James Doohan, AKA Scotty from Star Trek, when he was young, with his granny, 1940s.
Doohan enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1939, joining the Royal Canadian Artillery.
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
- George Orwell, Homage To Catalonia
On right of this pic you seen Melitta Schiller-Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (born 1903) one of III Reich Germany's few women test pilots. Her borther-in- law was Claus von Stauffenberg.
Flugkapitänin Melitta flew over 2,500 hours in dive bombers and was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class and the Gold Front Flying Clasp for Bombers with diamonds. Melitta died on April 8, 1945 after being shot down while flying a Bücker Bü 181 near Strasskirchen, close to Straubing, Germany.
I'm surprised that she survived guilt by association with her brother-in-law's assassination attempt on Hitler.
The Romanov family was the last imperial dynasty to rule Russia. They first came to power in 1613, and over the next three centuries, 18 Romanovs took the Russian throne, including Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Alexander I and Nicholas II. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, Bolshevik revolutionaries toppled the monarchy, ending the Romanov dynasty. Czar Nicholas II and his entire family—including his young children—were later executed by Bolshevik troops.
3 August 1958.
American nuclear submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to complete an undersea voyage to the geographic North Pole.
Nautilus dived at Point Barrow, Alaska and travelled nearly 1,000 miles under the Arctic ice cap to reach the top of the world.
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
- George Orwell, Homage To Catalonia
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
- George Orwell, Homage To Catalonia
Taylor designed a custom barrel made from Kentucky oak and reinforced with iron hoops. It was about 4½ feet tall and weighed 160 pounds. Inside were cushions, pillows and a safety harness, along with a tube through which air could be pumped after the lid was sealed.
Before risking her own life, Taylor tested the barrel by sending a cat over Horseshoe Falls in it. The cat survived, which apparently counted as adequate engineering certification in 1901.
On October 24, 1901—her 63rd birthday—Taylor climbed inside with a lucky heart-shaped pillow. Her assistants screwed down the lid, pumped in air with a bicycle pump, sealed the opening and towed the barrel into the Niagara River. They cut it loose, and the current carried her toward the 167-foot Horseshoe Falls.
The barrel vanished into the mist, plunged over the edge and eventually resurfaced below. Rescuers dragged it ashore and opened it to find Taylor alive, suffering only cuts and bruises. She had become the first person ever to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive.
Afterward, Taylor warned that she would rather stand in front of a firing cannon than attempt the trip again.
Unfortunately, the fame never produced the fortune she expected. Her manager stole her barrel, her lecture appearances fizzled, and she eventually earned a meager living selling postcards and souvenirs near the falls. She died impoverished in 1921 at age 82 and was buried in Niagara Falls’ appropriately named “Stunters’ Rest.”
"Si vis pacem, para bellum." — Vegetius
"Do not hurry to the sound of the guns without knowing why they are firing." — British maxim
"In war, the simplest things are difficult." — Clausewitz
"No plan survives first contact with the enemy." — Moltke
"The side that can most quickly exploit success is the side that will win." — Guderian
Some days you’re the hammer, some days you’re the nail. 🪖🎲
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