BEATING DEATH BY A NOSE
1936 RESURRECTED RIDER RACES ON
Spectators at a California racecourse were left shocked when jockey Ralph Neves was crushed by his own horse, Fannikins, after she tripped. The teenager was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead. There was even time to wheel him to the morgue and tag his toe. Neves then woke up. What’s more, he wanted to go back to the track and finish his day’s racing, a request denied by his stunned doctor. The San Francisco Examiner’s headline read, “Neves, called dead in fall, denies it”.
GUNNING FOR GLORY
1718 THE CHANGING SHAPE OF WEAPONRY
Well over a century before the Gatling gun, British lawyer James Puckle demonstrated his own proto-machine gun The Puckle Gun, a single-barreled flintlock with revolving cylinders, could fire nine shots a minute – the average soldier managed three. Its unreliability meant Puckle’s weapon was never mass produced, but it had another quirk that put off potential investors. Puckle designed two models, one to fire conventional round bullets and another built for square bullets to be used only against Muslim Turks. According to the patent, square bullets would teach them the “benefits of Christian civilisation”.
READ MORE
Purchase options below
Find the complete article and many more in this issue of
BBC History Revealed Magazine
-
May 2015
If you own the issue,
Login to read the full article now.
Single Digital Issue
May 2015
|
|
|
$4.99
|
|
|
This issue and other back issues are not included in a new BBC History Revealed Magazine subscription. Subscriptions include the latest regular issue and new issues released during your subscription.
Annual Digital Subscription
Only $
1.92 per issue
|
SAVE
61%
|
|
|
|
|
6 Month Digital Subscription
Only $
4.15 per issue
|
SAVE
10%
|
|
$26.99
|
|
|
Monthly Digital Subscription
Only $
4.61 per issue
|
|
|
$4.99
|
|
|
About BBC History Revealed Magazine
The May 2015 issue of History Revealed