Virgil Hall Jr (1937 - 2008)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Virgil's lifetime.

In 1937, in the year that Virgil Hall Jr was born, on May 6th, the German zeppelin the Hindenburg caught fire and blew up. The Hindenburg was a passenger ship traveling to Frankfurt Germany. It tried to dock in New Jersey, one of the stops, and something went wrong - it blew up. Thirty-six people were killed out of the 97 on board - 13 passengers, 22 crewmen, and one ground worker. The reasons for the explosion are still disputed.

In 1945, by the time he was just 8 years old, on May 7th, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Jewell Ridge Coal Corp. v. United Mine Workers of America. The Court ruled that the underground travel time of coal miners was compensable work time under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In 1965, Virgil was 28 years old when on March 8th, the first US combat troops arrived in Vietnam. The 3500 Marines joined 23,000 "advisors" already in South Vietnam. By the end of the year, 190,000 American soldiers were in the country.

In 1971, by the time he was 34 years old, in March, Intel shipped the first microprocessor to Busicom, a Japanese manufacturer of calculators. The microprocessor has since allowed computers to become smaller and faster, leading to smaller and more versatile handheld devices, home computers, and supercomputers.

In 1980, when he was 43 years old, on April 24th, a rescue attempt was begun in the Iranian Hostage Crisis. The attempt failed and 8 US servicemen were killed. Eight helicopters had been sent for the mission, but only 5 arrived in operating condition., Since the military had advised that the mission be aborted if there were fewer than 6 helicopters, President Carter stopped it. Upon leaving, a helicopter collided with a transport plane and the men were killed.