FOOTNOTES TO HISTORY

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This saying dates back in various forms to the 13th and 14th centuries in England and Germany.

It means that no detail is too small to ignore to achieve a successful outcome but conversely, the smallest detail can also have profound adverse consequences, as the following show . . .

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Popeye the Sailor Man has been the advocate and symbol for consumption of spinach for strength and health.

Popeye’s passion for spinach and the strength it gave him. In 1870, German scientist Erich von Wolf conducted research into the amount of iron in spinach and other vegetables. He discovered that spinach had an iron content of 3.5 milligrams per 100-gram serving. However, when Wolf wrote up his findings, he misplaced a decimal point. He put down spinach’s iron content ten times greater than what it actually was: 35 milligrams of iron per 100-gram serving, instead of 3.5 milligrams. It was not until 1937 that somebody double-checked Wolf’s math, spotting the error.

By then, Popeye had already become a cultural icon, and the spinach myth took hold.

BTW:

The person believed to have inspired Popeye was Polish-born Frank "Rocky" Fiegel (pictured below), a tough labourer from Chester, Illinois, who was always getting in fights. It was believed he could have been a professional boxer. However, he also gave out candy and treats to children, including E.C. Segar, who remembered Fiegel when he created Popeye. Fiegel was described as "just like the fictional spinach-loving mariner ... a one-eyed, pipe-smoking curmudgeon with a jutting chin."

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The de Havilland Comet became the world’s first commercial jetliner in 1952, and in terms of design, it was a total game-changer. In an age of propellers, this British-made jet had four turbojet engines, the sleek, bullet-shaped fuselage that planes still have today and it could fly higher than its competitors. It also had a pressurised cabin, its wings swept backwards, which was unheard of at the time, and was the first jet in history to make a scheduled, commercial flight. In its first year, 1952, it flew 30,000 passengers, including Queen Elizabeth.

However the Comet’s most important contribution to aviation wouldn’t be measured by its successes but the most horrific of failures.

It also had large, square windows.

A de Havilland Comet with square windows.

Investigations into a series of Comet crashes in 1953 and 1954 found they were caused by in-flight metal fatigue failure, which led to explosive decompression and midair breakup.

The sharp corners of the windows put the surrounding metal under extra stress in high altitudes — as much as two or three times more than other places on the plane. The stress was concentrated in the four corners of every window, causing the metal fatigue.

Once identified, the entire Comet fleet discontinued service. De Havilland never recovered: while the Comet boasted a new design with round windows and thicker fuselages, the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 hit the market and became hits with airliners.

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As the late 1980s saw communism begin to crumble in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, East Germany’s communist leaders began to grudgingly ease their citizens’ travel restrictions.

On November 9th, 1989, East Berlin’s communist party boss Gunter Schabowski held a press conference to explain some minor revisions to the travel code. However, he mistakenly implied that travel restrictions were being completely removed. When a reporter asked when the changes would take effect, Schabowski shrugged and replied: “immediately, right away“.

When East Germans heard it, they swarmed the border, demanding the promised free passage. The border guards had received no such instructions, but rather than deal with a riot, they stepped aside, and the wall came down in a rapturous celebration. Soon afterward, a crowd of West Berliners jumped on top of the Wall, and were soon joined by East German youngsters. The evening of 9 November 1989 is known as the night the Wall came down.

Germans stand on top of the Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate, before this section was torn down on 9 December 1989

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American dancer Isadora Duncan (1878 – 1927) was famous in the late 19th and early 20th century for dance themes derived from Greek art.

Duncan in a Greek-inspired pose and wearing her signature Greek tunic. She took inspiration from the classical Greek arts and combined them with an American athleticism to form a new philosophy of dance, in opposition to the rigidity of traditional ballet.

She was also known for wearing long, flowing scarves.

On September 14, 1927, in Nice, France, Duncan was a passenger in an Amilcar CGSS automobile. She wore a long, flowing, hand-painted silk scarf draped around her neck, which became entangled in the wheel well around the open-spoked wheels and rear axle, pulling her from the open car and fatally breaking her neck.

BTW:

In 1913, her two children, aged 3 and 5, had drowned when a car carrying them plunged into the Seine. Later that year, Duncan was injured in an automobile accident, as she would be again in a car crash in Leningrad, in 1924. On another occasion, she narrowly escaped death by drowning when her car plunged into the water.

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Ten days after the Manhattan Project created the world’s first atomic bomb and America had successfully tested it, the United States issued a blunt “or else” statement, calling for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces. It was an ultimatum, warning the Japanese that if they did not surrender, and surrender soon, they would face “prompt and utter destruction“.

This was hotly debated within the Japanese government. Subsequently, Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki stated at a press conference that Japanese policy would be one of “mokusatsu“.

Mokusatsu was a Japanese word which meant that Prime Minister Suzuki had received the message and that he was giving it serious consideration.

Unfortunately, Japanese is a subtle language in which the same word could have different meanings. One of the possible different meanings for mokusatsu – and one which the Japanese Prime Minister did not intend – is to “contemptuously ignore”.

It was that latter meaning that American translators gave to President Harry Truman. International news agencies reported to the world that the Japanese government responded that the ultimatum was “not worthy of comment”. 10 days later, the B-29 Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. A few days later, the Bockscar dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

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