1995: A federal judge for the first time authorizes a wiretap of a computer network. It leads to hacking charges against a young Argentine for breaking into sensitive U.S. government sites.
Arrested and later extradited to the United States was Julio Cesar Ardita, who was 21 at the time. His online name was “griton” — Spanish [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Warfare and Military’
Oct. 23, 1995: First Computer-Network Wiretap
October 23rd, 2009 |
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Sept. 3, 1925: Shenandoah Crash a Harbinger of Grim Future
September 3rd, 2009 |
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1925: Caught in a squall over southeastern Ohio, the Navy dirigible USS Shenandoah breaks up and crashes into a field, killing 14 of the 43 men aboard. It is the first of three major accidents that eventually ends the Navy’s experiment with rigid airships.
The dirigible, a lighter-than-air craft with a skeletal framework, saw major [...]
Aug. 28, 1988: Ramstein Air Show Disaster Kills 70, Injures Hundreds
August 28th, 2009 |
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1988: Three Italian Aermacchi MB-339 fighter jets collide in midair at the Ramstein air base in Germany, killing 70 people and causing serious injuries to 346 others. It’s one of the worst air show disasters in history.
The accident occurred at the culmination of a complex maneuver by Frecce Tricolori, Italy’s military stunt-flight team. Known as [...]
Aug. 26, 1346: First Cannon Fired in Battle, Maybe
August 26th, 2009 |
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1346: Genoese mercenaries fighting under Philip VI of France are surprised, unpleasantly, when they are among the first soldiers in history to come under cannon fire.
It has been claimed that this battle, which occurred near Crécy in northern France early in the Hundred Years War, marks the first use of cannon on the battlefield. Like [...]
Aug. 5, 1963: Finally, a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
August 5th, 2009 |
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1963: Three of the four nuclear powers sign a limited treaty that bans most, but not all, nuclear weapons testing.
The Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed in Moscow by the United States, Soviet Union and Great Britain. The fourth nation to possess “the bomb,” France, did not sign the treaty. Nor did China, which [...]
July 24, 1950: America Gets a Spaceport
July 24th, 2009 |
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1950: Cape Canaveral, Florida, launches its first rocket.
Cape Canaveral, a name that would become synonymous with the U.S. space program by the late ’50s, was just an obscure spit of land jutting into the Atlantic Ocean along Florida’s eastern shore when, in 1948, an Air Force committee recommended its procurement for a missile testing range.
Actually, [...]
July 6, 1947: The AK-47, an All-Purpose Killer
July 6th, 2009 |
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1947: The AK-47, one of the world’s first operational assault rifles and probably the most durable and enduring small-arms weapons ever made, goes into production in the Soviet Union. More than 60 years later, it remains the standard infantry weapon in numerous armies, and a mainstay in the arsenals of rebels, drug traffickers and terrorists [...]
June 25, 1876: Was Custer Outgunned at Little Bighorn?
June 25th, 2009 |
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1876: An advance regiment of cavalrymen under the command of George Armstrong Custer is killed to a man on a sun-parched ridge near the Little Bighorn River by a combined force of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors.
Tactical blunders and faulty intelligence work contributed heavily to one of the worst defeats ever sustained by the [...]
June 22, 1675: Greenwich Becomes Royal Pane on the Stars
June 22nd, 2009 |
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1675: Britain’s King Charles II issues a royal warrant establishing an observatory at Greenwich. The Royal Observatory, then on the eastern outskirts of London, will enjoy a long and storied history and become a Prime piece of real estate.
Charles had a navy and a large merchant fleet. They needed better ways of navigating. Latitude [...]