CALENDAR: THIS WEEK
Important Anniversaries next week have been the subject of previous Items of the Week. To find them, CHECK THEM OUT (AGAIN) HERE.
Monday, November 18, is the 79th anniversary of the arrival in the U.S. of the “Operation Paperclip” captured German rocket scientists; for more about them, see: https://www.airandspacethisweek.com/assets/pdfs/20201116 Operation Paperclip.pdf.
Monday, November 18, is also the 35th anniversary of the launch of the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite. For more about it, see this week’s “Item of the Week!”
Tuesday, November 19, is the 55th anniversary of the landing on the Moon of Intrepid, the Apollo 12 lunar module. Astronauts Conrad and Bean visited and brought back pieces of, the Surveyor 3 spacecraft, which had landed there almost two years ago.
Wednesday, November 20, is the 72nd anniversary of test pilot Scott Crossfield to be the first to fly Mach 2, in a Douglas D-588-2 Skyrocket. Crossfield then flew the first test flight (unpowered) of the X-15, then flew it fourteen times operationally, surviving a crash landing and an engine explosion along the way. Find out more about Scott here.
Thursday, November 21, is the 241st anniversary of the first untethered ballon flight. Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes ascended over Paris and floated 9 km away. The King was a witness, and so was Ben Franklin. For more about the earliest days of ballooning, see here.
Saturday, November 23, is the 64th anniversary of the launch of Tiros 2, an early weather satellite. Meteorology is not the only example of our growing utilization of Earth orbit; for more, see here.
Air and Space This Week
November 18, 2024 – November 24, 2024
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THE WEEK at a GLANCE Anniversaries: The 35th anniversary of the launch of the COsmic Background Explorer satellite (COBE, 11/18); the 40th of Doug Flutie’s “Hail Mary” pass that won the Orange Bowl (11/23); the 55th of the landing on the Moon by Apollo 12’s Intrepid (11/19); and the 165th of the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species (11/24) Birthdays: BB star Earl “the Pearl” Monroe is 80 (11/21); comedian Dick Smothers is 85 (11/20); aviator Wiley Post would have been 125 (11/22); and the noble/notorious Billy the Kid would have been 165 (11/23) In the Sky: The Moon reaches Last Quarter at 8:28 PM EST on Friday, November 22 |
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Monday, November 18 Today in Air and Space History 1945: Captured German rocket scientists were brought to the US (Operation Paperclip, 1945) 1961: Launch of Ranger 2, a lunar hard landing attempt. Booster failure left the spacecraft in a decaying Earth orbit. 1989: Launch of the COsmic Background Explorersatellite (COBE) Other Events this Date:Steamboat Willie, one of the first Mickey Mouse cartoons, was released (1928), members of Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple cult in Guyana murdered US Congressman Leo Ryan’s delegation, then committed mass suicide; over 900 died (1978) Today’s Birthdays: Photography pioneer Louis Daguerre (1787), pollster George Gallup (1901), comedienne Imogene Coca (1908), astronaut AlanShepard, Jr. (1923), Big Valley/Dynasty actress Linda Evans (1942), and subliminal comedian Kevin Nealon (1953) |
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Tuesday, November 19 Today in Air and Space History 1969: Intrepid, the Apollo 12 lunar module, landed safely. Astronauts Conrad and Bean visited the nearby Surveyor 3 lander soon thereafter. 1996/1997: Launch of STS-80 Space Shuttle Columbia, and STS-87 Space Shuttle Columbia, both carrying a variety of experiments Other Events this Date: President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address (1863), Time magazine’s first cover portrait (Emperor Hirohito, 1928), Chubby Checker appeared on Ed Sullivan Show, sang The Twist (his #1 hit from year previous), would hit #1 again, the first such “repeat” (1961). Today’s Birthdays: Explorer George Rogers Clark (1752), band leader Tommy Dorsey (1905), Mr. Ed actor Alan Young (1919), serial groom Larry King (1933), TV host Dick Cavett (1936), TV mogul Ted Turner (1938), and actresses Meg Ryan (1961), Jodie Foster (1962), and Terry Farrell (1963) |
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Wednesday, November 20 Today in Air and Space History 1952: Test pilot, and X-15 guru, ScottCrossfield became the first pilot to attain Mach 2, in the DouglasSkyrocket. He won many awards for his outstanding career, including induction into the New Mexico Museum of Space History Hall of Fame and the 2000 National Air and Space Museum’s Michael Collins Trophy. Other Events this Date: The Nuremberg war crime trials began (1945), Cal beat John Elway-led Stanford in a wild finish, with a lot of help from the Cardinal band (1982) Today’s Birthdays: Astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889), author Alistair Cooke (1908), comedienne Kay Ballard (1925), senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925), serial kisser Richard Dawson (1932), comedian Dick Smothers (1939), and actress Bo Derek (1956) |
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Thursday, November 21 Today in Air and Space History 1783: Humans fly for the first time! Or at least float freely! The first untethered hot-air balloon flight carrying humans aloft took place over Paris this date, with Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes, covering ~9 kilometers in ~25 minutes. De Rozier would be killed in a 1785 balloon explosion. Other Events this Date: The Roy Rogers Show (radio) premiered (1944; “Whoa, Nellie Belle!”), the Verrazano Narrows Bridge opened (1964), Kristin Shepard shot Dallas’ J.R. Ewing (1980; but he’ll always be Tony Nelson to me….) Today’s Birthdays: Philosopher Voltaire (1694), manly Stan Musial (1920), That Girl Marlo Thomas (1937), basketball great Earl “the Pearl” Monroe (1944), Laugh-In actress Goldie Hawn (1945), War keyboardist Lonnie Jordan (1948), singer Bjork (1965), and outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. (1969) |
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Friday, November 22 Today in Air and Space History 1989: Launch of STS-33 Space Shuttle Discovery, on the fifth secret DOD Shuttle mission Other Events this Date: America was shocked by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (1963) Today’s Birthdays: General Charles DeGaulle (1890), aviator WileyPost (1898), songwriter Hoagy Carmichael (1899), famed, yet respectless, comedian Rodney Dangerfield (1921), U.N.C.L.E. Robert Vaughn (1932), Monty Python illustrator Terry Gilliam (1940), African-American astronaut Guion Bluford Jr. and Three Dog Night drummer Floyd Sneed (1942), tennis great Billie Jean King (1943), Talking Heads bassist Tina Weymouth (1950), and actress Jamie Lee Curtis (1958) In the Sky: Full Moon occurs at 4:28 PM EST (aka the “Beaver Moon”) |
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Saturday, November 23 Today in Air and Space History 1960: Launch of the Tiros 2 meteorological satellite 2002: Launch of STS-113 Space Shuttle Endeavour, on an ISS assembly and crew exchange mission Other Events this Date: The first “jukebox” was installed (1889), Enrico Caruso made his US debut (1903), Life magazine debuted (1935), Bob Hope and Shirley Ross recorded “Thanks for the Memories” for The Big Broadcast of 1938, Doug Flutie’s famed “Hail Mary” pass won the Orange Bowl (B.C. over Miami 47-45, 1984) Today’s Birthdays: Notorious/noble outlaw Billy the Kid (1859), spooky Boris Karloff (1887), indescribable Harpo Marx (1888), Gerry and the Pacemakers drummer Freddie Marsden (1940), junkball pitcher Luis Tiant (1940), and actor/comedian Steve Landesberg (1945) |
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Sunday, November 24 Today in Air and Space History 1971: "D.B. Cooper" hijacked a Northwest Orient 727, received $200,000 in ransom for the passengers, then jumped from the 727 as it flew toward Mexico. His unknown fate has been the subject of books, articles, a made-for-TV movie, and much speculation. 1991: Launch of STS-44 Space Shuttle Atlantis, on a partly-classified DOD mission Other Events this Date: Darwin’s Origin of Species published (1859), J.F. Glidden patented barbed wire (1874), Jack Ruby murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on live national TV (1963) Today’s Birthdays: Saloon keeper Bat Masterson (1853), pianist Scott Joplin (1868), friendly Dale Carnegie (1888), The Association sax man/guitarist Jim Yester (1939), Beatles drummer Pete Best and Booker T & the MGs bassist Donald Dunn (1941), and My Three Sons’ Stanley Livingston (1950) |
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NEXT WEEK at a GLANCE Anniversaries: The 60th anniversary of the launch of Mariner 4 (11/27); 70th of the only documented case of a human being hit by a meteor (11/30); the 75th of Gene Autry releasing “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer;” 80th of the sinking of the largest aircraft carrier in WWII, the IJN Shinano, by submarine USS Archer-Fish (11/29); and the 100th anniversary of the opening of the play, Lady Be Good. It morphs into a B-24 bomber, a strange mystery in WWII, and a script by and Rod Serling (12/1) Birthdays: Dancer Alexander Godunov would have been, and Band Leader Paul Shaffer is, 75 (11/28); golfer Lee Trevino is 85 (12/1); teenager Dick Clark would have been 95 (11/30); Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm would have been 100 (11/30); Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio would have been 110 (11/25); and leader Sir Winston Churchill would have been 150 (11/30) In the Sky: New Moon occurs at 1:21 AM EST on Sunday, December 1 |
DIDJA KNOW?
Dick Smothers turned 85 last week. He and his brother Tom were a famous comedy duo in the 1960s. Their show on CBS was canceled due to the Smothers Brothers’ strong anti-War, anti-Nixon comedy, both on and off the air. But didja know that they were not anti-military, just anti-Vietnam (and Nixon); they actually came from a military family?
Tommy Smothers was the oldest. His full name is Thomas Bolyn Smothers III. His father, Tomas Bolyn Smothers Jr., was born on July 26, 1908, and had graduated from West Point in 1929. He had advanced to the rank of Major in the U.S. Army, serving in the 45th Infantry Regiment in the Philippines when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He was captured and survived the Bataan Death March to be imprisoned in the Hoten POW camp in Manchuria. His family received word that he was alive and a POW.
McCall’s Magazine carried an article about Mrs. Smothers and her three children (Tom, aged 9; Dick, aged 7; and their sister Sharon, aged 4), entitled “The War Comes to An American Family” in the May, 1942 edition. In addition to raising three young kids, Ruth Smothers worked in the Vega Aircraft Plant in California.
Major Smothers, like many POWs, was transferred from place-to-place aboard merchant ships, and the records are incomplete and in places contradictory. His first transport was the Oryoku Maru, which had 1621 POWs aboard under appalling conditions. Oryoku Maru was sunk at Subic Bay immediately after leaving port on December 13, 1944. Only 404 of the 1621 would survive captivity. Smothers survived the sinking, and he the other POW survivors were held under harsh conditions.
The Oryoku survivors were packed into another transport, the Enoura Maru, under even worse conditions; the ship’s previous cargo had been horses, and no effort to clean the Enoura’s holds were made prior to loading the POWs. The Enoura Maru arrived at Takao, Formosa on January 1, 1945, with the POWs being left aboard for over a week, during which the ship was bombed, causing a number of POW casualties. Major Smothers was in poor shape by this time. On January 13, he and many other POWs were packed on board the transport Brazil Maru, and taken to Moji, Japan. They made port successfully on January 31, and Smothers was sent to the Kokura Army Hospital, where most POWs went to die, only 36 of the 110 POWs sent there survived the War. Smothers survived to be sent to a slave labor camp in Fukuoka, where POWs were forced to work at the Sumitomo Steel Company. However, Smothers was in no shape for labor. He was to be transferred to Fusan, Korea, but died somewhere along the way.
Major Smothers’ family was awarded his Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
Kinda puts his sons’ anti-War attitude in a bit different perspective…