The Sky Baby: The World’s Smallest Airplane

 

In 1952, stunt pilot and aircraft designer Ray Stits built the Stits SA-2A Sky Baby, aiming to create the world’s smallest fully functional airplane. The biplane measured just 9 feet 10 inches long with an 7-foot 2-inch wingspan and weighed only 452 pounds empty. Powered by a 65-hp Continental engine, it reached 150 mph yet needed only 200 feet to take off.

Stits himself flew the tiny craft successfully several times, proving nimble handling despite its diminutive size. Recognized by Guinness as the smallest aircraft from 1952 until 1984 (when his son built an even smaller one), the Sky Baby remains an iconic testament to bold aviation ingenuity.

Legends of the Superstition Mountains

Spain: Legends and Lore

Tecumseh

 

Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief born around 1768 in present-day Ohio, was a pivotal figure in Native American resistance against U.S. expansion in the early 1800s. He sought to unite diverse tribes into a confederacy to preserve Native lands and culture. His vision emphasized unity and resistance against encroaching settlers. Allied with his brother, Tenskwatawa, the Prophet, Tecumseh built a movement rooted in native religion, cultural revival and military strategy. He fought alongside the British in the War of 1812, hoping to secure Native sovereignty. Tecumseh was killed in 1813 at the Battle of the Thames.

Secrets of Early America 1607-1816

Secrets of American History

The Death of General Wolfe at Quebec (1759)

 

On September 13, 1759, British Major-General James Wolfe led a daring nighttime ascent of the cliffs west of Quebec City, surprising French forces under Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham. In the brief, decisive battle, Wolfe, 32, was struck by musket balls—first in the wrist, then fatally in the chest. Supported by aides, he lingered long enough to hear “They run!” and reportedly murmur, “Now, God be praised, I die in peace.” His death secured British victory, tipping the Seven Years’ War and paving Canada’s path to British rule. Benjamin West’s iconic painting immortalized the moment.

Love, Sex, and Marriage in Colonial America 1607-1800

Wars and Invasions (Four alternative history stories)

The Assassination of President Garfiled

 

On July 2, 1881, President James A. Garfield was shot at a Washington, D.C., train station by Charles J. Guiteau, a delusional office-seeker enraged over a denied ambassadorship. Garfield, the 20th U.S. president elected in 1880, lingered for 80 days as doctors probed wounds with unsterilized tools, introducing fatal infections. He died on September 19 from blood poisoning and sepsis. Guiteau was convicted and hanged in 1882. The tragedy exposed patronage system flaws, spurring the 1883 Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, mandating merit-based federal jobs.

Love, Sex and Marriage in Victorian America

The Gilded Age and Revolution

The Tucker Cross Treasure Heist

 

One of Bermuda’s most famous treasure stories revolves around the San Pedro. The ship was laden with gold, silver, and precious jewels bound for Spain. In 1955, Bermudian diver Teddy Tucker discovered what became known as “Tucker’s Cross”, a 22-karat gold cross studded with seven emeralds, believed to be from this wreck. Found with other artifacts like gold buttons, swords, and muskets, it’s considered one of the most valuable shipwreck finds ever.

 In 1975, the treasure from the San Pedro was transported from the Bermuda Aquarium to the Bermuda Maritime Museum, to be shown to Elizabeth II during her visit to the island.  Moments before the Queen arrived, Teddy Tucker inspected the display and noticed that the Tucker Cross had been replaced by a replica. The point at which the swap was made is unknown. Local lore attributes the theft to an international art thief because of the substitution of a replica rather than a straight theft.

Some believe the San Pedro still holds vast treasures locked in coral, with rumors of unrecovered gold and jewels scattered across the ocean floor.  Tucker’s find is well-documented, and artifacts are displayed at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI). 

Love, Sex, and Marriage in Colonial America 1607-1800

Love, Sex, and Marriage in the Civil War

1861 Clash with a Giant Squid

 

On November 30, 1861, off the Azores, the French gunboat Alecton spotted a 20 foot long giant squid at the surface. The ship fired cannons and harpooned the beast. The crew lassoed its tail, but the soft body tore; only a fragment was salvaged. The specimen reached Paris, confirming ancient legends of giant squids. The log—verified by the French Academy—proved pivotal. It bridged sailor tales and science. The Alecton encounter remains the first documented human-giant squid battle and inspired Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Love, Sex, and Marriage in the Civil War

Love, Sex, and Marriage in Colonial America 1607-1800

The Diving Bell

 

Sir Edmund Halley, the renowned astronomer, invented an ingenious diving bell in 1691 to explore underwater realms. Frustrated by shallow dives, he engineered a wooden, open-bottomed barrel weighted with lead, replenished with air via weighted barrels lowered from the surface. This allowed divers, including Halley himself, to descend over 60 feet into the Thames for up to 90 minutes. His bell aided salvage operations, like recovering cannons from wrecks, and inspired future submersibles. Halley’s design proved air could be supplied underwater.

The Great UFO Secret (Six Short Stories of First Contact)

Spain: Legends and Lore

The Bermuda Gunpowder Plot

 The Bermuda Gunpowder Plot

The Bermuda Gunpowder Plot of 1775, was a covert operation where Bermudians sympathetic to the American Revolution stole about 100 barrels of British gunpowder from a magazine in St. George’s, Bermuda, and delivered it to American ships. This supply was vital for the Continental Army, which was critically short on powder early in the war.

St. George Tucker, a 22-year-old Virginian studying law at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, took part in the plot. Born in Bermuda to a prominent family, he had moved to Virginia around 1771 and was living there in 1775. His father, Henry Tucker, a leading Bermudian merchant, negotiated the deal with Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris in Philadelphia, trading the gunpowder for an exemption from the Continental Congress's trade embargo on British colonies. Tucker shared details about the lightly guarded magazine with Americans, including a letter to Thomas Jefferson on June 8, 1775, pleading for relief from the embargo and confirming the powder's vulnerability. On the night of August 14, 1775, he helped roll the barrels from the magazine to Tobacco Bay for loading onto American ships.

Tucker returned to Virginia after the raid, served in the Continental Army (where he was wounded twice), became a prominent lawyer, judge, and law professor.

Murder in Colonial Virginia

Gold, Murder and Monsters in the Superstition Mountains