Volkswagen, maker of the Beetle automobile, expanded its product offerings to include a microbus, which went into production on March 8th, 1950. Known officially as the Volkswagen Type 2 (the Beetle was the Type 1) or the “Transporter,” the bus became a favorite mode of transportation for hippies in the U.S. during the 1960s and […]
Some of my favorite childhood memories were the road trips my parents and I took from California to Arizona, every summer, to visit family. These were the days before President Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System was created, so motor travel was conducted on “two-way” county roadways, some better maintained than others. Once the games of “what […]
On a breezy December 6, 1884, Lt. Col. Thomas Lincoln Casey of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers supervised as the Washington Monument’s 3,300-pound capstone was brought out through one of the windows, hoisted to the scaffolding at the dizzying tip of the monument, and set in place. Casey then placed the 8.9-inch aluminum tip […]
“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” Winston Churchill One of my favorite movies set in World War II is “The Man Who Never Was” (1966) starring Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame. In 1942, Adolf Hitler ordered the construction of the Atlantic Wall, a series of […]
In 1948, a World War II-era bomber crashed into Lake Mead, the massive reservoir formed by Hoover Dam that straddles the Arizona-Nevada border. After several failed attempts to locate the plane, it was finally discovered in the early 2000s—still remarkably intact. In the early 1940’s, the military recognized that the U.S. might be drawn into […]
On March 24, 1944, one of the most audacious projects carried out during World War II occurred. It was the mass escape of Allied soldiers from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III, the story of which was forever immortalized in the 1963 film The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen. Although the mass escape, which was […]
We often attribute many of our frequently used phrases to Shakespeare. And that is certainly justified. However, I recently stumbled across this list of sayings that have become part of our everyday speech which originated in the Bible. A drop in the bucket Meaning: something small and unimportant, one our of many Source: Isaiah 40:15: […]
1. Washington crossed the Delaware River so that his army could attack an isolated garrison of Hessian troops located at Trenton, New Jersey. So why were Washington and his bedraggled Continental Army trying to cross an ice-choked Delaware River on a cold winter’s night? It wasn’t just to get to the other side. Washington’s aim was to […]
Arthur “Harpo” Marx (born Adolph Marx) was an American comedian, actor, mime artist, and musician, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. Although the comedy of his brothers Groucho Marx and Chico Marx, Harpo’s style was visual, exemplifying both clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish blond wig and was silent in all his movie appearances, instead blowing a horn or whistling to communicate. One of his most well-known […]
On October 24, 1861, workers completed construction of the link connecting eastern and western telegraph networks of the nation at Salt Lake City, Utah, completing a transcontinental line that for the first time allowed instantaneous communication between Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, and effectively put an end to the Pony Express. The idea behind the […]