Useless (But Fun!) Fact For Today

[cheesy]

Sat in front of the TV to watch this, too.

[Emerikol]

26 Feb 23 -

Charles Goodyear left school at age 12 to work in his father’s hardware store in Connecticut. At age 23 he married Clarissa Beecher and soon afterwards the couple moved to Philadelphia, where Goodyear opened a hardware store of his own.

Goodyear was a competent merchant, but his passions were chemistry, materials science, and invention. In the late 1820s he became particularly fascinated with finding and improving practical applications for natural rubber (called India rubber). His experimentation would change the world, but Goodyear’s path to success would be challenging.

In 1830, at age 29, Goodyear was suffering from health issues and his rubber experiments (which he had funded by borrowing) had not been successful. By the end of the year his business was bankrupt and he was thrown into debtor’s prison. In was an inauspicious beginning to his career as a scientist and inventor.

The principal troubles with finding commercial applications for natural rubber was that the material was inelastic and was not durable, decomposing and becoming sticky depending on temperature. Goodyear was determined to find a chemical solution to overcome those issues, beginning his experiments while in jail. After numerous failures, his breakthrough came when he tried heating the rubber together with sulfur and other additives. In 1843 he wrote a friend, “I have invented a new process of hardening India rubber by means of sulphur and it is as much superior to the old method as the malleable iron is superior to cast iron. I have called it Vulcanization.”

Goodyear filed his patent application for vulcanized rubber on February 24, 1844 and the patent was issued four months later. It is thanks to vulcanization that rubber can be used to make tires, shoe soles, hoses, and countless other items. It was one of the most profoundly important technological achievements of the 19th century.

So, did Charles Goodyear became wealthy as a result? Unfortunately, no. He continued to struggle financially for the rest of his life, embroiled in litigation with other inventors over the validity of his patent, preventing him from profiting from it. Meanwhile, his wife Clarissa contracted tuberculosis and much of the family’s income was devoted to her medical expenses and extensive travel in search of a cure. Clarissa died in 1848 at age 39, leaving six children, between the ages of 4 and 17.

At age 54, while still struggling to defend his patents and commercialize his invention, Goodyear married 40-year-old Mary Starr (who had not previously been married) and the couple would go on to have two children together. It too was a happy marriage, but Goodyear was not destined to long enjoy it.
Suffering the adverse effects of years of exposure to dangerous chemicals, Goodyear collapsed at a hotel in New York City on July 1, 1860, dying later that day. At the time of his death, he was 59 years old, penniless, and deeply in debt.

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, founded in Akron, Ohio by Frank Seiberling nearly 40 years later, was named in honor of Charles Goodyear. Neither Charles Goodyear nor anyone in his family was connected with the company.

Reflecting on Goodyear’s achievements, the historian Samuel Eliot Morrison wrote, “The story of Goodyear and his discovery of vulcanization is one of the most interesting and instructive in the history of science and industry.” But, as he added, “It is also an epic of human suffering and triumph, for Goodyear's life was one of almost continuous struggle against poverty and ill health.” Goodyear himself was philosophical about his failure to achieve financial success, writing that he was not disposed to complain that he had planted and others had gathered the fruit. “The advantages of a career in life should not be estimated exclusively by the standard of dollars and cents, as is too often done. Man has just cause for regret when he sows and no one reaps.”

[wheelbender6]

Emerikol probably knows that his old haunt, Goodyear, AZ was named after Goodyear tire and rubber. They grew cotton there for the cord in tires back in the good ole days.

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by wheelbender6

Emerikol probably knows that his old haunt, Goodyear, AZ was named after Goodyear tire and rubber. They grew cotton there for the cord in tires back in the good ole days.

Not only is the city of Goodyear named for Goodyear tire co, but one of the Goodyear Blimps lives at the Goodyear airport when it's in town to cover sporting events. They have a contract with KGYR to provide hangar space and security as well as a crew vehicle for the transient crew piloting the blimp. Here's a few useless but fun facts about the Goodyear Blimp:

1 Mar 23 -

1925 marked the year when the first Goodyear airships ascended to the skies. More than 85 years later, the iconic Goodyear blimps can still be spotted drifting through the clouds during football games, basketball tournaments, and even over the 2012 London Olympics.

While today the Goodyear blimps are invariable associated with sporting events and used for advertising purposes, this was not always the case. Goodyear started out in the “blimp” industry by making the envelopes for these types of airships. They then worked into creating the airships themselves and were soon awarded with a government contract to do just that.

Five years after Goodyear created its first airship, two massive rigid aircraft named the USS Akron and the USS Macon were born. These flying wonders were created for the US Navy and carried specialty planes like the F9C-2 Curtiss Sparrowhawks, which could be launched and retrieved during flight for long range scouting and defensive purposes as neither airships were equipped with weapons.

These massive aircraft were built with internal metal frames, could carry and maintain up to five planes while airborne, and were over two football fields in length, weighing in at a stunning 400,000 pounds (181,437 kg). 6.5 million cubic feet of helium was needed to lift the monumental ships into the sky.

On April 3, 1933, the Akron was sent out to calibrate radio direction to find equipment along the northeastern coast of the United States. Only a few minutes after midnight, the aircraft was hit with a series of strong winds which caused the ship’s tail to strike water and crash. A heartbreaking 73 lives were lost that night with only three survivors.

February 12, 1935, the Macon joined its sister aircraft when it hit a storm and its upper vertical fin was damaged. The blimp rapidly climbed to a dangerous altitude of 5,000 feet, which caused the automatic gas valves to open and release helium before its unavoidable decent. The Akron crashed in the Atlantic Ocean- the USS Macon met a similar fate, crashing into the Pacific. Thankfully, due to the tragic loss of the Akron two years prior, the Macon was equipped with life-jackets and rafts which saved 81 lives and only 2 were lost.

Despite the loss of the USS Akron and the USS Macon and the declining popularity of these types of aircraft, Goodyear continued to design and build airships and between the 1940s and the 1950s, the company built a series of surveillance airships for the U.S. government. These blimps were created to watch and protect merchant ships along the coast, as well as monitor and send early warning of an incoming attack if present.

One of history’s most historic aircraft, the Goodyear-built ZPG-2 (The Snow Bird), was among the surveillance fleet. At the time, the record for continuous flight without landing or refueling was set at 200 hours and 26 minutes. On March 4, 1957, Snow Bird took flight from NAS South Weymouth near Boston, Massachusetts and after an impressive eleven day voyage, the airship landed at Naval Air Station Key West, Florida on March 15, 1957, breaking the previous record for continuous flight.

Since then, four Goodyear blimps have crashed due to bad weather or malfunctions, the most recent accident was The Spirit of Safety which, ironically enough, on June 12, 2011 caught fire. The Australian pilot, Mike Nerandzic, was a hero during that crash. The three survivors of the crash told the media that the blimp had caught fire during landing. Once the blimp was a mere two meters off the ground, Mike told the three passengers to jump to safety, which they did. In his last moments, rather than attempt to escape himself, Mike steered away the burning blimp from his ground crew and was later found dead at the controls.

As to how the Goodyear blimp became inexorably associated with sporting events, this happened in 1960 when Goodyear, with the end of their government contract for airships looming, switched gears and decided to try using their blimps as aerial platforms for cameras during sporting events. This provided a service for sports coverage outlets while simultaneously functioning as a highly visible advertising platform for Goodyear itself. The first such event partially filmed by cameras aboard a Goodyear blimp was the 1960 Orange Bowl in Miami.

Needless to say, this has worked out exceedingly well for the company with Goodyear blimps traveling an average of 100,000 miles per year to various major sporting events, which is saying something considering they travel at an average speed of just 35 mph (about 56 km/h), though they are capable of speeds as high as 53 mph with favorable winds and the twin 210 horsepower engines at full throttle.

Today, the Goodyear name can still be spotted drifting through the clouds on one of its four active blimps, three of which function in the United States and one in China. The three U.S. ships are The Spirit of America, The Spirit of Goodyear, and The Spirit of Innovation. The Navigator can be found over the skies of China.

Contrary to what you may read, the word “blimp” did not come about from the fact that “Type B” airships in the United States were non-rigid, hence Type B-limp. While there were Type A and Type B class airships in the U.S., the word “blimp” popped up in 1916 in England, a year before the Type B classification in the U.S. There is also no documented evidence of the U.S. Type-B class ever being called “limp”.

As to the real origin of the word “blimp”, this is up for debate, but it’s generally credited to British Navy officer Lt. A.D. Conningham. The story goes that he coined the word after the noise that’s made when flicking or tapping the airship’s outer envelope.

The three U.S. based Goodyear blimps hold over 200K cubic feet of helium. The total weight of the airship rings in at 12,840 lbs (5824 kg). However, when fully inflated with helium, the total apparent weight of the ship is typically regulated at just 100-200 pounds. If you want to look completely macho and you have connections with the higher ups at Goodyear, perhaps lying underneath one of the Goodyear blimps when inflated and bench pressing it might be in order.

[wheelbender6]

Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey have some big similarities and one big difference. See link.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddri...7d91624c&ei=85

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by wheelbender6

Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey have some big similarities and one big difference. See link.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddri...7d91624c&ei=85

The Missus is a Bourbon drinker. To me, Bourbon just tastes like gasoline. I'm much more of a Scotch guy. I'm happy to buy the Missus whatever Bourbon she wants, though. It keeps the peace when I buy a very expensive bottle of Scotch. Interesting read, thanks for sharing!

[Emerikol]

4 March 23 -

Researchers have found that it takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds for sunlight to hit the Earth. While light may be fast, our planet is pretty far, roughly 93 million miles away. This distance is the reason why it takes some time for sunlight to reach us. This means that when you look up at the sun, you’re seeing it from 8 minutes ago.

[XLsior]

That reminds me of the comedian Steven Wright's deadpan joke
"If you were in a vehicle traveling at the speed of light and you turned on your headlights.....Would they do anything?"

[Emerikol]

9 Mar 23 -

In October 1965, Commander Clarence W. Stoddard, Jr. of the USS Midway carried a special bomb to North Vietnam to celebrate the six millionth pound of ordnance dropped on the Communist country: a ceramic toilet.

The bombing was a Dixie Station strike from South Vietnam going to the [Mekong] Delta. Among the weapons on Stoddard’s ordnance list was one code named “Sani-Flush.”

Sani-flush was a damaged toilet, which was going to be thrown overboard. One of the Midway‘s plane captains rescued it and the ordnance crew made a rack, tailfins, and nose fuse for it. The checkers maintained a position to block the view of the air boss and the captain while the aircraft was taxiing forward.

The toilet ordnance was dropped in a dive with Stoddard’s wingman, Lt. Cmdr. Robin Bacon, flying tight wing position to film the drop. When it came off, it turned hole to the wind and almost struck his airplane, and whistled all the way down.

According to Clint Johnson, now a retired U.S. Navy Captain, just as Stoddard’s A-1 Skyraider was being shot off, they received a message from the bridge: “What the hell was on 572’s right wing?”

“There were a lot of jokes with air intelligence about germ warfare,” Johnson said. “I wish that we had saved the movie film. Commander Stoddard was later killed while flying 572 in October 1966. He was hit by three SAMs over Vinh.”

This isn’t the first example of unconventional warfare from U.S. Navy aviators. In August 1952, AD-4 Skyraiders from the aircraft carrier USS Princeton dropped a 1,000-pound bomb with a kitchen sink attached to it.

“We dropped everything on them (the North Koreans) but a kitchen sink.” Their squadron’s executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. M.K. Dennis, told the press, before showing them a bomb with a kitchen sink attached.

The admiral was not okay with this, but caved to pressure from American press. The U.S. dropped the kitchen sink on Pyongyang that same month.

[Emerikol]

16 Mar 23 -

Back in the 1980s, when it still existed, the Soviet Union maintained a number of “friendly” relationships with a variety of African and Asian nations, mostly for the purposes of selling military hardware to counter the West. One such nation was Libya, which opted to arm and equip its military with a variety of Soviet products, including MiG and Sukhoi fighters for its air force. At the time, the USSR was also in the process of shopping around its Mil Mi-25 Hind-D, the export variant of the Mi-24 Hind helicopter. The Hind was a fairly unique vehicle at the time, as it was built from the ground up as a heavily-armed attack gunship with the ability to accommodate a maximum of eight fully-armed soldiers in an extremely cramped bay directly behind the cockpit. The Hind could therefore deliver special forces teams to the battlefield and remain in the area of operations for air support, or function solely as a very well-armed gunship, akin to the role the two-seater AH-1 Cobra played for American ground forces during the Vietnam conflict. In contrast, the US primarily used helicopters like the UH-1 Huey to deliver (and extract) troops from the battlefield, and they were moderately armed at best (in comparison to the Hind) with door-mounted machine guns serving as defensive weaponry more so than in the offensive role. Now, around the time of the Hind’s introduction into service in the late 70s, the Central Intelligence Agency, along with British intelligence services, sought to learn more about this big Soviet helo. Interest heightened when word broke that Ethiopia pressed an export Hind into combat successfully. The Hind then quickly made an appearance in Afghanistan during the Soviet Union’s controversial involvement there, operating to great effect against mujaheddin fighters towards the beginning of the conflict. Western intelligence needed to get a better look at the Hind and its heavily-armored airframe, especially for the purposes of determining whether or not an American equivalent needed to be designed, built, and fielded as a counter to the Hind’s capabilities. An opportunity for such a look finally presented itself in the form of the discovery of a Libyan Mi-25 left behind in Chadian territory in 1987.

Historically, Libya and Chad weren’t exactly on the best of terms. Their strained relationship was mostly the result of repeated attempts from Libyan-backed rebel groups to usurp the Chadian government. Constant Libyan attempts to occupy sovereign territory belonging to the Republic of Chad didn’t do much to help their situation either. When Chadian troops were finally able to fully expel Libyan forces from their borders in 1987, the retreating Libyans abandoned a considerable amount military hardware that would have otherwise bogged down and hindered their egress. Among the treasure trove of armored vehicles, guns, and light artillery stranded in the desert was a Hind-D in relatively good condition, parked on an old airfield ramp at Ouadi Doum. The CIA, after confirming that such a helicopter did indeed exist at that particular location, quickly set its sights on recovering the helo, or at least as much of it as possible, before the Libyans knew about their missing gunship.

All this would have to be done through a covert operation. After negotiating with (and eventually gaining permission from) the Chadian government through diplomatic channels, the CIA enlisted the Department of Defense’s help, and both began planning the extraction of the abandoned helo to American-controlled facilities, where it would be taken apart and analyzed in details. There’s a saying in the military that goes along the lines of: “Gear adrift is a gift”. Christmas was about to come very early for a bunch of CIA analysts and military technical experts.

Mount Hope III was the name bestowed upon the operation. The very first order of business was wrangling up a group of pilots skilled (and crazy) enough to perform the mission to perfection. Who better to ask than the aviators of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Group, the legendary Night Stalkers? The preparation phase, creatively code-named Mount Hope II, began in April of 1987 in New Mexico. The dry, desert conditions would add a layer of realism to the training. CH-47 Chinooks from the 160th’s Echo Company were modified to bear the weight of the Hind-D, judged to be somewhere in the ballpark range of 17,000 to 18,000 pounds. Chinooks are already able to sling-load different pieces of military equipment, including the Humvee utility vehicle. But there’s a huge difference between a four-wheeled Humvee and an oversized Mil-25. Load-bearing hooks needed to be reinforced, the engines and transmissions needed to be checked and tuned, and the relatively ideal placement of the carcass of the Hind underneath the Chinook needed to be determined. Practice commenced in dark, low-light conditions. Six large blivets of water weighing roughly the same as the Hind were strapped to the underside of a Chinook. The Night Stalkers flying the Chinook were then supposed to fly to a “Forward Support Base” (or FSB for short) after stopping twice to refuel. The first dry run went off without a hitch, so the next test was to strap an actual airframe similar to that of the Hind in terms of size and weight and perform the test run once again under the same conditions. The Night Stalkers once again proved themselves and their aircraft and in good time, Mount Hope II was completed, meeting or exceeding the expectations of the CIA and Department of Defense’s overseeing officers. They were now ready for the real thing.

On May 21st, the order to execute Mount Hope III was handed down from the Oval Office, and the Night Stalkers immediately geared up, loading two Chinooks aboard a C-5 Galaxy heavy airlift jet, departing for Germany first, and later on to the Ndjamena airfield in southern Chad. The Army was to temporarily deploy an ADVON (advanced echelon) scouting and reconnaissance team to the location for around two weeks to keep an eye out for enemy forces, who weren’t all that far away from the airfield. The French government added their support to the mission by sending over a contingent of soldiers to cover the operation on the ground and a set of Mirage F.1 fighter jets to provide top cover for all aircraft involved. A C-130 Hercules tactical airlifter would land at one of the Forward Arming and Refueling Points (FARPs) to provide fuel for the Chinooks on their way back to the FSB during the mission.

After arriving at Ndjamena on June 10th, Night Stalker pilots and crew unloaded their Chinooks from the gargantuan Galaxy. On June 11th, they proceeded with the mission as they had previously planned. The mission would see the Night Stalkers fly over 500 nautical miles under the cover of darkness, and would then pick up the abandoned Hind right at daybreak. An advance team (Chalk 1) flew to Ouadi Doum to ensure that the site was relatively secured for the incoming Chalk 2 Chinook and to prep the Hind for removal. As I mentioned earlier, a large element of Libyan military forces were still highly active in the area, even after most had been expelled from Chad’s borders during the previous year’s conflict. The slightest hint of military action nearby would have likely sparked a firefight and a subsequent international incident if it was discovered that the United States was actively trying to remove Libyan military hardware from the desert, even though the Hind was abandoned in Chadian sovereign territory. The ADVON team had reported back with a detailed threat analysis, highlighting the fact that the Libyans were definitely still in the region. Chalk 1, having been inserted at Ouadi Doum, cleared the location and quickly rigged the Hind for extraction while the Chalk 2 Chinook hovered close above, allowing for the team to sling-load the airframe to the waiting helo. Chalk 2 then left the area to return to Ndjamena. After covering Chalk 2’s extraction, Chalk 1 loaded up and got the hell out of Dodge. The Libyans were totally clueless of what was happening just miles away from their positions.

Chalk 2 stopped twice to refuel, at one point on a French Foreign Legion airfield, rendezvousing with the Air Force C-130s at each location. However, not long after stopping at FARP 2, the mission hit a slight snag in the form of an unanticipated 3000 ft sand storm. The Chinook bearing the weight of the Hind was now only 45 minutes out of home base. Hauling ass, Chalk 2 reached Ndjamena just ahead of the storm, flying through near-zero visibility and setting down with little time to spare. Waiting a little over 20 minutes in their helos for the storm to move onwards, the Night Stalkers finally loaded their aircraft and their newly-acquired prize into the Galaxy they arrived in, and within 36 hours were back on American soil. After 67 hours in-country, the mission was completed; an unmitigated success. Mount Hope III was also the very first major operation where the Night Stalkers used their CH-47s.

[Emerikol]

23 Mar 23 -

The Shortest War in History

The little known Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 is generally considered to be the shortest war in history, lasting for a grand total of 38 minutes.

The story begins with the signing of the Heligoland-Zanzibar treaty between Britain and Germany in 1890. This treaty effectively drew up spheres of influence between the imperial powers in East Africa; Zanzibar was ceded to British influence, whilst Germany was given control over mainland Tanzania.

With this new found influence, Britain declared Zanzibar a protectorate of the British Empire and moved to install their own ‘puppet’ Sultan to look after the region. Hamad bin Thuwaini, who had been a supporter of the British in the area, was given the position in 1893.

Sultan KhalidHamad ruled over this relatively peaceful protectorate for just over 3 years until, on August 25, 1896, he died suddenly in his palace. Although the truth will never be fully known about the causes for his death, it is widely believed that his cousin, Khalid bin Barghash, had him poisoned.

This belief is compounded by the fact that within a few hours of Hamad’s death, Khalid had already moved into the palace and assumed the position of Sultan, all without British approval.

Needless to say the local British diplomats were not at all happy with this turn of events, and the chief diplomat in the area, Basil Cave, quickly declared that Khalid should stand down. Khalid ignored these warnings and instead starting gathering his forces around the Palace.

These forces were surprisingly well armed, although it’s worth noting that quite a few of their guns and cannons were actually diplomatic gifts that had been presented to the former Sultan over the years! By the end of 25th August, Khalid had his palace secured with almost 3,000 men, several artillery guns and even a modestly armed Royal Yacht in the nearby harbor.

At the same time, the British already had two warships anchored in the harbor, the HMS Philomel and the HMS Rush, and troops were quickly being sent ashore to protect the British Consulate and to keep the local population from rioting. Cave also requested backup from another nearby British ship, the HMS Sparrow, which entered the harbor on the evening of the 25th August.

Even though Cave had a significant armed presence in the harbor, he knew that he did not have the authority to open hostilities without express approval of the British government. To prepare for all eventualities, he sent a telegram to the Foreign Office that evening stating: “Are we authorized in the event of all attempts at a peaceful solution proving useless, to fire on the Palace from the men-of-war?” Whilst waiting for a reply from Whitehall, Cave continued issuing ultimatums to Khalid but to no avail.

The next day, two more British warships entered the harbor, the HMS Racoon and the HMS St George, the latter carrying Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson, commander of the British fleet in the area. At the same time, Cave had received a telegraph from Whitehall stating:

“You are authorized to adopt whatever measures you may consider necessary, and will be supported in your action by Her Majesty’s Government. Do not, however, attempt to take any action which you are not certain of being able to accomplish successfully.”

The final ultimatum to Khalid was issued on the 26th August, demanding that he leave the palace by 9am the next day. That night, Cave also demanded that all non-military boats leave the harbor in preparation for war.

At 8am the next morning, only one hour before the ultimatum expired, Khalid sent a reply to Cave stating:

“We have no intention of hauling down our flag and we do not believe you would open fire on us.”

Cave replied in true 19th century British diplomatic style, stating that he had no desire to fire upon the palace “but unless you do as you are told, we shall certainly do so.”

That was the last Cave heard from Khalid, and at 9am the order was given for the British ships in the harbor to begin bombarding the palace. By 09:02 the majority of Khalid’s artillery had been destroyed, and the palaces wooden structure had started to collapse with 3,000 defenders inside. It is also around this time, two minutes after the bombardment started, that Khalid is said to have escaped through a back exit of the palace, leaving his servants and fighters to defend the palace alone.

By 09:40 the shelling had ceased, the Sultan’s flag pulled down, and the shortest war in history had officially ended after only 38 minutes.

For such a short war, the casualty rate was surprisingly high with over 500 of Khalid’s fighters killed or wounded, mainly due to the high explosive shells exploding on the palace’s flimsy structure. One British petty officer was also severely injured, but later recovered in hospital.

With Khalid out of the way, the UK was free to place the pro-British Sultan Hamud on the throne of Zanzibar, and he ruled on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government for the next six years.

As for Khalid, he managed to escape with a small group of loyal followers to the local German Consulate. Despite repeated calls from the British for his extradition, he was smuggled out of the country on October 2nd by the German navy and taken to modern day Tanzania. It was not until British forces invaded East Africa in 1916 that Khalid was finally captured and subsequently taken to Saint Helena for exile. After ‘serving time’, he was later allowed to return to East Africa where he died in 1927.

[Emerikol]

Nobody Knew Who Shot J.R. On 'Dallas' (Not Even The Actors). In order to keep the secret of "Who shot J.R.?", every actor on Dallas was filmed shooting J.R., including J.R. himself.

I can remember my Mom watching this show, and "Who Shot J.R." was a huge cliffhanger.

[wheelbender6]

Cool. I had forgotten that about J.R.

[Emerikol]

When the US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan near WWII's end, they weren't the last nuclear weapons American military officials planned to use. If the Japanese refused to surrender, another plutonium core bomb sat idly, waiting to cause more catastrophic destruction. Despite never being used during WWII, the bomb managed to kill two scientists horrifically. Once simply named “Rufus,” the weapon earned the nickname “demon core” after this fatal error.

When WWII officially ended, scientists were allowed to keep the plutonium core bomb for further nuclear-based experiments at their laboratory in Los Alamos, NM. First, 24-year-old physicist Harry Daghlian experimented with the core's supercriticality (essential for its operation) by surrounding the explosive mechanism with tungsten carbide bricks. Though he succeeded in attempting to create the energetic boomerang effect created by the device's neutrons, he dropped one of the bricks on the core as he tried to remove it from the experiment.

The stumble sent the bomb into supercriticality - exposing Daghlian to neutron radiation. After experiencing a burned hand, nausea, and pain, Daghlian slipped into a coma and perished 25 days later.

Eerily, the incident repeated itself nine months later when 35-year-old Canadian physicist Louis Slotin experimented on the bomb's threshold by placing a beryllium dome over the core to encourage the device to reach supercriticality. Despite being warned that using a screwdriver during the experiment was dangerous, Slotin overlooked the cautionary tales and chose it as his go-to tool. With one fateful error, his hand slipped, the screwdriver fell, and the dome collapsed over the core. As neutrons ping-ponged back and forth, the bomb went supercritical.

Though Slotin caught the error immediately and believed that he may have saved himself from fatal harm, he was mistaken. Like Daghlian, Slotin's body was also exposed to deadly radiation. His hands blistered, he developed extreme nausea and abdominal pain, and he suffered internal radiation burns before he perished nine days later.

[Emerikol]

8 Apr 23

Before Johnny Cash made his mark on the country music scene, the "Man in Black" served in the US Air Force as a radio intercept officer. After his training in Texas, the Air Force sent him to Landsberg, West Germany, where he monitored Soviet radio traffic.

Cash's work in Germany was top secret, and in March 1953, he intercepted and transcribed word of Joseph Stalin's passing. In his autobiography, Cash wrote:

"I was the ace. I was who they called when the hardest jobs came up. I copied the first news of Stalin's death. I located the signal when the first Soviet jet bomber made its first flight from Moscow to Smolensk; we all knew what to listen for, but I was the one who heard it...."

This made him among the first Americans - if not the first - to know about the demise of the Soviet leader.