The Mianus Bridge Collapse

At 1:30 am on June 28, 1983, a 100 foot section of  I-95's northbound lane on the Mianus Bridge in Greenwich Connecticut collapsed, sending two cars and an 18 wheel trailer truck 70 feet below. The lack of the normally heavy traffic in the area due to the early morning hour limited the death count to three people. An investigation found that during road repairs 10 years before, crews deliberately blocked drains on the bridge, and failed to uncover them when the work was complete. As a result, corrosion from water buildup over time weakened the structure.

PT 109

(PT 105 at full speed)

PT boats were a staple for the United States Navy during World War II. They were designed for speed when attacking larger conventional vessels. With a full compliment of arms, including torpedoes and anti aircraft guns, they proved to be workhorses in the Pacific theatre.

(PT 109 & crew)

Lt. John F. Kennedy, commander of PT 109, is pictured on the far right with his crew in 1943. On August 2nd of that year, his vessel would eventually be sunk in battle by the Japanese.

Union Station

January 1943 photo of the waiting room in Chicago's Union Station.

Eleanor Rigby

In the 1980's, Eleanor Rigby's headstone (pictured above in 2008),  was discovered in a graveyard near St. Peter's Parish Church in the Woolton suburb of Liverpool, England.  A few hundred yards nearby, another marker with the name McKenzie scrawled on it was discovered. The Beatles' Paul McCartney denies that the grave marker was ever an influence in the Beatles song 'Eleanor Rigby'. McCartney and John Lennon were known to sunbathe in the graveyard as teenagers. 

White Christmas

Pictured above is the before and after restoration pictures of the original sled used in the 1954 movie White Christmas starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney. I came across these pictures on a website for the A & D Restoration Company in California.

The sled was purchased from the Bing Crosby Estate in 1980 by the owners of the Crab Shanty Restaurant, a local eatery here in Maryland.  Below, the sled can be seen in its' current location at the center of the picture, above the antique post office facade in the distant part of the main dining room.

Bethlehem's Colonial Theatre

The Colonial Theatre in Bethlehem, a small town located in the middle of  New Hampshire's White Mountains, is pictured in a photograph taken in 1920. The theatre holds the distinction of being the longest continually running movie theatre in the United States.

                                                                                                   

          (The Colonial Theatre as it appears today)

Anne Frank

Anne Frank (May 1942)

Annelies Marie Frank was born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt am Main in Weimar Germany. During her life, she would become one of the most recognized Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Known for her creative writing, her diary became one of the world's most read books. Anne Frank died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in late March 1945 at the age of 15.

1918 World series

Babe Ruth, starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, hits in the 1918 World Series against the Chicago Cubs. Ruth is the only starting pitcher in World Series history to bat other than ninth in the batting order. Boston won the series 4-2, which would be their last World Series title until 2004.

Pan Am 103

A portion of the nose section of Pan American Flight 103 is pictured after it was brought down by a bomb on December 21, 1988 in the village of Lockerbie, Scotland. 270 people lost their lives that day including many college students who were returning home from a field trip. A Libyan intelligence agent was convicted of planting a bomb on board the giant Boeing 747-121. Despite being sentenced to 27 years in prison, the criminal was granted early release recently on compassionate grounds. He reportedly is suffering from a terminal illness. 

(Note: Due to the nature of this crime, I have chosen NOT to publish the perpetrator's name in this writing.)

The Hindenburg Disaster

On May 6, 1937, the German air ship LZ129 Hindenburg was approaching the mooring station at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey when it all of a sudden burst into flames. The ship was destroyed within one minute, killing 35 of the 97 on board and 1 person on the ground. The actual cause of the accident remains unknown.