The first Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed on this date in 1940. The bridge was opened to traffic in July of that year, and it was the third-longest suspension bridge in the world up until the day it collapsed, but it moved vertically in the wind, sometimes violently so, sometimes like a piece of clothing hung out to dry. (The bridge is seen bending, twisting in the photo at top.)

The bridge was built too narrow and constructed with shallow girders, which is why it waved in the breeze. Thus, even while it was under construction, the workers who were building it nicknamed it “Galloping Gertie” for its lack of stability. Engineers at the University of Washington were hired to find a solution to the oscillations, and they completed their first studies on November 2, 1940.
Read More

John Philip Sousa was born on this date in 1854, which is as good a reason to post “The Liberty Bell” march as any:
Read More

Remember, remember, the 5th of November
The Gunpowder Treason and plot;
I see of no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.—English Nursery Rhyme, author unknown

Today marks the 406th anniversary of the discovery and arrest of Guy Fawkes, one of several conspirators against King James I of England, who was found guarding three dozen kegs of gunpowder under the House of Lords. Under torture, he confessed that there was a plot, known to this day as the Gunpowder Plot, to overthrow the king.

In a Mary Poppins novel from 1943, P.L. Travers wrote about Fawkes: “The plot was discovered, however, before any damage was done. The only result was that King James and his Parliament went on living but Guy Fawkes, poor man, did not. He was executed with the other conspirators. Nevertheless, it is Guy Fawkes who is remembered today and King James who is forgotten. For since that time, the Fifth of November in England, like the Fourth of July in America, has been devoted to Fireworks.”
Read More