Summit Gist

The Luvas sisters, Trudy and Struppi, formerly of Heidelberg, Germany, practice a high-flying act suspended from a helicopter piloted by Frank Horn in Denver on September 15, 1955. Trudy holds on to the helicopter under rigging by her knees while the swing dangles from a hook in a belt around her neck. Struppi swings from the bar, holding on only by the back of her head and neck. They claim it is the first time two persons have performed such feats from a helicopter. (Photo by AP Photo) The subtitle of Chris Pocock’s book says it all.  50 Years of the U-2: The Complete Illustrated History of the“Dragon Lady”   (Schiffer Military History, Atglen, Pa., 2005, $69.95) is the most complete book on the mysterious Lockheed U-2 spy plane, dubbed Dragon Lady by the U.S. Air Force, that one could ever hope for. British writer Pocock has been researching the U-2 for more than 30 years, and he brings a multitude of fascinating facts to light that are not just interesting but groundbr...

In the early morning hours of Dec. 8, 1969, Bernard Arafat awoke to explosions rocking the library of the Black Panthers’ 41st and Central Avenue headquarters in Los Angeles. Above him, footsteps stomped across the roof. Then gunfire erupted. Arafat wasn’t a seasoned Panther. He was a 17-year-old runaway from juvenile hall whose parents had both died when he was 13. After years of committing small-time crimes, Arafat was taken in by the Panthers and gained a sense of purpose. He helped with the organization’s breakfast program, feeding hungry kids on their way to school. Arafat had never fired a gun. But as he listened to the sound of bullets and heard the screams of his fellow Panthers, he made a decision. “I found an automatic shotgun and defended myself.” Across the country at the time, police antipathy toward the Panthers was rising, in part  fueled by dirty tricks from the FBI’s conintelpro unit . As McKinley, who participated in the raid, said: “We had to take them out.” The ...

A youth is clubbing the burning body of a man identified as a Zulu Inkatha supporter. The burning man was set alight by rival supporters of the African National Congress in Soweto, South Africa, on September 15, 1990. Photographer Greg Marinovich was a member of the so-called Bang Bang Club, four white photographers who worked for agencies and newspapers in Johannesburg. Together, they covered the wave of violent political clashes that plagued the nation’s black townships at the time. At one of those encounters, Marinovich saw four or five men beating a lone victim with rocks and clubs. One attacker dosed the man with gasoline and Marinovich made the picture. I N 1990 THE  N ATIONAL  P ARTY ( NP ) GOVERNMENT  entered into negotiations with opposition groups and liberation movements, leading to South Africa's first non-racial elections in April 1994. Although the advent of democracy ended centuries of white political domination and repression, the four-year transition peri...

  September 15 in History This is the scene at the re-opening of New York's Studio 54, September 15, 1981. (Photo by G. Paul Burnett/AP Photo) Susan Akin, of Meridian, Miss., waves to the crowd as she walks down the runway after being crowned Miss America 1986 at the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, N.J. on September 15, 1985. (Photo by AP Photo) A small boy runs past as a youth clubs the burning body of a man identified as a Zulu Inkatha supporter and set alight by rival African National Congress supporters in Soweto, South Africa, September 15, 1990. (Photo by Seb Balic/AP Photo) The autos, which were parked beside the 16th street Baptist Church, were blown four feet by an explosion which ripped the church during services in Birmingham, Ala. on September 15, 1963. The explosion also blasted windows from buildings within the area. (Photo by AP Photo) A grieving relative of one of bombing victims in Birmingham, Ala., September 15, 1963 at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church i...

Commonwealth soldiers in a British military base pose with the severed head of an MNLA guerrilla killed during Malayan Emergency, 1951. This photograph was first published on the 28 April 1952 by the British communist newspaper the Daily Worker (Morning Star), causing a political scandal throughout the British government, exposing the widespread practice of Iban headhunters fighting for the British decapitating the corpses of anti-colonial guerrillas. On 28 April 1952 a photograph of a British soldier exhibiting the head of an alleged communist insurgent was published on the front page of the  Daily Worker   newspaper under the heading ‘THIS IS THE WAR IN MALAYA’. At the time of publication, four years had passed since Britain’s decision to declare an official state of ‘Emergency’ in Malaya – then a group of colonial protectorate states in South-East Asia, which later became the states of Malaysia and Singapore. British efforts to suppress an independence struggle led by the c...

The body of an unidentified man lies on a road barrier near a village recently retaken by Ukrainian forces on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022 Death in Ukraine's Kharkiv is Everywhere, Rarely Explained   The outskirts of Kharkiv have the feel of an open-air morgue, where the dead lie unclaimed and unexplained, sometimes for weeks on end, as Ukrainian and Russian forces fight for control of slivers of land. There is the charred body of a man, unidentifiable, propped on an anti-tank barrier made of crossed I-beams outside a town that has been under the control of both sides in recent days. There are the dead soldiers, apparently Russian, four of them arranged in a Z like the military symbol found on Russian armored vehicles, visible to the Russian drones that continuously buzz overhead. The door to an apartment opens to three bodies inside. Precisely how any of this happened will likely never be known. Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, has been un...

In The 1900s, THIS Outfit Shocked The World. The Reason? Unbelievable The Fascinating History Of Bathing Suits Shows Just How Much Things Have Changed! Whether you're a swimmer or more of a lay-out-and-tan type, your summer probably, at least a few times, includes wearing a bathing suit. These days, there are all kinds of styles to choose from, and most are designed to be both pretty and functional. They give you the most comfort while both in and out of the water, as well as for people of all ages and with all body types. In fact, there are so many styles that  there seems to be a different style for every personality . But that wasn't always the case. Not too  long ago , bathing suits looked  very  different. In fact, you might not even recognize some of them as swimsuits at all. The water has always drawn a crowd for both practical purposes, as well as recreational ones. Even just dipping your feet into some cool water is like an instant relaxation treatment....