Before 9/11: Bomb Exploded Under the World Trade Center in 1993

by | Aug 21, 2026 | Yesteryear

The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when terrorists detonated a massive truck bomb in the underground parking garage beneath the North Tower in New York City. The attack killed six people, including a pregnant woman, injured over 1,000 others, and forced the evacuation of roughly 50,000 workers from the complex.

Mastermind Ramzi Yousef packed a rented Ryder van with roughly 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of urea nitrate explosives enhanced with hydrogen gas. His goal was to compromise the North Tower’s foundation so violently that it would collapse into the South Tower, potentially killing up to 250,000 civilians.
The explosion detonated at 12:18 p.m., tearing a crater roughly 100 to 150 feet wide and several stories deep into the basement parking structure. While the structural integrity of the buildings held, heavy smoke rushed up the elevator shafts and stairwells, trapping thousands in darkness during a grueling multi-hour rescue effort. The six casualties were local workers and Port Authority employees: John DiGiovanni, Robert Kirkpatrick, Stephen Knapp, Wilfredo Mercado, Monica Rodriguez Smith (who was pregnant), and William Macko. They are honored at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.
Investigators sifted through thousands of tons of rubble to locate a blown-apart piece of wreckage containing a vehicle identification number (VIN). The VIN was traced to a van reported stolen by Mohammed Salameh. The FBI arrested Salameh when he foolishly returned to a Jersey City rental agency to try and reclaim his $400 cash rental deposit. Ramzi Yousef fled the country but was tracked down by federal agents in Islamabad, Pakistan, in 1995. Yousef and five other co-conspirators, including the van driver Eyad Ismoil, Mahmud Abouhalima, Ahmad Ajaj, Nidal Ayyad, and Mohammed Salameh, were captured, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. One suspect, Abdul Rahman Yasin, remains at large.
The 1993 bombing serves as a historic precursor to the catastrophic attacks of September 11, 2001. Ramzi Yousef’s uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would later become the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks, executing his nephew’s original objective of bringing down the Twin Towers using commercial airplanes instead of a truck bomb.

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Mechanized Gorilla Headgear Worn by Ray ‘Crash’ Corrigan in “White Pongo” (1945)

by | Aug 21, 2026 | Yesteryear

The mechanized gorilla teeth and head gear worn by Hollywood actor and gorilla impersonator Ray “Crash” Corrigan in the movie White Pongo (PRC Pictures, 1945) represents an early, groundbreaking milestone in special effects and animatronics. Measuring roughly 9 by 14 inches, this internal rig allowed Corrigan to breathe dynamic, terrifying facial expressions into his custom-built rubber gorilla suits.

Instead of a static mask, the device used a highly detailed system of levers and armatures to mimic real muscle movements. The rig consisted of a metal headband and sidebars attached directly to a moving jawpiece. The jawpiece was outfitted with highly realistic, menacing resin teeth and gums. Thin mechanical wires and levers were fastened around the performer’s face beneath the heavy rubber mask. When Corrigan moved his own jaw and cheeks, the mechanical linkages would sync with his movements. This made the outer gorilla suit’s mouth open, lips snarl, and nostrils snort on command.
While the bare metal armature looks incredibly eerie and skeletal on its own, this 1945 invention laid the baseline logic for modern creature suits. Mid-century monster icons like Ray “Crash” Corrigan built their own suits to maximize realism, pioneering techniques that legendary effects studios, like the Stan Winston School, later perfected for blockbusters like Congo and Jurassic Park.

Stunning Photographs of Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin on Stage in the 1970s

by | Aug 21, 2026 | Yesteryear

Robert Plant (born August 20, 1948) is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin from its founding in 1968 until their break-up in 1980. In the 1970s, Plant defined the blueprint for the quintessential rock-and-roll frontman. Leading Led Zeppelin, his stage presence combined raw sexuality, Norse-god aesthetics, and mythic charisma.

He utilized a high-tenor belt, mixing bluesy moans with glass-shattering falsetto screams on anthems like “Immigrant Song” and “Whole Lotta Love.” A central concert feature was his live vocal dueling with Jimmy Page’s Gibson Les Paul, mimicking guitar bends note-for-note in real time. Tracks rarely matched their studio arrangements; Plant filled instrumental breaks with improvised vocal runs, blues riffs, and rhythmic chants.
Plant regularly wore unbuttoned or low-tied silk shirts, bare chest, ultra-tight denim jeans, silver talismans, and a voluminous mane of golden ringlets. His stage image fused late-1960s counterculture mysticism with high-glam rock spectacle, setting the visual template for hard rock singers for decades to come.
He commanded massive stadium stages with dramatic postures, frequently leaning back at sharp angles while holding the microphone skyward during long, sustained notes. Rather than staying tied to the mic stand, he paced the full width of the stage, working stadium crowds with fluid movement and theatrical hand gestures.

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