It is March 15, one of the most famous days in history, owing to March 15, 44 BC, when a group of Roman senators chose to express their disagreement with Julius Caesar' by stabbing him twenty three times. Since that time March 15 has often been perceived as a day of ill omen. Ill omen or no, it is certainly a day on which much has occurred in history.
Over 700 different aircraft models and designs reached active service and serial production worldwide during the Second World War. Some were quite famous, others much less so. Among the latter was a nearly forgotten US super Heavy Bomber design, overshadowed by a far more famous plane, that ended up perhaps most remembered for a dubious distinction.
After the public announcement of the armistice ending hostilities between Italy and the Allied powers on September 8th, 1943, the Italian navy fled its ports in a desperate bid to reach the safety of Allied forces, even as German forces, carrying a terrifying new weapon, sought to capture or destroy them.
On August 26, 1980, some men wearing jumpsuits drove up in a white Dodge van and rolled a large box into a Casino in Stateline Nevada, saying that they were delivering a copy machine. It wasn’t a copy machine. Thus began what the Federal Bureau of Investigation described as “one of the most unusual cases” in the bureau’s history.