Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of US Supreme court rulings that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. Source:...
Ho Chi Minh Trail
In May 1959 the Peoples’ Army of Vietnam’s Military Transportation Group 559 was established in North Vietnam. The group ultimately created and maintained the Ho Chi Minh Trail to facilitate the infiltratiion of troops and supplies from North Vietnam in support...
Ford Edsel
In 1957 the Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel, named after Henry Ford's son. Although the Edsel had many innovations still in use today, including self-adjusting brakes and a powerful V-8 engine, the car was one of Ford's biggest financial failures. The...
Suez Canal Crisis
In June 1956 the 74-year British occupation of the Suez Canal ended. In July 1956 the Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, nationalized the Suez Canal. In October 1956 Israeli brigades invaded Egypt and advanced toward the canal, routing Egyptian forces....
Birth of the US Interstate Highway System
https://youtu.be/6xd9cxRtt_k In June 1956, Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 into law. Under the act, the federal government would pay for 90 percent of the cost of construction of Interstate Highways. Each Interstate Highway was required to be a...
Transcontinental Non-stop Flight
https://youtu.be/sfwb9piy9WQ In November 1953 American Airlines began the 1st regular non-stop commercial NY-LA air service with the Douglas DC7 . yesterdays airlines.com 1932 First scheduled cross-country passenger flights with no change of plane 1933...
See the USA in your Chevrolet
https://youtu.be/boertpylK0M 1953 Chevrolet Corvette - Wikimedia Commons In 1953, General Motors released the first model of the Chevrolet Corvette —a sports car named after the small, maneuverable warship. Wikipedia Over the years, the Corvette has become widely...
Long Island Train Crash
The Kew Gardens Long Island train crash was a collision between two trains on the Long Island Rail Road's mainline during the evening rush hour of November 22, 1950. 78 people were killed and 363 injured. The crash is the worst railway accident in LIRR history and one...
Truman Seizes Railroads
https://youtu.be/6XI6CXrlNSo In August 1950, to prevent a pending strike during wartime, President Harry S. Truman issued an executive order directing the U.S. Army to seize control of America’s railroads. President Truman had previously intervened in post-war labor...
Volkswagen in America
https://youtu.be/VUPCl1WUF-E VW Beetle In 1933 Adolf Hitler demanded the production of an inexpensive automobile capable of transporting two adults and three children at 100 km/hr. After WWII British occupation forces in Germany ordered 20,000 Type I VW beetles...
Breaking the Sound Barrier
In October 1947, 24 year-old Air Force test pilot Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager flew an experimental Bell X-XS-1 rocket-propelled aircraft out of Edwards Air Force Base (then called Muroc Army Air Field) in California to break the sound barrier at a speed of...
Interstate Bus Segregation
In June 1946 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Virginia law requiring racial segregation on commercial interstate buses as a violation of the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution. The appellant Irene Morgan, riding an interstate Greyhound bus in 1944 had been...
Dunkirk
After seeing the new movie DUNKIRK directed by Christopher Nolan last night, I wanted to recommend it to you readers. Like the top film critics, I found this film technically flawless and emotionally extremely powerful. The film's soundtrack by Hans Zimmer kept...
Port Chicago Disaster
In 1944, segregated African-American Navy units were assigned dangerous loading operations. Most of these men were not trained in munitions handling, and safety standards were apparently often overlooked under heavy pressure to complete loading schedules. In July...
U.S. Submarines – Pacific WWII
Although the U. S. Navy had 68 submarines in the Pacific at the start of the Pacific War, they sank only 93,300 tons of Japanese shipping. This was < 10% of what 100 operational German U-boats sank in the same period. Initially, U.S. submarine operations were...
U-Boat Milchkuh Resupply
Researching material for a history-inspired novel I am writing about the Battle of the Atlantic, I came across the fascinating story of the Type XIV Milchkuh (milk cow) submarine tanker. In early 1942, German U-Boats hunting Allied ships along the U.S. East Coast,...
U-Boat Patrol
https://youtu.be/biw9U6x1UPA In the history-inspired novel I am currently writing, Kapitänleutnant Reinhard Hardegen is the role model for my German U-Boat commander protagonist.
V-Mail
During WWII, mail, invaluable to the morale of American troops overseas, took up valuable cargo space. In June 1942, the U.S. Postal Service developed a 7 x 9 1/8" paper and envelope Vmail form. Letters written on the standardized form were first censored,...
U-Boats Off America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZL7-nclmO0 In January 1942 five German Type IX U-boats, essentially unmolested by U.S. air and naval forces who were unprepared for anti-submarine warfare, began hunting merchant ships off the east coast of North America. Many of their...
No New American Cars
On January 1, 1942, all sales of American cars were frozen by the government’s Office of Production Management as auto plants began swiftly converting to military-only production of arms, munitions, trucks, tanks and planes. In April 1942 the Automotive Council for...
Volkswagen
1938 "Strength through Joy" (Kraft durch Freude) automobile In the early 1930s, most cars manufactured in Germany were luxury models and the average German worker with a monthly income of ~ 32 Reichsmarks could afford nothing more than a motorcycle. In 1933 Adolf...
Japanese Automobiles
Cars built in Japan before WWII tended to be based on European or American models. In 1925 the Ford Motor Company of Japan began manufacturing in Yokohama. In 1927 General Motors and Chrysler also established operations in Japan. From 1925-36, these three...
Driving In Nazi Germany
This is a great link describing Driver Education in Nazi Germany: Whoa, Driving Around In Nazi Germany Was Super Intense.
Battle of the Atlantic
Named the "Battle of the Atlantic,” by Winston Churchill, the course of the WWII six-year U-boat campaign changed constantly, with one side or the other gaining advantage, as each side developed new weapons, tactics, counter-measures and equipment. By the end...
~33 Allied Ships Sunk/Week
Charts via American Merchant Marine in World War 2 The majority of Allied losses were to U-Boats in the Atlantic. Although Germany was highly successful in the first part of the war, Imperial Japan never pursued an active campaign against shipping in the Pacific. The...