On September 20, 1945, under OSS (and later CIA) Operation Paper Clip and Operation Overcast (1945 to 1959), German rocket scientists began to work in the United States. For the sake of expediency, more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were granted immunity from war crimes prosecution and transported along with their families from the former Nazi Germany to the United States for employment with various government agencies and later, with defense contractors. Under these secretive and later publicly acknowledged and very controversial programs, the German contingent was most conspicuously led by senior scientist Wernher von Braun. (Pictured above, in 1964.) Their expertise with German V1 and V2 rockets under the Nazi regime jump-started the U.S. Army’s advanced missile program, the USAF remote-control target drone and X-series rocket plane programs, and the NASA space program.
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On this day in 1519, Magellan left Europe on his voyage of discovery.
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And on September 20, 1995, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to drop the national 55 MPH speed limit. This allowed the states to again decide their own speed limits, without fear of losing Federal highway funding.
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Today’s feature article is by SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, James Wesley, Rawles (JWR).
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We are in great need of entries for Round 120 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $960,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 120 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.
Read the full article here