Correct.
The Sultana, destroyed in what was probably a boiler explosion while carrying 2,000+ recently-freed Union POWs, including survivors of the notorious Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, home in April 1865. It happened around the same time as Lincoln’s assassination, which pushed it out of the headlines. A worse disaster in terms of lives lost than the Titanic’s tragic sinking.
Correct.
The Akron went down over the Atlantic during a severe squall; the Macon went down in the Pacific during good weather due to structural failure in the frame, and parts remained floating.
As someone already noted, they were rigid airships (not blimps; to refer to them as ‘blimps’ is like calling an aircraft carrier a rowboat). For what it may be worth, the US Navy contracted with (a) Goodyear, IIRC, to build the Shenandoah [ZR-1], (b) the British [IIRC Air Force] to build the ZR-2, known as the R-38 while under construction in Britain, and (c) Luftschiffbau Zeppelin to build the Los Angeles [ZR-3], as pair of German war reparations. The ZR-2 crashed in England prior to delivery to the US; the Los Angeles operated without serious mishap from 1922 until the Hindenburg crash in 1937, after which it remained in commission but never flew again, finally being decommissioned and dismantled in 1940. (The Akron and Macon were ZR-4 and -5 respectively.)
Okay, I glanced over at one of my bookshelves for inspiration (don’t worry, I didn’t actually open any books), and came up with a few more:
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One last disaster question, to round out the category (which has already covered war, pestilence, earthquakes, fires and floods): A repeated challenge that Great Plains settlers faced in the 1800’s is completely unknown in the western hemisphere today, although farmers in parts of Africa and Asia still must deal with it. Part of the natural world, this problem just fortuitously disappeared here, though no deliberate action of the part of humans. Bonus question: Recent scholarship has suggested a cause for this disappearance. What is it?
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This American author was perhaps the preeminent thinker on the importance and use of navies.
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We obviously have some naval historians in this thread, so I’ll try to provide more of a challenge in the next couple questions. First, what American admiral would have commanded at the battle of Midway, but for a chance event, and what was that event?
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This U.S. carrier suffered a catastrophic explosion and fire in Boston harbor in the early 1950’s, killing many?
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Who later served as the chief of staff for the admiral described in 542? (Hint: a descendant of his is prominent in politics today.)
The actual cause of loss for both the Akron and Macon was operator error, by over stressing the frame, and causing it to break, lose buoyancy, and crash into the water. That’s the similarity I’d been thinking of. Both airships left an amount of flotsam in the waters, after they sank. But the biggest single factor in the difference between the death tolls was that the Akron had no flotation devices (rafts, life vests, or belts) aboard, in a weight-saving measure. Macon, which went down some two years later, had them aboard, and lost only two men - one who jumped in a panic during the airship’s fall to ground, and another who swam back into the sinking wreck to retrieve some possessions.
- Locusts?
- Alfred Thayer Mahan.
- Adm. William Halsey (a relative, through marriage, of mine). He had a very bad skin rash at the time, which some of his aides thought was psychosomatic, and had to be hospitalized.
- John McCain, grandfather of the current presidential candidate. There’s still a destroyer named after him.
I’ll go ahead and answer the questions which I posed awhile ago that are still unanswered.
- FDR
- Black and red
- Whigs
- Mugwumps
- John Milton Hay
- Edwin McMasters Stanton
- William Hubbs Rehnquist
- 1846
- Falcon
- Looking Glass
- Investigating Internet crime
- More than ten thousand!
- William
- “'Tis well.”
- Trick question: JFK had no White House chief of staff.
- Reagan (in 1985, IIRC).
- Taft, in 1912.
- The owner of the original Old Glory was a merchant captain. His flag had a small sewn anchor in addition to the stars.
- Three.
- David Davis. Lincoln had “ridden circuit” with him in Illinois for many years, and the two became good friends and mutual admirers. Davis was instrumental in securing the nomination for Lincoln at the GOP 1860 convention in Chicago.
- Oliver Morton of Indiana, the only state governor honored with a monument at Vicksburg due to his strong and effective support of his state’s troops in the field.
- Pete Wilson of California.
- Robert Todd Lincoln.
- “The Full Dinner Pail.”
- “Better a lizard than a wizard.”
- Fort Stevens, on the NW edge of Washington, D.C. The fort still stands, although the neighborhood has changed out of all recognition.
- The first battle between ironclads, the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia, at Hampton Roads, Va.
Yup.
What’s the suggested cause for locusts’ disappearance here, Random?
The U.S. Senate.
- According to the Constitution, this officeholder is automatically President of the Senate.
- In the absence of that individual, who is entitled to preside over the Senate?
- How is that person (from question 546) customarily designated?
- In the 19th century, which individual who held the post from question 546 came closest to becoming President of the United States, and how?
- When Bill Clinton was on trial in the Senate in 1999 after being impeached by the House, commemorative pens were presented to every senator. What was wrong with the pens?
The Vice President
president pro tempre
Shoot I know how, but not who.
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According to the Constitution, this officeholder is automatically President of the Senate.
Vice President of the United States -
In the absence of that individual, who is entitled to preside over the Senate?
President Pro Tem of the Senate -
How is that person (from question 546) customarily designated?
Most senior member of the majority party of the Senate -
In the 19th century, which individual who held the post from question 546 came closest to becoming President of the United States, and how?
Good question- there must have been an extended period of time during the Tyler, Filllmore or Arthur Administrations when the Speaker of the House was either vacant or the Speaker was a naturalized citizen thus ineligible to be President -
When Bill Clinton was on trial in the Senate in 1999 after being impeached by the House, commemorative pens were presented to every senator. What was wrong with the pens?
The pens referred to the Senate’s impeachment, rather than trial. ??
Apparently, similar to the monarch butterfly, despite being widespread in geographic terms for most of their existence (including breeding in those widespread areas), the locust periodically retreated to a fairly localized area. In the spirit of this thread, I am avoiding consulting sources, so I may be off in details, but IIRC, it was certain mountain river valleys in California. Once those became intensively farmed and irrigated, the locust life cycle was irreparably disrupted.
- Correct.
- Correct.
- Correct.
- Not quite. Actually, the President pro tempore of the Senate was ahead of the Speaker of the House in the statutory order of succession for many years. Which particular President pro tem came closest to taking up occupancy in the White House? A hint: he almost helped make it happen himself.
- Incorrect.
Never heard about that - thanks!
Me, too.
Benjamin Wade was President pro tempore of the Senate during the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. There was no incumbent VP (since Johnson had just succeeded Lincoln), and if the Senate, including Wade’s vote, voted Johnson guilty, Wade would (in a small way) made himself President of the United States.
Exactly. “Bluff Ben” Wade, a Radical Republican from Ohio, who neglected to recuse himself from the 1868 Senate vote that would have made him President. Johnson was acquitted by a single vote.
More on American flags.
- According to Barbara Tuchman, a fort of what nation first recognized the U.S. flag, leading to a diplomatic complaint by the British?
- The First Navy Jack featured what animal?
- Before 9-11, what was the only ship entitled to regularly fly the First Navy Jack?
- Union regimental colors during the Civil War were usually what color?
- Only one state has a flag with a green field. What is it?
- Correct.
If the remaining questions are not answered by New Year’s Eve, I will post the answers.