On February 27, 1942 a three decades old US Navy ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft and sunk. It was a difficult time for the allies, many ships were lost that day. But the sinking of USS Langley represented the end of one of the most consequential ships is the Navy's history.
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.