The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk on This Day in History

 

The Wright brothers made their first attempt to fly the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on this day (December 14) in 1903.

The Wright Flyer was a plane they built in the back room of Wright Cycle Company, the Dayton bicycle shop where they sold/repaired bicycles. 

The News Wheel wrote an article entitled "Why North Carolina Needs to Take “First in Flight” Off Its License Plates" arguing that "Aviation history runs deep throughout the city of Dayton, Ohio. The local Air Force base — Wright Patterson — got half its name from the familial duo. The city is also home to the Wright brothers’ original cycling company..."

However, Dayton Ohio now plans to demolish the Wright brothers first bicycle shop claiming it is a nuisance, instead of preserving it as a historical artifact. Honestly, what else is Dayton Ohio known for?

Did you know: The Wright brothers were both high school dropouts, and neither of them ever married. Wilbur told reporters that he didn’t have time for both a wife AND an airplane.

Neil Armstrong carried a piece of the Wright Flyer with him to the moon. 

It was a toy from their father that started their obsession with aviation. "When the brothers were youngsters in 1878, their father returned home one evening with a gift that he tossed into the air. 'Instead of falling to the floor, as we expected,' the brothers recalled in a 1908 magazine article, 'it flew across the room till it struck the ceiling, where it fluttered awhile, and finally sank to the floor.' The model helicopter made of cork, bamboo and paper and powered by a rubber band mesmerized the boys and sparked their passion for aviation." Source

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Selfie Deaths on This Day in History

 

7 Deaths While Take Selfies

This day in history: Alexander 'Sasha' Chechik sent his friend a photo of a grenade with a pin pulled out while chatting on the Russian social media service VK on this day in 2017. He died shortly after sending the photo as the grenade in his hand exploded. Police ruled the incident as an accident instead of a suicide.

Also, "two Russian soldiers in the Urals region west of Siberia were posing for a selfie with a live grenade. The handheld explosive detonated unexpectedly and, going off in their faces. Only the phone with the photo survived. Russia in particular has seen an alarming number of selfie-related deaths, becoming such a problem that the government launched a safety campaign, urging people to use caution while taking selfies." Source

A 2018 study of news reports showed that there were 259 selfie deaths in 137 incidents reported globally between October 2011 and November 2017, with the highest occurrences in India, followed by Russia, United States, and Pakistan. The mean age was 23 years old, with male deaths outnumbering female about three to one.

One such incident happened in North Carolina in April 2014 when a 32-year-old woman from North Carolina was driving and veered her vehicle across the center median. Her vehicle collided with a recycling truck, left the road, hit a tree, and burst into flames – moments after posting selfies online when she heard Pharrell Williams' song "Happy". 

On January 21 2015, a man in Kalama, Washington, stepped out onto a railroad track to take a selfie with himself and a woman with a passing train in the background. The man misjudged which track the oncoming train was on and was struck and died at the scene. 

On March 2015, Seven youths drowned while taking selfies on Mangrul Lake near Kuhi, about 12 miles from Nagpur, India. Their boat had tipped over as they were standing up to pose. 

In 2015, a man was fatally struck by lightning at Brecon Beacons (UK) supposedly due to the selfie stick he had attracting the bolt. 

On August 9, 2015, a man was gored to death in the annual bull-running festival in the town of Villaseca de la Sagra while trying to take a selfie with a bull.

On January 8, 2018, in Zagreb, Croatia, a 14-year-old boy climbed onto the roof of a train cargo wagon where he wanted to take a selfie. He was electrocuted and his body "burned like a torch." Firefighters were unable to take action until the train's power was turned off. 

On July 25, 2017, a 30-year-old man sneaked into the Bannerghatta Biological Park near Bangalore, India, with friends to take selfies with an elephant that later trampled him to death. 

On June 29, 2016, a 51-year-old German tourist visiting Machu Picchu in Peru, fell 130 feet to his death after he lost his footing while leaping into the air for a "flying selfie".

In 2016, a Chinese businessman, at a local wildlife park in the city of Rongcheng, Shandong province, was drowned by a walrus after taking several selfies and videos with the animal. A zookeeper was also drowned in the same incident after attempting to save the man. 

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The Taco Bell Strangler on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Henry Louis Wallace, also known as "The Taco Bell Strangler" was born on this day in 1965. Wallace is an American serial killer who killed ten women in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the early 1990's and is awaiting execution at Central Prison in Raleigh. 

Wallace earned the name "The Taco Bell Strangler" because he worked as a Taco Bell manager, and even killed some of his co-workers there.

North Carolina has produced a number of killers over the years, such as Jeffrey Robert MacDonald, aka The Green Beret Killer, a United States Army captain (Fort Bragg) who was convicted in August 1979 of murdering his pregnant wife and two daughters in February 1970 while serving as an Army Special Forces physician. Joe McGinniss wrote the book "Fatal Vision" about this case. MacDonald remains incarcerated in the Cumberland Federal Correctional Institution.

Gary Michael Hilton known as The National Forest Serial Killer, is an American serial killer responsible for four known homicides between 2007 and 2008 committed in North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. On February 22, 2011, he was officially sentenced to death for the crime and sent off to Florida's death row.

Frederick Robert Klenner Jr. was a mass murderer who killed several victims between 1984 and 1985. Police spotted him in Greensboro in June 1985, but they never got a chance to arrest and charge him for his crimes. He detonated an explosive inside his vehicle, killing himself as well has his girlfriend, Susie Lynch, and her two sons. His other victims were identified as Lynch's family members. 

Scott Wilson Williams is a convicted serial killer who lived in Monroe, North Carolina. He has been convicted for the murders of three women that took place over a period of nine years. He has also been convicted of crimes against two additional women who were not killed. Williams is imprisoned at Alexander Correctional Institution.

As of 2018, there were 141 people on death row in North Carolina (North Carolina has the sixth largest death row in the USA)...a few end up dying of natural causes while awaiting execution. There have been nine people in North Carolina sentenced to death who turned out to be innocent.

North Carolina is far from being the worse place for serial murder. "Within the US, there is one state in particular which seems to be the serial killer capital of the world: California. With over 120 serial killers to its name, equaling a total of around 1600 serial killing-related deaths, the Golden State has been the hunting grounds of some of the most brutal and terrifying criminals in US history." Source

Florida and Texas take second and third place. Alaska has the most serial killers per capita.

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