J M Wetherington Sr
My Interests, Thoughts and OpinionsBlog Archives
Well, I noticed the other day that I haven’t done one of these kind of posts in almost 5 years and it’s time to remedy that. These days, almost every professional and home tool kit contains a can of WD-40, which is used for a variety of lubrication purposes in the home, on cars, on […]
Did You Know…That Mount Vesuvius Destroyed Pompeii On This Date?
Monday , 24, August 2015 Did You Know...? Comments Off on Did You Know…That Mount Vesuvius Destroyed Pompeii On This Date?Mount Vesuvius erupted, destroying the Roman city of Pompeii, on this date in the year 79. Pompeii was about five miles away from the mountain, and it was a resort town for Rome’s elite. It’s estimated that about 20,000 people lived in and around Pompeii at that time, and most of them were able to […]
Did You Know…The First Atomic Bomb Exploded On This Day In 1945?
Thursday , 16, July 2015 Did You Know...? Comments Off on Did You Know…The First Atomic Bomb Exploded On This Day In 1945?On this day in 1945, at 5:29:45 a.m., the first atom bomb was successfully detonated at White Sands Proving Ground in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The assembled scientists wore welder’s goggles and shared suntan lotion. Enrico Fermi took bets on whether the atmosphere would ignite and destroy just the state of New Mexico, or the entire […]
Did You Know…? Happy Birthday, SPAM!
Sunday , 5, July 2015 Did You Know...? Comments Off on Did You Know…? Happy Birthday, SPAM!SPAM, the canned-meat product from Hormel, turns 78 years old today. Anytime in the past that I’ve seen an open can of SPAM it looked like it was ALREADY at least 78 years old! Now, I have eaten SPAM, but it has been so long ago that I’m sure I have purged all evidence it […]
Did You Know…The First Drive-In Theater Opened On This Day In 1933?
Saturday , 6, June 2015 Did You Know...? Comments Off on Did You Know…The First Drive-In Theater Opened On This Day In 1933?Richard Hollingshead Jr. was a sales manager at his dad’s auto parts store in Camden, New Jersey. In his spare time, he dreamed of creating something that would bring a little fun to the tough daily life of the Depression era. He was also thinking about his mother, who was a little bit overweight and […]
…that on this date in 1840, the first official adhesive postage stamp was issued in Great Britain? Up until the late 1830s, the recipient of the letter was supposed to pay upon delivery. Rates were inconsistent: postage was calculated based on number of sheets of paper and the distance from sender to recipient. The rules […]
I’ve grown and shaved off beards several times in my beard-shaving life. So much so that I wish I had listened to my dad when he tried to tell me that my desire at the age of 12 to shave off the extremely long peach fuzz on my face would result in countless mornings over […]
…RCA introduced the 45-rpm record on this date in 1949? It wasn’t the first flat record – that honor belonged to the old 78-rpm, which had been around since the late 1880s. But the 78 was big – about 10 inches in diameter – and because the grooves were wide and it spun around fast, […]
…that on this day in 1951, the Remington Rand Corporation signed a contract to deliver the first UNIVAC computer to the U.S. Census Bureau. UNIVAC I (which stands for Universal Automatic Computer) took up 350 square feet of floor space — about the size of a one-car garage — and was the first American commercial […]
…that on this date in 1915, the woman known as “Typhoid Mary” was first put into quarantine in a cottage in the Bronx. Her name was Mary Mallon, and she worked as a cook in various wealthy households around New York City. Every household she worked in seemed to suffer an outbreak of typhoid fever. […]