CALENDAR
Important Anniversaries in the next week have been the subject of previous Items of the Week. To find them, CHECK THEM OUT (AGAIN) HERE.
Monday, July 1, is the 112th anniversary of the death of famed aviatrix Harriet Quimby. For more about her and her remarkable career, see here.
Monday, July 1, is also the 32nd anniversary of the start of Operation Provide Promise, the longest-running aerial supply mission in history. For more about it, and the Berlin Airlift, see here.
Monday, July 1, is also the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Cassini spacecraft toward Saturn. For more about its successful mission, see here.
Thursday, July 4, is the 79th anniversary of the first rocket launch at Wallops (Island) Flight Facility. For more about this interesting place, the home of Freddy Frogronaut, see here.
Thursday, July 4, is also the 27th anniversary of the landing on Mars by the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, carrying the Sojourner rover. This was NASA’s first Internet-supported mission, and intense interest required the first use of mirror sites. For more about it all, see here.
Friday, July 5, is the 81st anniversary of waist-gunner Benjamin Warmer III shooting down seven attacking fighters over Sicily. For information on Ben and his feat, see here.
Sunday, July 7, is the 46th anniversary of the discovery of Pluto’s moon, Charon. For more about it, Pluto, and the New Horizons mission, see here.
Sunday, July 7, is the 43rd anniversary of the first solar-powered flight over the English Channel, by Stephen Ptacek in the Solar Challenger. For more about human- and solar-powered flight, see here.
Sunday, July 7, is the 26th anniversary of launch of the Fobos 1 spacecraft toward Mars. It failed. For more about how difficult robotic exploration of Mars is, see here.
Monday, July 8, is the 21st anniversary of the launch of the successful Mars rover, Opportunity. See the link immediately above for a summary of Mars exploration to date.
Wednesday, July 10, is the 62nd anniversary of the launch of Telstar 1, a communications satellite that made the first live TV sent from the U.S. to Europe possible. For more information on communications satellites and the utilization of low-Earth orbit, see here.
Thursday, July 11, is the 45th anniversary of the re-entry of the Skylab Space Station. For more about Skylab, see here.
Friday, July 12, is the 162nd anniversary of the authorization of the Medal of Honor by Congress. Later, the MoH was awarded retro-actively for worthy actions prior to the MoH’s establishment. The first action so recognized has links to the Smithsonian. To find out more about it (it’s one of my favorite Items), see here.
Friday, July 12, is also the 53rd anniversary of Benjamin Davis, former commander of the Tuskegee Airmen, becoming the first black Air Force General. For more about him and the Airmen, see here.
Saturday, July 13, is the 79th anniversary of the activation of the White Sands Proving Grounds. For more about this place important to rocketry development, see here.
Sunday, July 14, is the 59th anniversary of the first fly-by of Mars, by the amazing Mariner 4 spacecraft. For more about that mission, see here.
Sunday, July 14, is also the 9th anniversary of the fly-by of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft. I strongly suspect that its’ doing so fifty years to-the-day after Mariner 4 flew by Mars is not a co-incidence... For more about New Horizons and Pluto, see here.
Air and Space This Week
July 1, 2024 – July 14, 2024
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THE WEEK at a GLANCE Anniversaries: The 20th anniversary of the launch of the Cassini spacecraft to Saturn (7/1); 30th of the tragic loss of 14 firefighters at Storm King Mountain (7/6); 45th of Disco Demolition Night getting out of hand (7/12); 50th of the launch of Soyuz 14, with the only crew to visit successfully the Soviet cannon-armed military Space Station, Salyut 3 (7/3); 60th of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (7/2); 80th of the first flight by the Northrop MX-324 (7/5) and the arrest of future baseballer Jackie Robinson on false charges (7/6); the 105th of the first airship crossing of the Atlantic (by Britain’s R-34, 7/6); the 220th of Aaron Burr murdering Alexander Hamilton (7/11) Birthdays: Actresses Jan Smithers (7/3) and Shelly Duvall (7/7) are 75: Cube inventor Erno Rubik is 80 (7/13); golf pioneer Lee Elder would have been 90 (7/14); inventor George Eastman would have been 170 (7/12) In the Sky: New Moon occurs at 6:57 PM EDT on Friday, July 5; The Moon reaches First Quarter at 6:49 PM EDT on Saturday, July 13 |
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Monday, July 1 Today in Air and Space History 1912: Famed aviator Harriet Quimby, first U.S. woman licensed pilot and first woman to fly the English Channel, was killed after she and her passenger were thrown from their aircraft during an air show near Boston. 1976: The National Air and Space Museum building on the National Mall opened as part of America's Bicentennial celebration. 1992: "Operation Provide Promise" began. It became the longest-running aerial supply/relief mission ever (3.5 years). 1997: Launch of STS-94 Space Shuttle Columbia with the second flight of the Microgravity Science Laboratory. 2004: The Cassinispacecraft was inserted into orbit around Saturn. Other Events this Date: The Federal Bureau of Internal Revenue was established (1862), the Battle of Gettysburg began (1863), the U.S. Post Office introduced “Mr. Zip” (1963) Today’s Birthdays: Pioneer aviator Louis Bleriot (1872), blues bassist Willie Dixon (1915), actress Olivia de Havilland (1916), MASH actor (and Red Skelton sidekick) Jamie Farr (1934), famous cookie magnate Wally Amos (1936), comedian Dan Aykroyd (1952), and Princess Diana (1961) |
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Tuesday, July 2 Today in Air and Space History 1926: Congress established the Distinguished Flying Cross medal. Calvin Coolidge awarded the first one to reservist Charles Lindbergh in 1927. 1937: AmeliaEarhart and Fred Noonan were lost on their round-the-world flight attempt, spawning decades of speculation as to their fate. 1943: Lt. Charles Hall of the famedTuskegeeAirmen scored that group's first aerial combat victory. 1985: Launch of the European Space Agency Giottospacecraft, which successfully flew by the nucleus of Halley's Comet. Other Events this Date: NYC’s first El train opened (1867), Carl Hubbell pitched an 18-inning, 1-0 shutout (1933), the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Johnson Today’s Birthdays: Justice Thurgood Marshall (1908), Temptations singer Paul Williams (1939), and Huey Lewis saxman Johnny Colla (1952) |
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Wednesday, July 3 Today in Air and Space History 1974: Launch of Soyuz 14, the only crew to visit successfully the Soviet cannon-armed military space station Salyut 3. Other Events this Date: Idaho was admitted to Union as 43rd State (1890), the Abbott and Costello radio show debuted (1940), Cab Calloway recorded St. James Infirmary (1941), Israeli hostages were rescued at Entebbe, Uganda in daring raid (1976) Today’s Birthdays: Composer George M. Cohen (1878), clarinetist Pete Fountain (1930), Little Feat guitarist Paul Barrere (1948), and actress Jan Smithers (1949) |
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Thursday, July 4 Happy Birthday, America! Today in Air and Space History 1927: First flight of the Lockheed "Vega." Early aviators loved its long-range capability; Amelia Earhart's trademark was her all-red Vega. 1945: Launch of first (of now more than 14,000) experimental rockets from the Wallops Flight Facility. 1997: The Mars Pathfinderspacecraft landed on Mars. Its small rover, named Sojourner, captivated huge audiences on the first NASA mission with a real-time Internet presence (requiring use of mirror sites). 1998: Japan launched a Mars probe named "Nozomi" ("Hope"). Its orbit insertion attempt failed. Other Events this Date: USA Independence Day (1776), Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass was published (1855), Tuskegee Institute opened (1881), first rodeo in USA took place (Prescott, 1888), America the Beautiful (poem) was written (1895), Lou “The Luckiest Man” Gehrig retired (1939) Today’s Birthdays: Songwriter Steven Foster (1826), 30th President Calvin Coolidge (1872), wacky inventor Rube Goldberg (1883), band leader Mitch Miller (1911), advice columnists Ann Landers and Abigail van Buren (1918), playwright Neil Simon (1927), and tennis player Pam Shriver (1962) |
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Friday, July 5 Today in Air and Space History 1943: B-17 waist gunner Benjamin F. Warmer III shot down seven attacking fighters over Gerbini Aerodrome, Sicily. 1944: The first U.S. rocket-powered aircraft, the Northrop MX-324, was flown for the first time, at Harper Dry Lake, CA. It was a "flying wing" design, had a range of only 20 miles, and, for its first flight, was towed aloft behind a P-38. 1966: Launch of Apollo-Saturn 203, a mostly-successful test of the Saturn V second stage. Other Events this Date: The U.S. Secret Service was established (1865), the discovery of the junction transistor was announced (1951) Today’s Birthdays: Torpedo-damning admiral David Farragut (actually mines; 1801), impresario P.T. Barnum (1810), The Band guitarist Robbie Robertson (1943), musician Huey Lewis (1950), and pitcher “Goose” Gossage (1951) In the Sky: New Moon occurs at 6:57 PM EDT |
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Saturday, July 6 Today in Air and Space History 1919: The R-34, Britain's first passenger airship, made the first airship crossing of the Atlantic, in 108 hours. 1966: Launch of the Proton 3 astronomical research satellite by the Soviet Union. Gemini 11 astronauts would later likely see part of the Proton 3 spacecraft pass nearby without knowing its identity (9/16/66); their reports later prompted bogus UFO stalking claims. 1976: Launch of Soyuz 21, taking a crew to the Salyut 5 space station. Other Events this Date: Bennie Goodman’s orchestra, with Harry James on trumpet and the incomparable Gene Krupa on drums, covered Luigi Prima’s classic Sing, Sing, Sing (1937), 2Lt. Jackie Robinson (yes, HIM) was falsely charged with being “drunk and disorderly” for refusing to move to the back of the (military) bus, later to be acquitted (see page 6; 1944), fourteen firefighters died at Storm King Mountain, Colorado (1994) Today’s Birthdays: Naval hero John Paul Jones (1747), TV magnate Merv Griffin (1925), comedian Pat Paulsen (1927), singer Della Reese (1931), Gene “Duke of Earl” Chandler (1937), Burt “Robin” Ward (1945), and actor Sylvester Stallone (1946) |
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Sunday, July 7 Today in Air and Space History 1946: Howard Hughes was injured severely in the crash of his experimental aircraft XF-11. One of the Beverly Hills homes hit by the XF-11belonged to actress Rosemary DeCamp. Fortunately, neither she nor anyone else on the ground was hurt. 1978: The discovery of Pluto's large moon, Charon, was announced today (It was actually discovered on June 22.). 1981: Stephen Ptacek piloted the Solar Challenger on the first solar-powered flight across the English Channel. 1998: Launch of the Phobos 1 spacecraft to Mars. Contact was lost en route to Mars due to a command error. Other Events This Date: (The precursor to) Columbia University was founded (1754) Today’s Birthdays: Artist Marc Chagall (1887), baseball great “Satchel” Paige (1906), bandleader “Doc” Severinsen (1927), Beatles drummer Ringo Starr (1940), actress Shelley Duvall (1949), and skater Michelle Kwan (1980) |
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Monday, July 8 Today in Air and Space History 1940: The Boeing 307 "Stratoliner," the first pressurized commercial airliner, entered service, with TWA. 1947: The Boeing 377 "Stratocruiser" airliner entered service, with TWA. The 377 was the civilian airliner version of the C-97 transport. 1994: Launch of STS-65 Space Shuttle Columbia, the second Spacelab International Microgravity mission 2003: Launch of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, which landed successfully on 25 January 2004 (NOTE: the “official” launch time is 3:18 UT on 7/8; but the local time at the launch site was 11:18 EDT on 7/7). Opportunity, and its twin, Spirit, exceeded their design lifetimes significantly and were fully-successful in all mission aspects. Other Events this Date: The RIAA began awarding Gold Records (sales of 1M). First awardee: the soundtrack of Oklahoma! (1958) Today’s Birthdays: Comedic actor Marty Feldman (1933), singer Steve Lawrence (1935), and actor Kevin Bacon (1958) |
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Tuesday, July 9 Today in Air and Space History 1979: Voyager 2 became the fourth spacecraft to fly by Jupiter, and later became the only spacecraft to fly by Uranus and Neptune Other Events this Date: Doughnut cutter patented (1872), commercial helicopter passenger service began (1953) Today’s Birthdays: Sewing Machine inventor Elias Howe (1819), author Barbara Cartland (1901), tomahawk-wielding Ed Ames (1927), musician John Tesh (1952), actors Jimmy Smits (1955) and Tom Hanks (1956), Anthrax bassist Frank Bello (1965), and actor Fred Savage (1976) |
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Wednesday, July 10 Today in Air and Space History 1962: Launch of Telstar 1, the communications satellite responsible for the first live TV between the U.S. and Europe. 1992: European spacecraft Giotto flew by Comet Grigg-Skellerup at a distance of 200 km. Earlier, Giotto had flown past Halley's Comet. Other Events this Date: Wyoming admitted to Union as 44th State (1890), Death Valley experienced 134°F temperature (highest ever in continental US, 1913), The Rolling Stones hit #1 for the first time, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (1965) Today’s Birthdays: Artist James Whistler (1834), novelist Saul Bellow (1915), inspirational Don “Mr. Wizard” Herbert (1917), actor Fred Gwynne (1926), tennis great Arthur Ashe (1943), Moby Grape guitarist Jerry Miller (1943), and folk singer Arlo Guthrie (1947) |
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Thursday, July 11 Today in Air and Space History 1962: NASA selected the lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) mission strategy for the Apollo Moon landings. 1962: First launch of a Titan II booster, used for both ICBMs and to launch Project Gemini capsules. 1979: U.S. Space StationSkylabre-enteredthe Earth's atmosphere. Other Events this Date: Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel (1804), Babe Ruth’s first major league ballgame (1914) Today’s Birthdays: Author E.B. White (1899), actor Yul Brynner (1915), and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band guitarist Jeff Hanna (1947) |
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Friday, July 12 Today in Air and Space History 1971: BenjaminDavis, leader of the famed Tuskegee Airmen during WWII, was named the first African-American Air Force General. 1988: Launch of the Phobos 2spacecraft to Mars. A massive computer/power failure (not UFO’s!) killed the spacecraft on 3/27/89. 2001: Launch of STS-104 Space Shuttle Atlantis on a mission to transport the airlock assembly to the International Space Station. Other Events this Date: The Medal of Honor was authorized by Congress (1862), The Coasters hit #1 with Yakety Yak (1958), the first Etch-a-Sketch was sold (1960), a “Disco Demolition Night” promotion got out of hand, resulting in the White Sox forfeiting a ball game (1979) Today’s Birthdays: Philosopher Henry David Thoreau (1817), inventor George Eastman (1854), botanist George Washington Carver (1865), lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895), comedian Milton Berle (1908), and ice skater Kristi Yamaguchi (1971) |
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Saturday, July 13 Today in Air and Space History 1945: The White Sands Proving Grounds facility was activated as testing site for missile research by Robert Goddard and others. 1969: Launch of Luna 15, a “successful” lunar orbiter, by the Soviet Union. The timing (immediately before the Apollo 11 landing), odd trajectory, and mystery surrounding this mission have led to much speculation; in all likelihood, Luna 15 was a non-crewed sample return mission that crashed. 1995: Launch of STS-70 Space Shuttle Discovery, carrying a TDRS-D satellite. Other Events this Date: The source of Mississippi River was determined (1832; “true head” = “veritas caput” = “verITAS CAput” = Lake Itasca, Minnesota), Reggie Jackson’s famous gargantuan “light tower” homer, at the All-Star game in Detroit (1971) Today’s Birthdays: Julius Caesar (100 BPE), actors Patrick Stewart (1940) and Harrison Ford (1942), The Byrds guitarist Roger McGuinn (1942), Cube inventor Erno Rubik (1944), and comedian-turned-art-collector “Cheech” Marin (1946) |
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Sunday, July 14 Today in Air and Space History 1932: U.S. Army “aircraft carrier” dirigible Akron’s (ZRS-4) first flight with its complement of five Curtiss F9C-2 biplane fighters. 1965: Mariner 4 became the first spacecraft to fly by Mars. Images returned misled scientists into thinking Mars is much like the Moon. 1967: Launch of Surveyor 4, one of seven robotic soft landers sent to the Moon in advance of Project Apollo. It failed prior to landing. 1974: General Charles "Tooey" Spaatz, WWII air leader, died at age 83. 2015: The New Horizonsspacecraft flew past Pluto, the first such encounter ever. Other Events This Date: The Bastille fell (1789), Dr. Benjamin Spock published Baby and Child Care (1946) Today’s Birthdays: Cartoonist William Hanna (1910), folk singer Woody Guthrie (1912), and pioneer golfer Lee Elder (1934) |
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NEXT WEEK at a GLANCE Anniversaries: The 25th of the plane crash that killed JFK Jr, his wife, and her sister (7/16) and the recovery of Gus Grissom’s Liberty Bell 7 capsule (7/21); 30th of the start of the impacts of fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter (7/16); 40th of the launch of Soyuz T-12, Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman in Space, and the first to make a spacewalk (5/17); the 55th of the Apollo 11 Moon landing! (7/20); the 70th of the test flight of the barrel-rollin’ Dash-80 (7/15); and the 115th of the first unassisted triple play in Major League Baseball (7/19) Birthdays: Everest tamer Edmund Hillary would have been 105 (7/20 – fifty years to the day before the Apollo 11 landing – explorers gotta stick together!) and actor James Cagney would have been 125 (7/20) In the Sky: Full Moon occurs at 6:17 AM EDT on Sunday, July 21 (aka the “Buck Moon”) |
DINNER PARTY GAME
Imagine what a dinner party might be like if all of the people listed in the A+StW database for any specific date could attend, in their prime.
7/1: An early Aviator, a Princess, and Cookies!
7/2: Thurgood was Good
7/3: Flute Night
7/4: I let Rube “fix” some stuff around the house last time. Big mistake!
7/5: Last time, Dave had a few and kept damning the tuxedos…
7/6: John Paul Jones, Pat Paulsen, Robin, and Sly = Holy Good Poker Night!
7/7: Satchel, Doc, and Ringo: How cool would that be?!
7/8: Feldman, Lawrence, and Bacon, oh my!
7/9: Hilarity ensued when Ed demonstrated tomahawk throwing
7/10: Mr. Wizard, DFC winner, and Herman Munster! My second favorite this week.
7/11: Nope
7/12: Milton told jokes older than Thoreau – we all ended up hiding out by the pond
7/13: Ceasar, Picard, Solo, McGuinn, Rubik, and Marin: Poker Night – My Choice this 2 weeks
7/14: It’d be cool to visit with Lee, but no.
What date would you choose?
DIDJA KNOW?
Captain Video premiered 75 years ago this week. Didja Know that future Oscar-winner Ernest Borgnine played the evil “Nargola” on 12 episodes of Captain Video back in 1951? Even better: The writers for the show included James Blish, Arthur C. Clarke, Issac Asimov, and Cyril Kornbluth (of Marching Morons fame)! But wait, famed cartoon-meister Chuck Jones made an animated short in 1956 for Warner Brothers called “Rocket-Bye Baby.” It includes an indirect reference to Captain Video (“Captain Schmideo”). You wouldn’t believe me if I described it to you. Read about it for yourself at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket-Bye_Baby. On this foundation was the Space Program laid…
I’m listening to “Sultans of Swing” as I type this in honor of the birthdays this week of Dire Straits bassist, John Illsley, 75 on 6/24, and guitarist Hal Lindes, 71 on 6/30! It’s difficult to type when one’s fingers are trying to keep time with the bass line!