July 19th: Today in 1963 Joseph Walker flew the first of his two flights that reached over 100km, a height that qualifies as space flight. He did it again on August 22nd and thus became the first man to enter space twice. These altitudes were not reached by aircraft again until 2004’s SpaceShipOne flights.

Late in the running wolves have decided to make a play on the summer of fear challenge.

July 18th: Today in 1938 Douglas ‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan set down in Dublin,Ireland after a twenty-eight hour flight from New York that had been supposedly directed to California. His supplies consisted of two chocolate bars, some fig bars and a quart of water. ‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan became a celebrity and stuck to his story for [...]

July 17th: Today in 1918 Tsar Nicholas II and his family and attendents were executed in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Initially there was doubt over the executions and who may or may not have survived them, but it is now thought that the entire family was killed that evening and DNA evidence has positively identified the bodies [...]

Planet Karen is a blog done in comic form and it is a great read. Nice style and simple but clear looks at what Karen is up to, very well done.

I am back home for a few weeks. Looking forward to catching up with some folks and catching up on some sleep.

July 15th: Today in 1799 a Captain in Napoleon’s Army discovered the Rosetta Stone, the stone whose three scripts, Hieroglyphic, Demotic Egyptian and Greek, allowed the first real translation of ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Two years later the stone was captured by the English who defeated the French Army in Egypt, and it was then brought [...]

July 14th: Today in 1791 a dinner celebrating the second anniversary of the storming of the Bastille sparked the Priestley Riots in Birmingham. The riots were aimed at those who had expressed support for the French Revolution, among them Joseph Priestley, the famous scientist (Oxygen for those in need of a cheat sheet). Priestley’s home, [...]

July 13th: Today in 1863 New Yorkers rioted over the draft for the Civil War, it started with protests at draft offices and the like, but ended up a massive attack on African American with many killed and mutilated and homes and businesses destroyed. The mobs were eventually suppressed with the help of the Federal [...]

July 12th: Today in 1979 one of the most disasterous baseball promotions of all time occured in Chicago, Disco Demolition Night. The promotion was that people were supposed to bring disco records to be destroyed in exchange for .98 cent tickets to the game and was a big hit with over 50,000 turning up overfilling [...]