Blazing Blimp
May 6, 1937 - The
German airship Hindenburg caught fire while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey, and was completely destroyed
in less than 40 seconds. Of the 97 people on board the ship, 35 died, in addition to one person on the ground. The airship had departed from Frankfurt, Germany, three days earlier on its first
round-trip journey between Europe and North America. While the cause of the
fire remains unknown, the hydrogen in the ship was quickly consumed upon
ignition. The accident shattered public confidence
in the giant, passenger-carrying rigid airship and marked the end of the
airship era. Newsreel cameras that were on hand to record the docking captured footage of the disaster that you can watch here.
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Promontory Summit
May 10, 1869 - The
first transcontinental railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, was completed when
the railheads of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met at Promontory Summit, Utah. It took six years to complete the 1,777 miles of rail between Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Sacramento, California. A ceremonial golden spike was hammered in as the last spike to connect the two railroads. |
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
May 10, 1893 - In the case of Nix v. Hedden the United
States Supreme Court ruled that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit. The
lawsuit was brought under the Tariff Act of 1883, which required a tax to be
paid on imported vegetables, but not fruit. The Court unanimously held that
while under the technical, botanical definition a tomato is a fruit, the usage
and popular perception make it a vegetable for purposes of the Act. The "popular perception"
rationale was based on the fact that tomatoes are usually eaten as a main
course instead of as a dessert. |
Spy Game: Checkmate
May 11, 1960 -
Adolf Eichmann, a former Nazi officer who oversaw the murder
of millions of Jews during World War II, was kidnapped in Buenos
Aires, Argentina,
and smuggled to Israel
to stand trial as a war criminal. Eichmann had managed to avoid detection after
the war and fled Europe in 1950 under the assumed name Ricardo
Klement. Four agents from Mossad, Israel's
version of the CIA, snatched Eichmann off
the sidewalk as he was returning home from work. They kept him in a safe house in
Buenos Aires for nearly two weeks
until they determined they could move him out of the country by disguising themselves as crew members for El Al airlines. After his trial in Israel, Eichmann
was convicted and sentenced to death. He was hanged a few minutes
before midnight on May 31, 1962, at a prison in Ramla,
Israel. His is the only
civil execution ever carried out in Israel,
which has a general policy of not using the death penalty. |
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"There's smoke, and there's flames, now, and the frame is crashing to the
ground, not quite to the mooring mast... Oh, the humanity."
- Broadcaster Herbert Morrison reporting live on the Hindenburg disaster.
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Side Note
The true story of Adolf Eichmann's capture can be found in Hunting Eichmann by Neal Bascomb. |
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