On this day in 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge opened to traffic. Not only is the bridge beautiful but I remember hearing that the transit authority needs to spend half as much maintaining it as they do some of the other bridges. I have affinity for the Brooklyn Bridge beyond just appreciating its beauty. The bridge ...

Newsweek had this historical tip: It started in August 1940, when the Army was training its first paratroopers for World War II combat. The night before their first jump, a group of men caught the film “Geronimo” to unwind. The next day, Pvt. Aubrey Eberhardt yelled “Geronimo!” before jumping to show he wasn’t afraid. The ...

On this day in 1770 Marie Antoinette married king Louis XVI of France. In honor of this occasion I bring the old song by Allan Sherman: You Went The Wrong Way, Old King Louie by Allan Sherman Louis the Sixteenth was the King of France in 1789. He was worse than Louis the Fifteenth. He ...

On this day in 1949 the Berlin airlift ended. In June of 1948 the Soviets blockaded Berlin trying to force the U.S. and other western powers to abandon the city. The U.S. supplied Berlin by air in what has become known as the Berlin airlift. 277,000 flights were made with planes landing as often as ...

On this day in history, IBM’s “Deep Blue” computer defeated Garry Kasparov the world’s reigning chess champion. Deep Blue then went on to send Kasparov 20 emails about his need for viagra, lose his airline reservation, scramble his ATM personal identification number and infect his home computer. In doing so IBM was able to show ...