Today in History: Dam it!

Jude Law as Dr. Watson in the
modern Sherlock Holmes movie

Happy Birthday to (fictional) Dr. John H. Watson, sidekick of the famous Sherlock Holmes! Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the fictional Sherlock Holmes stories, coincidentally also died on this day.

On this day in 1955, months before wake of the Vietnam War, China announces that they will provide approximately 800 million yuan (approx. $200 USD) in aid to Hanoi. Some consider November 1st later that year to be the start of the war when the military and political situation in South Vietnam fell apart.

Construction of Hoover Dam in the 1930s

If you visited the Black Canyon along the Colorado River in the border of Arizona and Nevada in the 1930s, you would see construction workers building a massive dam. Fast forward to present day in the exact same location, you would be looking at the massive Hoover Dam. In five years, Hoover Dam saw over 21,000 men working on the largest dam at that time. The dam opened in 1936, and officially opened for tours in 1937. It closed from 1941 to 1945, the duration of World War II. Arthur Powell Davis, the man who constructed the thought of Hoover Dam, did not formally document his plans for the dam until 1922, though the concept was already thought of in 1902. Today Hoover Dam is a famous landmark in the Black Canyon with millions of visitors each year.