemporary vernacular. In addition, the novel popularised the adjective Orwellian, which refers to lies, surveillance, and manipulation of the past in the service of a totalitarian agenda.

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Nineteen Eighty-Four 13th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. [Source: Wikipedia]

Photograph by Brian Robert Marshall

The modest grave of Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell), All Saints, Sutton Courtenay

USPS DELIVERS FIRST AND ONLY PIECE OF MISSILE MAIL – JUNE 8, 1959

In 1959 the U.S. Navy submarine USS Barbero assisted the Post Office Department, predecessor to the United States Postal Service (USPS) in its search for faster mail transportation with the only delivery of “Missile Mail”. On 8 June 1959, Barbero fired a Regulus cruise missile — its nuclear warhead having earlier been replaced by two Post Office Department mail containers — at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida. Twenty-two minutes later, the missile struck its target.

Upon witnessing the missile’s landing, Postmaster General Summerfield stated, “This peacetime employment of a guided missile for the important and practical purpose of carrying mail, is the first known official use of missiles by any Post Office Department of any nation.” Summerfield proclaimed the event to be “of historic significance to the peoples of the entire world”, and predicted that “before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail.”

Notwithstanding the Postmaster General’s enthusiasm, in reality the Department of Defense saw the measure more as a demonstration of U.S. missile capabilities. Experts believe that the cost of using missile mail could never be justified. [Source: Wikipedia]

THE USS LIBERTY ‘INCIDENT’ – JUNE 8, 1967

The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship, USS Liberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy torpedo boats, on June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War. The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members (naval officers, seamen, two Marines, and one civilian), wounded 170 crew members, and severely damaged the ship. At the time, the ship was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula, about 25.5 nmi (29.3 mi; 47.2 km) northwest from the Egyptian city of Arish.

Both the Israeli and U.S. governments conducted inquiries and issued reports that concluded the attack was a mistake due to Israeli confusion about the identity of the USS Liberty. Most survivors, in addition to some U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials involved in the incident, continue to dispute these official findings, saying the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was not a mistake, and it remains “the only maritime incident in U.S. history where [U.S.] military forces were killed that was never investigated by the [U.S.] Congress.”

In May 1968, the Israeli government paid US$3,323,500 as full payment to the families of the 34 men killed in the attack. In March 1969, Israel paid a further $3,566,457 in compensation to the men who had been wounded. On 18 December 1980, it agreed to pay $6 million as settlement for the U.S. claim of $7,644,146 for material damage to the Liberty itself.
Purportedly, on December 17, 1987, the issue was officially closed by the two governments through an exchange of diplomatic notes. [Source: Wikipedia]

NICK UT TAKES PULITZER PRIZE WINNING PHOTO – JUNE 8, 1972

Photograph by Nick Ut

Phan Thi Kim Phuc, (born 1963) is a Vietnamese-Canadian best known as the child subject of a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph taken during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972. The iconic photo taken in Trang Bang by AP photographer Nick Ut shows her at about nine years of age running naked on a road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack. [Source: Wikipedia]

Thumbnails of Vietnam War film shot by Alan Downes of ITN, before and after the iconic photograph was taken

TRANSIT OF VENUS – JUNE 8, 2004

Photograph via Mswggpai

A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, obscuring a small portion of the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. The duration of such transits is usually measured in hours (the transit of 2004 lasted six hours). A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon, but, although the diameter of Venus is almost 4 times that of the Moon, Venus appears smaller because it is much farther away from Earth.

Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena and currently occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. Before 2004, the last pair of transits were in December 1874 and December 1882. The first of a pair of transits of Venus in the beginning of the 21st century took place on 8 June 2004 and the next will be on 6 June 2012. After 2012, subsequent transits of Venus will be in December 2117 and December 2125. [Source: Wikipedia]

First observation of the transit of Venus by William Crabtree in 1639. Photogravure from an old etching

AKIHABARA MASSACRE – JUNE 8, 2008

Photograph by Carpkazu

The Akihabara massacre was an incident of mass murder that took place on Sunday, June 8, 2008, in the Akihabara shopping quarter for electronics, video games and comics in Sotokanda, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. At 12:33 p.m. JST, a man hit a crowd with a truck, eventually killing three people and injuring two; he then stabbed at least 12 people using a dagger killing four people and injuring eight.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested Tomohiro Kato, 25, on suspicion of attempted murder. The suspect, dressed then in a black T-shirt with a jacket and off-white trousers, was a resident of Susono, Shizuoka. He was held at the Manseibashi Police Station. Two days later on June 10, he was sent to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office. He was later re-arrested by the police on June 20 on suspicion of murder. During the trial, prosecutors sought the death penalty, and the Tokyo District Court agreed, sentencing Kato to death. [Source: Wikipedia]

Photograph by Carpkazu

This is the rented truck that was used to run into the crowd

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This Day In History – June 1st

FIRST DOCUMENTED BATCH OF SCOTCH WHISKY IS MADE – JUNE 1, 1494

John Cor is the name of the friar/distiller referred to in the first known written reference to a batch of Scotch Whisky on June 1, 1494. “To Friar John Cor, by order of the King, to make aqua vitae VIII bolls of malt.” — Exchequer Rolls 1494–95, Vol x, p. 487.

Scotch whisky is whisky made in Scotland and is divided into five distinct categories: Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Single Grain Scotch Whisky, Blended Malt Scotch Whisky (formerly called “vatted malt” or “pure malt”), Blended Grain Scotch Whisky, and Blended Scotch Whisky. All Scotch whisky must be aged in oak barrels for at least three years. Any age statement written on a bottle of Scotch whisky, in the form of a number, must reflect the age of the youngest whisky used to produce that product. A whisky with an age statement is known as guaranteed age whisky.

Scotland was traditionally divided into four regions: The Highlands, Lowland, Islay and Campbeltown. Speyside, encompassing the Spey river valley in north-east Scotland, once considered part of the Highlands, has almost half of the total number of distilleries in Scotland within its geographic boundaries; consequently it is officially recognized as a region unto itself. Campbeltown was removed as a region several years ago, yet was recently re-instated as a recognized production region. The Islands is not recognized as a region by the Scotch Whisky Association and is considered part of the Highlands region. [Source: Wikipedia]

Photograph by John Haslam

Empty oak barrels waiting to be filled with whisky at the White and MacKay distillery in Invergordon. The distillery is one of the largest in Scotland and produces grain whisky (from unmalted barley) that after maturation for several years in oak barrels, is used in the production of blended whiskies.

CABLE NEWS NETWORK (CNN) LAUNCHES – JUNE 1, 1980

Cable News Network (CNN) is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States. While the news channel has numerous affiliates, CNN primarily broadcasts from its headquarters at the CNN Center in Atlanta, the Time Warner Center in New York City, and studios in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. CNN is owned by parent company Time Warner, and the U.S. news channel is a division of the Turner Broadcasting System

The Cable News Network was launched at 5:00 p.m. EST on Sunday June 1, 1980. After an introduction by Ted Turner, the husband and wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart anchored the first newscast. Burt Reinhardt, the then executive vice president of CNN, hired most of CNN’s first 200 employees, including the network’s first news anchor, Bernard Shaw.

Major Events

– On January 28, 1986, CNN was the only television channel to have live coverage of the launch and subsequent explosion of Space Shuttle Challenger, which killed the seven crew members

– On October 14, 1987, an 18-month-old toddler named Jessica McClure fell down a well in Midland, Texas. CNN was quickly on the spot, and the event helped make their name. The New York Times ran a retrospective article in 1995 on the impact of live video news: “If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a moving picture is worth many times that, and a live moving picture makes an emotional connection that goes deeper than logic and lasts well beyond the actual event”

– The first Persian Gulf War in 1991 was a watershed event for CNN that catapulted the channel past the “big three” American networks for the first time in its history, largely due to an unprecedented, historical scoop: CNN was the only news outlet with the ability to communicate from inside Iraq during the initial hours of the Coalition bombing campaign, with live reports from the al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad by reporters Bernard Shaw, John Holliman, and Peter Arnett. Operation Desert Storm as captured live on a CNN night vision camera with reporters narrating. The moment when bombing began was announced on CNN by Bernard Shaw on January 16, 1991 as follows:

This is Bernie Shaw. Something is happening outside…Peter Arnett, join me here. Let’s describe to our viewers what we’re seeing…The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated…We’re seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky.

– Coverage of the first Gulf War and other crises of the early 1990s (particularly the infamous Battle of Mogadishu) led officials at the Pentagon to coin the term “the CNN effect” to describe the perceived impact of real time, 24-hour news coverage on the decision-making processes of the American government

– CNN was the first channel to break the news of the September 11 attacks. Anchor Carol Lin was on the air to deliver the first public report of the event. She broke into a commercial at 8:49 a.m. ET and said:

This just in. You are looking at obviously a very disturbing live shot there. That is the World Trade Center, and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. CNN Center right now is just beginning to work on this story, obviously calling our sources and trying to figure out exactly what happened, but clearly something relatively devastating happening this morning there on the south end of the island of Manhattan. That is once again, a picture of one of the towers of the World Trade Center.

Source: Wikipedia

AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 1420 CRASHES – JUNE 1, 1999

American Airlines Flight 1420 was a flight from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to Little Rock National Airport in USA. On June 1, 1999, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 (registration number N215AA) overran the runway upon landing in Little Rock and crashed. The captain and ten passengers died in the crash.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident report, they learned that the winds were changing direction and that a wind shear alert had sounded on the airport due to a thunderstorm nearby. Air traffic control originally told them to expect Runway 22L for landing, but after the wind direction changed rapidly, Captain Buschmann requested a change to Runway 4R.

As the aircraft approached Runway 4R, a severe thunderstorm arrived over the airport. The controller’s last report, prior to the landing, stated that the winds were 330 degrees at 28 knots. That exceeded the MD-82’s crosswind limit for landing in reduced visibility on a wet runway. With that information, plus two wind shear reports, the approach should have been abandoned at that point, but Captain Buschmann decided to continue his approach to Runway 4R. [Source: Wikipedia]

THE NEPALESE ROYAL MASSACRE – JUNE 1, 2001

Photograph by Pavel Novak

The Nepalese royal massacre occurred on Friday, June 1, 2001, at a house in the grounds of the Narayanhity Royal Palace, then the residence of the Nepalese monarchy, when the heir to the throne, Prince Dipendra supposedly killed nine members of his family and himself.

The dead included King Birendra of Nepal and Queen Aiswarya, Dipendra’s father and mother. Prince Dipendra became de jure King of Nepal upon his father’s death and died whilst in a coma three days after the act; however there are claims that Dipendra was already dead before being declared as the King. Gyanendra then became king. Nepalese people believe that it was Gyanendra and his allies who designed and committed the massacre. Nobody from Gyanendra’s family were killed. There are claims that Gyanendra’s wife had minor injury.

According to reports, Dipendra had been drinking heavily and had “misbehaved” with a guest, which resulted in his father, King Birendra, telling his son to leave the party. The drunken Dipendra was taken to his room by his brother Prince Nirajan and cousin Prince Paras.

One hour later, Dipendra returned to the party armed with an MP5K and an M16 and fired a single shot into the ceiling before turning the gun on his father, King Birendra. Seconds later, Dipendra shot one of his aunts. He then shot his uncle Dhirendra in the chest at point-blank range when he tried to stop Dipendra. During the shooting, Prince Paras suffered slight injuries and managed to save at least three royals, including two children, by pulling a sofa over them.

During the attack, Dipendra darted in and out of the room firing shots each time. His mother, Queen Aishwarya, who came into the room when the first shots were fired, left quickly, looking for help. Dipendra’s mother Aishwarya and his brother Nirajan confronted him in the garden of the palace, where they were both shot dead. Dipendra then proceeded to a small bridge over a stream running through the palace, where he shot himself. [Source: Wikipedia]

AIR FRANCE FLIGHT 447 CRASHES – JUNE 1, 2009

Photograph by Pawel Kierzkowski

Air France Flight 447 was a scheduled airline flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on 1 June 2009, killing all 216 passengers and 12 aircrew. The investigation is still ongoing, and the cause of the crash has not yet been determined, but a briefing released by the BEA on 27 May 2011 revealed that the aircraft crashed following an aerodynamic stall.

It further revealed that for about a minute prior to the crash there were inconsistent readings in the pitot tubes (speed sensors). The cause of the faulty readings is yet to be determined, but a theory is that ice formed on the pitot tubes, which would have caused them to freeze, giving inconsistent measurements owing to their reliance on air pressure measurements to give speed readings. Pitot tube blockage is suspected of having contributed to airliner crashes in the past — such as Birgenair Flight 301 in 1996.

The investigation into this accident was severely hampered by the lack of any eyewitness evidence and radar tracks, as well as by difficulty finding the aircraft’s black boxes, which were located and recovered from the ocean floor two years later in May 2011.

The accident was the deadliest in the history of Air France. Paul-Louis Arslanian, the head of the BEA (Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety), described it as the worst accident in French aviation history. This was the deadliest commercial airliner accident to occur since the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in New York City in 2001. It was the first fatal accident to befall an Airbus A330 airliner while in passenger service. [Source: Wikipedia]

GM FILES FOR CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY REORGANIZATION – JUNE 1, 2009

Photograph by KiwDeaPi

On June 1st, 2009, GM filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in the Manhattan New York federal bankruptcy court at approximately 8:00 am EST. June 1, 2009 was the deadline to supply an acceptable viability plan to the U.S. Treasury. The filing reported US$82.29 billion in assets and US$172.81 billion in debt.

After the Chapter 11 filing, effective Monday, June 8, 2009, GM was temporarily removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average and replaced by Cisco Systems. On July 10, 2009, a new entity completed the purchase of continuing operations, assets and trademarks of GM as a part of the ‘pre-packaged’ Chapter 11 reorganization.

As ranked by total assets, GM’s reorganization marks one of the largest corporate Chapter 11 reorganizations in U.S. history. The Chapter 11 filing was the fourth-largest in U.S. history, following Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Washington Mutual and WorldCom Inc. [Source: Wikipedia]

Vintage Mugshots from the 1920s

William Stanley Moore – Photograph by The Sydney Justice & Police Museum

The Sifter recently stumbled upon an incredible collection of vintage mugshots housed by the Historic Houses Trust. Many of these intriguing photographs are also accompanied by a description of the person and the crime(s) they have committed. For example, the image above of Mr. William Stanley Moore was taken May 1st, 1925. The caption describes him as: an opium dealer operating with large quantities of faked opium and cocaine. Also a wharf labourer and associates with water front thieves and drug traders.

The images themselves are of excellent quality, beautifully composed and in many cases, quite artistic. Please enjoy this curated selection of 30 photographs along with brief descriptions of each when available.