On September 24, 1959 a strange all black aircraft with no markings made an emergency “wheels up” landing at a private landing strip in Japan. It was an embarrassing accident for the US Central Intelligence Agency, as the plane, a Lockheed U-2C, did not officially exist. 66 years later, details of the incident, and of the extraordinary aircraft that has had an extraordinarily long service life, are still secret.
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.