Today in History: Phelps sets Olympic medal record
In 1775, 250 years ago, General George Washington ordered Major Benjamin Tupper to take 300 men and destroy Boston Light house. The men overwhelmed the British but the tides left them stranded on the island and vulnerable to British reinforcements. Nonetheless, the soldiers defeated the British a second time on the Little Brewster Island before returning to the mainland.
In 1777, the 19-year-old Marquis de Lafayette received a commission as major general in the Continental Army by the Second Continental Congress.
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In 1919, Germany's Weimar Constitution was adopted by the republic's National Assembly.
In 1945, Pierre Laval, premier of the pro-Nazi Vichy government in France, surrendered to US authorities in Austria; he was turned over to France, which later tried and executed him.
In 1957, the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations designed to detect Soviet bombers approaching North America, went into operation.
In 1964, the US lunar probe Ranger 7 took the first close-up images of the moon's surface.
In 1971, Apollo 15 crew members David Scott and James Irwin became the first astronauts to use a lunar rover on the surface of the moon.
In 1972, vice-presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton withdrew from the Democratic ticket with George McGovern following disclosures that Eagleton had received electroshock therapy to treat clinical depression.
Also that year, Massachusetts Correction Officer Alfred Baranowski and Correction Officer James Souza were shot and killed during an escape attempt by a convicted murderer from the Norfolk Prison. The state's maximum-security facility in Lancaster was named after them.
In 1973, Delta Air Lines Flight 723 undershot the runway in Logan International Airport amid low visibility and collided with a sea wall. The crash, the worst commercial aviation disaster in New England, would eventually take the lives of all 89 people on board.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) in Moscow.
In 2012, at the Summer Olympics in London, swimmer Michael Phelps won his 19th Olympic medal, becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time. (He would finish his career with 28 total Olympic medals, 23 of them gold.)
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In 2020, a federal appeals court overturned the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, saying the judge who oversaw the case didn't adequately screen jurors for potential biases. (The Supreme Court reimposed the sentence in 2022.)
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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
What to know about the Titan sub and its tragic final dive to the Titanic
The Titan submersible was crushed by intense water pressure beneath the North Atlantic Ocean in the summer of 2023. A catastrophic implosion instantly killed the four passengers and pilot, Stockton Rush, who was also the CEO of the company that owned the vessel. Two years later, the U.S. Coast Guard released a lengthy report saying the disaster could have been prevented, but deeply flawed safety procedures and efforts to avoid oversight had effectively doomed the vessel and all aboard. What was the Titan? Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic shipwreck since 2021. Owned by OceanGate, a company based in Washington state, the final dive came on June 18, 2023. The submersible was reported overdue that afternoon, and ships, planes and equipment were rushed to the scene about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John's, Newfoundland. The Titanic rests on the ocean floor about 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) below the surface. Experts had cautioned that the submersible's hull could implode under intense pressure at extreme depths. The craft's design OceanGate touted Titan's roomier cylinder-shaped cabin made of a carbon-fiber, although experts say it was a departure from the sphere-shaped cabins made of titanium used by most submersibles. A sphere is a 'perfect shape' because water pressure is exerted equally on all areas, said Chris Roman, a professor at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography. Titan had made more than two dozen deep-sea dives, which put repeated stress on the hull, said Jasper Graham-Jones, an associate professor of mechanical and marine engineering at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom. Investigators also found that Titan was stored outdoors over the Canadian winter, where its hull was exposed to temperature fluctuations that compromised the integrity of the vessel. The water pressure at the Titanic is roughly 400 atmospheres or 6,000 pounds per square inch. Arun Bansil, a Northeastern University physics professor, likened the pressure to the force of a "whale biting on somebody.' 'The passengers probably would have had no idea what happened,' Bansil said in 2023. What investigators said OceanGate had a culture of downplaying, ignoring and even falsifying key safety information to improve its reputation and dodge scrutiny from regulators, Coast Guard investigators found. OceanGate ignored 'red flags' and had a 'toxic workplace culture,' while its mission was hindered by lack of domestic and international framework for submersible operations, the report says. Numerous OceanGate employees have come forward since the implosion to support those claims. 'By strategically creating and exploiting regulatory confusion and oversight challenges, OceanGate was ultimately able to operate TITAN completely outside of the established deep-sea protocols,' the report found. In addition to Rush, the implosion killed French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British adventurer Hamish Harding and two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.
CNN
3 hours ago
- CNN
A British hiker needed rescuing from the Italian Dolomites. He's now facing a $16,000 fine
A British hiker who had to be airlifted to safety after he ignored signs and crossed warning barriers in the Italian Dolomites is paying a high price for his rescue. The 60-year-old, whose name has not been made public, was given a bill for €14,225 ($16,400) to pay for the use of two rescue helicopters and more than a dozen specialized rescuers and support staff when he needed help on Thursday, according to the Veneto Alpine and Speleological Rescue (CNSAS). A week earlier, two Belgian hikers in the same area were handed a far smaller bill for their rescue because they are European Union citizens. The United Kingdom left the EU in 2020. More than 80 people died hiking the Italian Alps and Dolomites between June 21 and July 23, according to the CNSAS, making it the deadliest hiking season this century. Five people remain unaccounted for. Rescue calls have also risen by 20% over last year, which led to the closure of some of the most treacherous routes around Cortina and San Vito di Cadore, where the British hiker was rescued, Maurizio Dellantonio, chief of CNSAS, said at the weekend. 'A 60-year-old English hiker, who had set out that morning from Passo Tre Croci, called to say he was on the Berti via ferrata and that rocks were falling from above,' the CNSAS warned on its social media on Thursday evening, noting that the man did not have equipment to give his precise coordinates. 'Once he had reconstructed his theoretical position, he was told not to move from his sheltered spot and to wait for help to arrive, as the mountain was currently hidden by clouds. To decide on the recovery strategy, the hiker's exact position was needed, so they had to wait for the clouds to clear. When the clouds cleared, the San Vito di Cadore Alpine Rescue team unfortunately discovered that the hiker was right in the center of the landslide, at an altitude of 2,400 meters (nearly 7,900 feet).' After the rescue, first responders with the CNSAS working with Italy's Civil Protection decided to close more trails. 'The operation was made necessary due to hikers neglecting existing signage, which was evidently insufficient to stop people, either due to inattention or an underestimation of the risk,' CNSAS said in a Facebook post. The post shows images of existing signage that clearly says 'closed' in English, Italian and German. 'This measure is intended to protect the safety of those in transit, as well as the rescuers themselves, both the helicopter rescue crews and the teams on foot,' the post continued. Dellantonio said the man passed at least four signs and had to crawl around a barrier and was urged by other hikers at the signposts to turn around and head back with them. The dangerous and deadly conditions across the European Alps this year is blamed on extreme weather, with unpredicted storms sweeping through causing landslides, flash flooding and blizzard-like conditions. Some of the recent rescued people have been hospitalized for hypothermia. Local authorities are warning people to be prepared if they do travel to the area to climb. 'What happened (with the British hiker) warrants some reflection,' Giuseppe Dal Ben, the commissioner of the Ulss 1 health authority in the Dolomites, told reporters at the weekend. 'Helicopters are essential for time-sensitive operations in harsh environments. Precisely for this reason, it is important that they are not used as taxis, endangering not only those who are providing the assistance but those who actually need it.'
USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
Coast Guard report reveals who was to blame for Titan submersible implosion
The 335-page report released on Aug. 5 said that the Titan, a 22-foot-long submersible, imploded on June 18, 2023, due to factors largely in the hands of the company that operated it. The June 2023 implosion of the Titanic-bound submersible that killed five people in a tragedy that captured the world's attention was "preventable," fueled by its inadequate design and a "toxic" workplace culture, a newly released Coast Guard report found. The 335-page report released on Aug. 5 said that the Titan, a 22-foot-long submersible made of carbon fiber, imploded on June 18, 2023, due to factors largely in the hands of the company that operated it, OceanGate. They include: "OceanGate's inadequate design, certification, maintenance and inspection process for the Titan," the report said. All five on board were killed in the implosion. They were OceanGate's founder and CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French maritime expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood. More: Audio of Titan submersible's final moments before implosion released by Coast Guard 'This marine casualty and the loss of five lives was preventable,' said Jason Neubauer, chair of the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation for the Titan. 'The two-year investigation has identified multiple contributing factors that led to this tragedy, providing valuable lessons learned to prevent a future occurrence."
