No, it’s not Rush Limbaugh’s birthday.
It’s the 69th anniversary of the crash of the Hindenburg
Oh, the Humanity!
There’s really nothing humorous about a dirigible going down in flames, but I’ll be damned if the combination of “flaming gasbag” and Hypno-Toad’s response didn’t make me laugh like a loon.
I saw an interview with a cabin boy who said he escaped by punching a hole in the side of the airship.
First it was No Pants Day. Now it’s Flaming Gasbag Day. Will you people please make up your minds? 
Why wasn’t he inside the gondola with everyone else?!
From the title, I thought this was going to be a thread about the aftereffects of all the Mexican food everybody ate yesterday. :o
Is it true that the announcer Herbert Morrison turned off his mike for a few seconds to throw up, and then continued reporting what he saw?
I’ve always thought he did a tremendous job.
Several years ago I heard a supposedly unedited tape of his broadcast where he started being very emotional, then in a normal voice asked about the sound levels and something else technical, then went back into the “oh the humanity.” The guy playing it basically said that Morrison’s demeanor was all an act for good radio.
On the same day too. Time to go light farts!
I really don’t see how the two are mutually exclusive. 
AFAIK only the actual flight crew would be in the gondola.
Because “everyone else” was mostly in the passenger areas, which were entirely inside the envelope.
The gondola was the zeppelin’s “bridge,” as it were, strictly for the captain and his officers, helmsmen and such.
I don’t buy it. Here’s a discussion of the circumstances surrounding the recording — which, by the way, was a first. 1930s radio networks never broadcast anything recorded, flash news or not!
(The best part of the cite is when Morrison tried to reach NBC-New York by phone and is turned down by an operator who’d been told not to let any calls through. He explained he was with NBC’s Chicago affiliate. The operator told him no one would send a Chicago reporter to New Jersey and cut him off! You didn’t talk back to Ma Bell in 1937… :dubious:)
News Flash! CP Narcisstically quotes self without spelling checker!
Anyway, the natural question is, did they serve alcohol aboard? 
Not only that, but there was a SMOKING LOUNGE!. HelllOOOOOOO??? :eek:
One entered it through an air lock, and the only electric cigarette lighter on board was connected with a wire inside the room. I believe passengers were searched for matches and such upon boarding.
Anyway, the coolest airships were U.S.A.
Big thanks for the link, carny (and Balle_M).
What on Og’s green earth was the Navy thinking — to send up a crew of 75 with no lifejackets and one raft? Especially after the disastrous Shenandoah experience? A decision like that had to have been political — I know there were admirals who wanted the airship program to just go away, in favor of carrier planes.
Getting back to the Hindenburg — the FBI compiled a dossier on the explosion. Intriguing reading.