A Brief History On April 20, 2023, the giant SpaceX Starship rocket booster vehicle proudly made its first flight, although the huge and hugely expensive rocket blew up only four minutes into that maiden flight! Digging Deeper The most powerful rocket ever made, the Starship’s price per unit is hard to pin down, although the project cost is a whopping $5 billion. Towering 397 feet tall with a diameter of 30 feet, the giant rocket weighs 11 million pounds! Designed to replace SpaceX’s previous rockets, the Falcon series, Starship is expected to provide the heavy lifting needed to launch the…
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A Brief History On April 15, 1923, the hormone insulin became widely available for the treatment of diabetes. Prior to the discovery of insulin and its adaptation for medical use, diabetes was an often-fatal disease of the inability of the body to process glucose. Digging Deeper Even today, diabetes claims millions of lives per year, as well as causing a variety of related maladies such as kidney failure, blindness, and nerve damage. Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas, and was discovered in 1921 by Frederick Banting of Canada, a Nobel Prize winning discovery. By 1923, insulin became available…
A Brief History On April 10, 2016, the Puttingal Temple in India was the scene of a horrific disaster when worshippers at a festival honoring the goddess Bhadrakali were blown up accidentally by a fireworks cache located there for the celebration. Digging Deeper We have previously asked, “Why are the faithful victims of tragedy during religious events?” and this tragedy is certainly one of those baffling events. Sadly, 111 people lost their lives and another 350 were badly burned. Obviously, the temple was heavily damaged, and 150 local houses also suffered damage. In response to the tragedy, three days later…
A Brief History On April 5, 1974, Stephen King published the first of his more than 60 full length novels, Carrie, setting the stage for what may well be the greatest horror fiction writing career in world history, and possibly the greatest writing career by an American author. Digging Deeper While many authors have penned one, two, or even several momentous works, the incredible production by King, who says he writes about 2,000 words a day, is truly impressive. King’s books sell well, ranking him anywhere from 10th to 21st on best selling author lists, depending on the source and…
A Brief History On April 4, 1991, US Senator from Pennsylvania John Heinz along with six other people died when a helicopter suffered a mid-air collision with the small airplane carrying Heinz over Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. Sadly, two of the seven fatalities were children on the ground. Digging Deeper Heinz is only one of many politicians that met an early demise in aircraft crashes, such as the following examples. In 1928, Congressman Thaddeus Sweet of New York became the first US politician to die in an air wreck. In 1947 and again in 1962, State Governors died in air…