JULY 27 — 1928 Happy birthday Col. Joe Kittinger (jumped out of a hot air balloon in space nd parachuted to Earth); 1988 Frank Zamboni invents ice resurficer; 1927 HB Allan Breed (auto airbag); Amazing Spider-Man released with a record 145 different covers
JULY 27
1928 – Happy birthday Col Joe Kissinger II, USAF. (OR August 216, 1960 set record for highest freefall) by get this: riding a helium balloon into space at well over 100,000 feet and jumped off it onto Earth using his parachute devices.
100,000!! Project excelsior had several missions, at around 60,000 feet the blood in the human body starts t boil. No problem that a pressurized suit couldn’t handle in the stratosphere! Plus other problems can arise from trying to escape out of a vessel at that velocity, Lack of air, and deadly spins, or flat spins, which is when an object that is aerodynamically unstable starts whirling around like a propeller.
This mission took care of tall that and more. On August 16, 1960, as Kittenger in the sands of New Mexico, climbed aboard his balloon gondola in from of members of the U.S. Air Force. The straps holding down the Exelsior were cut, and Kissinger was heading to the skies. About an hour and a half later, Kittenger reached his desired altitude of 102,800, looked at the planet and would later recall later, there is a hostile sky above me. Man will never conquer space.
And with that…jumped. Freefalling back to Earth would take around five minutes or so, but much of the view in the beginning didn’t change much. In fact his sensation of falling was solicited from the angle, it wasn’t until he looked behind him and saw how fast the gondola was falling into space, when in actuality, and Kissinger was falling at the speed of sound.
His small parachute stabilizer kept him from spinning out of control, then yon reaching his needed altitude, his main parachute deployed and he was brought gently to the ground. Later on, Kittenger would serve three tours of Vietnam, getting shot down and help prisoner in his last tour.
After 11 months he was released and returned to the us. and collected his legacy of medals.
1981 – Adam Walsh is kidnapped
…from a department store. This six year old boy was with his mother and she left him alone for only a couple minutes to watch some older kids play some video games, and that was the last time the boy’s parents saw Adam alive. Serial killer Otis Toole was finally named as the killer, and he messed with the wrong kid. Hi8s father, John Walsh, became a passionate criminal investigator as well as human and victim rights advocate and developed the show America’s Most Wanted in 1988.
America’s Most wanted was the longest crime reality show to ever air on the Fox network and is responsible for the capture of over 1,000 of America’s nastiest thugs. Like a boss! The show finally cancelled after about a fifteen year run, but John’s not done yet. His latest show, The Hunt with John Walsh, which basically is the same thing as America’s Most Wanted, airs on CNN these days. John Walsh has had other shows as well. In the early 1990s he would appear on Fox Kids on Saturday mornings on a segment called Totally for Kids, where he would go over scenarios with child actors ranging from how to deal with strangers at your door, the problems with sugar rush, to how to call 911.
He did run into some controversy in 2006 when he suggested jokingly that explosives should be planted into the anuses of sex offenders. Frankly I think it’s a great way to handle a scumbag, but many don’t agree and think that’s a bit harsh. Besides John was joking, he meant to say GPS trackers instead of explosives.
1988—We lose another great American. Frank Zamboni,
…born 1901, passed away. He gave us the modern ice resurfacer, you know for ice hockey rinks and so forth. He did that because he was in the refrigeration business, and in the old days making ice blocks was a pain in the butt. The ice needs to be shaved, washed and squeegeed for smoothness. Who has time for that! We’re Americans and we don’t like to do things manually if we don’t have to. Why would we. Good job, Frank.
1927 – Happy Birthday Allen Breed,
…born 7/27/1927 in Chicago. He invented the airbag for automobiles.
1999 — Amazing Spider-Man is released with 145 different covers.
Yes, that’s a world’s record for a superhero comic book. Yes, the return of writer Dan Slott and Spidey artist Stefano Caselli, and it t was the prelude to the Spider Island story ark where Manhattan became infested with people somehow getting spider powers, including the bad guys who don’t appreciate that with great power comes….well you get the idea.
Speaking of great covers, the most expensive one to ever get sold at an auction goes to Tintin in America, which sold for $1.6 million. And in 2009 a collector paid nearly $426,000 for a hand-drawn page from Tintin’s The Castafgiore Emerald.
1940 – What’s up doc! Tex Avery penciled the first Bugs Bunny and he debuted in Wild Hare on 7/27/1940. Bugs Bunny, still more popular than Donald Duck, sorry Donald but numbers are numbers, was born in New York but we’ve seen him travel to Albuquerque, the Himalayas and Antartica. In 1997 Bugs Bunny was the most popular US postage stamp for collection purposes, beating out Mickey Mouse. Bugs was also an honorary Marine master sergeant in WWII, and is one of the rare animated characters to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Bugs Bunny is the 9th most portrayed film personality in the world. In 2002 TV Guide called him the number one cartoon character of all time. I mean, who walks up to a rabbit hunter, chews on a carrot and sarcastically says, what’s up doc? Only Bugs bunny.