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 22, would have been the 123rd birthday of famed aviator and bar owner, Pancho Barnes. For more about her amazing life, see here.
Monday, July 22, is also the 91st anniversary of the completion of Wiley Post’s solo round-the-world flight. For more about Wiley and this flight, see here.
Tuesday, July 23, is the 94th anniversary of the untimely death of aviation pioneer, Glenn Hammond Curtiss. For more about his life and accomplishments, see here.
Tuesday, July 23, is also the 52nd anniversary of the launch of the Earth Resources Technology Satellite, later renamed Landsat 1, the first of a series of successful and valuable satellites. For more on the utilization of Earth orbit, see here.
Tuesday, July 23, is also the 25th anniversary of the Eileen Collins becoming the first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission, STS-93, which launched the Chandra X-ray Observatory. For more about Chandra, one of the “Great Observatories,” see here.
Wednesday, July 24, is the 74th anniversary of the first rocket launch at Cape Canaveral, instead of the White Sands Missile Range, where a V-2 had gone awry and landed in Juarez. For more on that part of White Sands history, see here.
Wednesday, July 17, is also the 49th anniversary of the last splashdown in a NASA spacecraft, the command module of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. For more on the ASTP, see here. For more on the 25-year gap between this event and the one immediately above, see the Item of the Week in this installment of Air and Space this Week.
Thursday, July 18, is the 115th anniversary of Louis Bleriot making the first flight across the English Channel. Less than three years later, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the Channel. For more about her all-too-brief but illustrious aviation career, see here.
Friday, July 19, is the 77th anniversary of President Truman’s signing of the National Defense Act of that year, establishing the U.S. Air Force as a separate Armed Forces branch. For more on the USAF’s early years, see here.
Friday, July 19, is also the 61st anniversary of the launch of the Syncom 2 satellite, the first to be placed successfully in a geosynchronous orbit. For more on the math behind geosynchronous and geostationary orbits, see here.
Sunday, July 28, is the 79th anniversary of the crash of a B-25 Mitchell bomber into the Empire State Building, killing 19 and injuring 29. For more about this tragic event, and the amazing survival of elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver, see here.
Air and Space This Week
July 22, 2024 – July 28, 2024
|
THE WEEK at a GLANCE Anniversaries: The 25th of Eileen Collins becoming the first female commander of the Space Shuttle (STS-93, from which Chandra was launched, 7/22); the 40th of the Terry Bradshaw retirement from football (7/24), Svetlana Savitskaya becoming the first female to walk in Space (7/25), and the release of Prince’s Purple Rain (7/26); the 55th of the safe return of Apollo 11 (7/24); the 60th of the impact on the Moon by Ranger 7, the first success of the program (7/28); and the 85th Judy Garland recording “Over the Rainbow” (7/28) Birthdays: Singer Jennifer Lopez is 55 (7/24); actress Sandra Bullock is 60 (7/26); actor Kevin Spacey is 65 (7/26); Queen drummer Roger Taylor is 75 (7/26); singer Bobbie Gentry is 80 (7/27); and actress Louise Fletcher would have been 90 (7/22) In the Sky: The Moon reaches Last Quarter at 10:52 PM EDT on Saturday, July 27 |
|
Monday, July 22 Today in Air and Space History 1901: Birthday of famed aviator and barnstormer Florence "Pancho" Barnes, proprietress of the "Happy Bottom Riding Club" pilot hangout in the early days of Edwards AFB. She was also the granddaughter of ThaddeusLowe, famed balloon pioneer. 1925: The Pratt and Whitney Company, soon to be famous for their "Wasp" family of radial aircraft engines, was formed. 1933: Wiley Post successfully ended the first solo round-the-world trip, in his aircraft, the Winnie Mae. See also here. 1972: Soviet probe Venera 8 successfully landed on Venus. Other Events this Date: John Dillinger was shot by FBI agents (1934), the International Monetary Fund was established (1944) Today’s Birthdays: Mathematician Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784), botanist Gregor Mendel (1822), poet Stephen Vincent Benet (1898), mobilist Alexander Calder (1898), comedian Orson Bean (1928), actress Louise Fletcher (1934), Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek (1940), teen idol Bobby Sherman (1943), actor Danny Glover (1946), and comedian Albert Brooks (see his hilarious impersonation of Curley Howard on Carson here) and Eagles drummer Don Henley (1947) |
|
Tuesday, July 23 Today in Air and Space History 1930: Aircraft pioneer and motorcycle daredevil Glenn HammondCurtiss died at Buffalo, at age 52. 1965: The SA-2 "Guideline" surface-to-air missile claimed its first U.S. victim over Viet Nam. 1972: Launch of the Earth Resources Technology Satellite, laterknown as Landsat 1. 1973: "Eddie" Rickenbacker, the leading U.S. air ace of WWI and a proponent of passenger aviation, died at age 82. 1999: Eileen Collins became the first female commander of the Space Shuttle, with the launch of STS-93 Space Shuttle Columbia on a mission to launch the ChandraX-ray Observatory. Other Events this Date: Frank Sinatra hit #1 album with Strangers in the Night (1966, single hit #1 on 7/2/66) Today’s Birthdays: Character actor Arthur Treacher (1894), Penguins vocalist Cleveland Duncan (1935), pitcher Don Drysdale (1936), Young Rascals drummer Dino Danelli (1945), rocker David Essex (1947), BTO guitarist Blair Thornton (1950), and actor Woody Harrelson (1961) |
|
Wednesday, July 24 Today in Air and Space History 1950: The first rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, “Bumper 8,” a German V-2 captured at the end of WWII, fitted with a WAC Corporal rocket as a second stage. Earlier launches had been conducted at Fort Bliss, but an errant V-2 came down in Juarez on May 29, 1947, illustrating the need for a safer site. 1969: The Apollo 11commandmodule returned to Earthsafely. 1975: Last splashdown of a U.S. capsule with the return of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Projectcommand module Other Events this Date: Rotary printing press patented (1847), Artie Shaw recorded Begin the Beguine (1938), Martin and Lewis split up (1956), George Brett’s “pine tar” non-homer, tirade, and ultimate “do-over”(1983), quarterback Terry Bradshaw retired (1984) Today’s Birthdays: Liberator Simon Bolivar (1783), aviator Amelia Earhart (1898), trumpeter “Cootie” Williams (1908), comedienne Ruth Buzzi (1936), Tornados bassist Heinz Burt (1942), Airplane! actor Robert Hays (1947), and actress Jennifer Lopez (1969) |
|
Thursday, July 25 Today in Air and Space History 1909:Louis Bleriot became the first pilot to cross the 31 mile-wide English Channel, in his Bleriot Type XI monoplane. 1943: The first use of aluminum foil "window," or "chaff," dropped by the RAF as a means of confusing radar defenses. The invention of chaff (and/or the machine needed to cut the foil) is attributed to astronomer Fred Whipple, better known for the "dirty snowball" model for comets! 1973: Launch of Mars 5, a (mostly) successful Mars orbiter. 1984: Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya of Soyuz T-12 became the first woman to "walk in Space." 1992: Launch of Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-50), the 13th mission with Spacelab elements aboard and U.S.Microgravity Laboratory 1 on its first flight. Other Events this Date: First intercollegiate billiards match in U.S. (Harvard vs. Yale, 1860), U.S. Grant became first U.S. four-star general (1866), perforated toilet paper was patented (1871), liner Andrea Doria sank, killing 52 (1956), the first “test tube” baby was born (1978) Today’s Birthdays: Actors Walter Brennan (1894), and Estelle Getty (1923); pole vaulter John Pennel (the first to clear 17’ in competition,1940); Renaissance and The Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty (1944); Earth, Wind, and Fire bassist Verdine White (1951); football legend Walter Payton (1954); and actor Matt LeBlanc (1967) |
|
Friday, July 26 Today in Air and Space History 1947: President Truman signed the National Defense Act, authorizing the creation of the United States Air Force as a separate Armed Forces branch. 1958: Launch of Explorer 4, the fourth U.S. satellite. It was designed to investigate radiation belts and near-Earth Space. 1963: Launch of the Syncom 2 communications satellite, the first to be placed in a geosynchronous orbit. 1971: Launch of Apollo 15 manned Moonmission. Other Events this Date: The U.S. Post Office was established with Benjamin Franklin as first Postmaster General (1775), New York was admitted to Union as 11th State (1788), The Hustle hit #1 on the pop charts (1975), and Prince’s Purple Rain premiered (1984) Today’s Birthdays: Playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856), author Aldous Huxley (1894), comediennes Gracie Allen (1895) and Vivian Vance (1909), Tuxedo Junction composer and trumpeter Erskine Hawkins (1914), director Blake Edwards (1922), knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm (1923), director Stanley Kubrick (1928), singer Dobie Gray (1940), Rolling Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger (1943), Queen drummer Roger Taylor (1949), figure skater Dorothy Hamill (1956), and actors Kevin Spacey (1959) and Sandra Bullock (1964) |
|
Saturday, July 27 Today in Air and Space History 1949: The de Havilland D.H. 106 "Comet," the first jet airliner in commercial service, made its first test flight at Hatfield, England. Initially successful, the Comet fell out of favor after two mid-air structural failures and heavy loss of life illustrated design deficiencies. 1972: First test flight of the F-15 "Eagle" fighter aircraft, at Edwards AFB. 1979: First flight of the Rockwell HiMATexperimental high-performance aircraft. Other Events this Date: Korean War armistice signed (1953), Santo and Johnny released instrumental hit, Sleepwalk (1959), Korean War Veterans Memorial opened in Washington DC (1995), pipe bomb detonated at Atlanta Olympics by Eric Rudolph (1996) Today’s Birthdays: Baseball manager Leo “The Lip” Durocher (1905), groundbreaking TV producer Norman Lear (1922), Kingston Trio singer Nick Reynolds (1933), Gary Lewis and the Playboys guitarist Al Ramsey (1943), singer Bobbie Gentry (1944), and figure skater Peggy Fleming (1948) In the Sky: The Moon reaches Last Quarter at 10:52 PM EDT |
|
Sunday, July 28 Today in Air and Space History 1851: The first photograph (Daguerreotype) of a solar eclipse, showing the corona and prominences, was taken by Berkowski in Konigsberg (Poland). 1934: Flight of the high-altitude balloonExplorer I. It reached 60,000 feet, but its canopy ripped open, forcing its crew of three to parachute 1935: First flight of the Boeing Model 299, the first prototype of what would become the famous B-17 "Flying Fortress" bomber. 1945: A North American B-25 "Mitchell" bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 19 and injuring 29. 1964: Launch of the Ranger 7hard-landerlunar probe, the first success of the series. 1973: Launch of the second of three crews to the U.S. Space StationSkylab. Other Events This Date: First singing telegram delivered, to Rudy Vallee on his 32nd birthday (1933), Judy Garland recorded “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (1939), The Crew Cuts hit #1 with “Sh-Boom. Sh-Boom” (1954), Lee Majors married Farrah Fawcett (1973) Today’s Birthdays: Children’s author Beatrix Potter (1866), comedian Joe E. Brown (1892), First Lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis (1929), Dr. Hook guitarist George Cummings (1938), Garfield cartoonist Jim Davis (1945), and Pink Floyd’s late great keyboardist Rick Wright (1945) |
|
THE NEXT TWO WEEKS at a GLANCE Anniversaries: The 20th anniversary of the launch of the MESSENGER spacecraft, the only one to date to orbit Mercury (8/3); the 25th of the termination of the successful Lunar Prospector mission (7/31); the 40th of the first launch of an Ariane 3 rocket (8/4); the 50th of Nixon resigning the Presidency (8/8); the 55th of the fly-bys of Mars by Mariner 6 (7/31) and Mariner 7 (8/5); the 60th of the death of country singer Jim Reeves in a plane crash (7/31); the 75th of the founding of the NBA (8/4) and the first successful use of an ejection seat (8/9); the 80th of Anne Frank’s final diary entry (8/1) and her capture (8/4); the 90th of the opening of Alcatraz Prison (8/11); and the 140th of the laying of the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty (8/5) Birthdays: STTOS actress France Nuyen is 85 (7/31); actor Carroll O’Conner would have been 100 (8/2); Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto would have been 140 (8/4); Herbert Hoover would have been 150 (7/31); and songwriter Francis Scott Key would have been 245 (8/1) In the Sky: New Moon occurs at 7:13 AM EDT on Sunday, August 4 |
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.
7/22: Science, Art, Comedy, and Alex – Sounds like Jeopardy Night to me!
7/23: Nah
7/24: Amelia and the guy from Airplane! Oh my!
7/25: Walter Peyton!
7/26: I’d love to talk 2001 with Kubrick, and hear stories about Queen! My Choice this Week.
7/27: Norman Lear had some great stories last time.
7/28: Jackie O. and Rick Wright, but no.
What date would you choose?