Stonewall Jackson (@1776Stonewall)

History Tidbit, 1938 - “Wrong Way” Corrigan: Douglas Corrigan was an American aviator who became an instant American folk hero in 1938 after "accidentally" flying from New York to Ireland. It all began on July 17, 1938, when Corrigan departed from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, scheduled to head west to Long Beach, California. Almost immediately after takeoff, he turned east into a dense cloudbank. 28 hours later, Douglas Corrigan landed in Dublin, Ireland, claiming his compass had malfunctioned. The press immediately began calling him "Wrong Way Corrigan", making him an instant Folk Hero. In the months leading up to the event, Corrigan had repeatedly been denied permission for a transatlantic flight because authorities deemed his modified 1929 Curtiss Robin monoplane, which he called “Sunshine," an antique “flying jalopy", unfit for the journey. When he landed at Baldonnel Aerodrome near Dublin, he famously stepped out and asked, “Just got in from New York. Where am I?". He maintained that heavy cloud cover and a faulty compass caused the 3,000-mile error. The public, weary of Great Depression struggles, embraced his bold defiance of bureaucracy. Upon returning home, Corrigan was greeted with a hero's welcome: When he arrived back in the U.S. by steamship, he was greeted with a ticker-tape parade in New York City that drew over a million people - larger than the one for Charles Lindbergh. Authorities suspended his license for 14 days, a period that conveniently ended the day he docked back in America. He capitalized on his new-found fame by endorsing "wrong-way" products, including a watch that ran counter-clockwise, and starred as himself in the 1939 film “The Flying Irishman”. Before his famous flight, Corrigan was an expert aircraft mechanic who helped construct Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis. Later in life, During WWIl, he served as a test pilot and later retired to an orange grove in California. He never publicly admitted the flight was intentional, sticking to his story until his death in 1995. His plane “Sunshine” is currently on display at the “Planes of fame air museum” in Chino, California.