Stuff That Happened

  Tragic mountaineering disasters are all too common on extremely high altitude mountains such as K2, Cho Oyu, and of course, Mt. Everest. However, even on some more moderately sized mountains, tragedy can always strike. In 1971, a group of 15-16 year old students were taken on an expedition in the remote area of the Cairngorms in the Scottish Highlands. This mountain range can reach a height of just over 4000 feet above sea level, a seemingly small number compared to the massive 29,000 foot Everest. Nevertheless, the conditions on the Cairngorms can be extremely unpredictable and during this innocent and routine expedition, the deterioration of the weather would leave 8 young climbers fighting for their lives in what became Britain’s worst ever mountaineering disaster. The Cairngorms are a beautiful region of mountains in Scotland which include long glacial valleys and several mountains, such as the 4,295 foot Ben Macdui and the 4,085 foot Cairn Gorm Mountain, from which the regio...

On September 11th, 2001, terrorists took control of four commercial airplanes with the intention of using them as suicide missiles in a fully planned terrorist attack against the United States. Three of the planes hit their intended targets – the Twin Towers and the Pentagon – while which was likely planned for the capitol building crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, saving countless lives, thanks to a passenger revolt. Still, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks. The news coverage quickly revealed the mastermind behind the attack – Osama Bin Laden – one of the founders of al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that planned and executed the operation. Bin Laden had been planning the attack since the mid-90’s with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who had more ambitious ideas. At one point, they involved up to ten hijacked planes on both the east and west coasts with planes crashing not only into the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Capitol but also the CIA and FBI headquarters, the Washin...

On December 20th, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to officially secede from the Union for one primary reason – to avoid the impending ban on slavery which seemed all the more likely with the recent election of Abraham Lincoln. To deal with the problem of United States military forts existing within their state in Charleston Harbor, the state demanded that all U.S. Army personnel abandon their posts. Major Robert Anderson, who was in charge of the U.S. forces near Charleston, remained loyal the Union and moved himself and all union troops to Fort Sumter, the most powerful and defensible fortress in the harbor. Confederate forces would not allow any union ships to supply or reinforce Fort Sumter, effectively beginning a siege. Once President Lincoln took office, he informed the governor that he was sending supplies and food to Fort Sumter. The Confederate government had to make a decision – allow Fort Sumter to be re-supplied or attack, preventing hungry soldiers from r...

About 1.25 miles off the shore of San Francisco, California lies Alcatraz Island, the location of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, also known as the Rock. The prison operated from 1934 to 1963 and was considered by many to escape-proof due to the high security of the prison and surrounding cold waters and strong currents of the San Francisco Bay. It also had a reputation of the toughest prison in the country and former prisoners reported horrific and inhumane conditions that tested the sanity of even the toughest men. It is no surprise then that, despite the location, many prisoners attempted an escape to freedom. The first man to attempt an escape from Alcatraz, Joseph Bowers The first man to make such an attempt was Joseph Bowers, who was serving a 25-year sentence for stealing about 16 dollars from the Postal Service. In April of 1936, Bowers was feeding birds next to a chain link fence when he suddenly began climbing it in attempt to scale it. He ignored the guards who yelled at...

LOT Polish Airlines was established in 1928 and continues to operate today as the flag carrier of Poland and one of the oldest airlines in the world. The airline has a fleet of 79 aircraft, helping people travel around the world, with their central hub at Warsaw Chopin Airport. The airline has an excellent safety record, with the last fatality occurring nearly 35 years ago on November 2nd, 1988, when LOT Polish Airlines Flight 703 was forced to crash land due to icing on the engine intakes. The crash landing was nearly a complete success, but one of the 29 occupants tragically died. A year and a half before Flight 703 however, was the second most recent fatal accident in LOT Polish Airline’s history and it was the most horrifying and deadly crash in the history of Polish aviation. It happened on May 9th, 1987 to LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055, bound from Warsaw to New York with the ultimate destination of San Francisco. The flight never made it out of Poland. May 9th, 1987 was a...