It was September 20, 1911 and RMS Olympic, the largest ocean liner in the world, was on its fifth voyage between the ports of Southampton and New York when she was struck in the side by the Royal Navy protected cruiser HMS Hawke. Surprisingly, not only did neither ship sink, but there was no loss of life. Still, the accident had surprising ramifications that deserve to be remembered.
The appeal of one strange object, which achieved dizzying popularity in my lifetime, and today lives on mostly for nostalgia, is not so difficult to explain. All you need to do is turn one on and wait.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.