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Largest Earthquakes Recorded
Chile, 1960 – Magnitude 9.5 Approximately 1,655 people were killed during the largest earthquake ever recorded. Thousands more were injured, and millions were left homeless. Southern Chile suffered $550 million USD in damage. The quake triggered a tsunami that killed 61 people in Hawaii, 138 in Japan and 32 in the Philippines. The earthquake ruptured where the Nazca Plate dives underneath the South American Plate, on the Peru-Chile Trench. Prince William Sound, Alaska, 1964 – Magnitude 9.2 This great earthquake and ensuing tsunami took 128 lives and caused about $311 million USD in property loss. The earthquake damage was heavy in many towns, including Anchorage, which was about 75 miles…
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Hindenburg Disaster
On May 6, 1937, the golden age of airship travel comes to an end. During a landing in severe thunderstorms at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, the Hindenburg bursts into flames and crashes. The tragedy brought an end to the popularity of Zeppelin airship travel and the common use of hydrogen as fuel. Hydrogen is now making a comeback as a component for cell phone towers, forklifts and even aircraft tugs. Source Hindenburg Facts At 803.8 feet in length and 135.1 feet in diameter, the German passenger airship Hindenburg (LZ-129) was the largest aircraft ever to fly. The commercial flights of Hindenburg, along with Graf Zeppelin, pioneered…
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The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife
By Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor (CNN) – A newly revealed, centuries-old papyrus fragment suggests that some early Christians might have believed Jesus was married. The fragment, written in Coptic, a language used by Egyptian Christians, says in part, “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …” Harvard Divinity School Professor Karen King announced the findings of the 1 1/2- by 3-inch honey-colored fragment on Tuesday in Rome at the International Association for Coptic Studies. King has been quick to add this discovered text “does not, however, provide evidence that the historical Jesus was married,” she wrote in a draft of her analysis of the fragment set to appear…
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John F. Kennedy Marries Jacqueline Bouvier
On this day in 1953, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, the future 35th president of the United States, marries Jacqueline Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island. Seven years later, the couple would become the youngest president and first lady in American history. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy was born into a prominent New York family in 1929 and grew into an avid horsewoman and reader. In 1951, after graduating from George Washington University, Jackie, as she was called, took a tour of Europe. That fall, she returned to the U.S. to begin her first job as the Washington Times-Herald’s “Inquiring Camera Girl.” Shortly afterward, she met a young, handsome senator from Massachusetts named…
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Jeffrey MacDonald Convicted of Murdering His Family
New York (CNN) — Before O.J. Simpson and Casey Anthony, before Scott Peterson, Amanda Knox and the cottage industry of cable news legal pundits, there was the shocking case of Jeffrey MacDonald. Ten years after his pregnant wife and two young daughters were butchered in their home in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, MacDonald was convicted of the killings and sentenced to life in prison. While a jury was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of MacDonald’s guilt, many people were still left with one lingering question: Did he really do it? The drama surrounding the heinous crimes and the subsequent trial fascinated the public for decades. It sparked controversial best-selling books,…