1959

Today in History 09/14 (Luna 2)

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Luna 2 Soviet moon probe, 1959 (© Sovfoto/UIG via Getty Images)(1959) Spacecraft lands on the moon
Two days after launching, the Soviet Union’s space probe ‘Luna 2’ crash-lands on the moon’s surface near Mare Imbrium in the Palus Putredinis region. The spherical spacecraft becomes the first man-made object to reach another celestial body, and the first of many future moon visitors.
Luna 2 or Lunik 2 was the second of the Soviet Union’s Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon, and the first man-made object to land on another celestial body. On September 13, 1959, it hit the Moon’s surface east of Mare Imbrium near the craters Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus.
Date: Sep 12, 1959

Luna 2 Soviet moon probe
Luna 2 Soviet moon probe.
Moon map Luna 17 Luna 2 Apollo 15 Surveyor 6 Surveyor 4 Luna 7 Luna 8 Luna 11
Luna 2 site is near the right of the image, close to the Apollo 15 landing site
wiki/Luna_2
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(1959) Spacecraft lands on the moon.
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1812 | Napoleon enters Moscow as retreating Russians lead him to his downfall
Napoleon Bonaparte and his troops enter Moscow as conquerors only to find the huge Russian city virtually abandoned. Almost all have fled ahead of the French forces, and fires begin to break out that will burn almost the entire city, dooming Napoleon to a disastrous retreat from Russia.
1901 | VP Roosevelt becomes US president after McKinley’s assassination
President William McKinley dies eight days after being shot by an assassin, and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as the 26th president of the United States. At 42, Teddy is the youngest US president, and will go on to be reelected in 1904 in a landslide victory.
1984 | MTV starts its own VMAs awards show
Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler host the first MTV Video Music Awards at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. The Cars take home Video of the Year for ‘You Might Think,’ but Madonna takes the cake with her performance of ‘Like a Virgin.’

Today in History 09/14/17

President Theodore Roosevelt pictured in the White House in 1908 (© AP)(1901) Roosevelt becomes US president after McKinley's assassination
President William McKinley dies eight days after being shot by an assassin, and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as the 26th president of the United States. At 42, Teddy is the youngest US president, and will go on to be reelected in 1904 in a landslide victory.
The first inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt as the 26th President of the United States, took place on Saturday, September 14, 1901 at the Ansley Wilcox House, at 641 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, New York, following the death of President William McKinley earlier that day. The inauguration marked the commencement of the first term of Theodore Roosevelt as President. John R. Hazel, U.S. District Judge for the Western District of New York, administered the Oath of office.
Date: Sep 14, 1901

wiki/First_inauguration_of_Theodore_Roosevelt
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Today in History 08/26 (Battle of Crécy)

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Drawing of cannon used at the Battle of Crécy in 1346 (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images)(1346) Outnumbered English win at Crécy
As King Philip VI’s French forces move into position at the Battle of Crécy, they vastly outnumber the troops of England’s Edward III. But the English army makes pioneering use of the longbow rather than the more cumbersome and less effective crossbow used by the French and most other European infantries. Edward’s English forces also surprise their enemy by introducing the cannon as a battlefield weapon. This combined-arms approach secures a surprise victory against the much larger French army.
The Battle of Crécy, also spelled Cressy, was an English victory during the Edwardian phase of the Hundred Years’ War. It was the first of three famous English successes during the conflict, followed by Poitiers in 1356 and Agincourt in 1415.
Date: Aug 26, 1346

visualisation of the Battle of Crécy
Map of the Battle of Crécy
wiki/Battle_of_Crécy
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(1346) Outnumbered English win at Crécy.
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1533 | Conquistadors execute the Inca’s last leader
Three centuries of an advanced and flourishing empire in the highlands of South America come to a violent end as Spanish conquistadors at the order of Francisco Pizarro execute the final sovereign emperor of the Incas, Atahualpa. Spain will call its new colony ‘Peru.’
1791 | Fitch wins a patent for his steamboat
Entrepreneur-inventor John Fitch receives a US patent for his steam-powered boat, after years of experiments result in a craft that can travel at a top speed of 8 miles per hour. It’ll take two more decades and engineer Robert Fulton’s involvement before steamboats become a profitable enterprise.
1959 | Gasoline rationing leads to a Mini marvel
The British Motor Corporation shows off its newest auto, the ‘Mini.’ Developed as an answer to fuel rationing brought on by the Suez Crisis, the car gets great mileage, and although terrifically tiny at only 10 feet long, it can still seat four adult passengers.

Today in History 08/26/17

Drawing of Atahualpa, the last sovereign emperor of the Inca (© Universal History Archive/Getty Images)(1533) Conquistadors execute the Inca's last leader
Three centuries of an advanced and flourishing empire in the highlands of South America come to a violent end as Spanish conquistadors at the order of Francisco Pizarro execute the final sovereign emperor of the Incas, Atahualpa. Spain will call its new colony 'Peru.'
Atahualpa, also Atahuallpa, Atabalipa or Atawallpa was the ruler of Quito for five years before conquering the Inca Empire from his brother Huascar, the 13th Inca Emperor. After defeating his brother, Atahualpa became very briefly the last Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire before the Spanish conquest. Atahualpa inherited the Kingdom of Quito from his father the Sapa Inca Huayna Capac in 1525. Before Huayna died, he made a verbal testament to the people in his empire that he intended to divide his empire into two parts. Atahualpa would become king in the Northern section of the Inca Empire and Atahualpa's older half brother Huáscar would receive the Southern section as Sapa Inca. Huayna died from an infectious disease. Atahualpa ruled as King over the Northern section named Quito peacefully for 5 years, until his brother Huáscar, the 13th Sapa Inca, attempted to conquer the Kingdom of Quito by first annexing the Cañari region. Atahualpa became Inca emperor after he defeated and imprisoned Huáscar and massacred any pretenders to the throne at the close of the civil war. Later, while imprisoned by the Spaniards, Atahualpa gave orders to kill Huáscar in Jauja, thinking Huáscar would use the Spaniards as allies to regain his throne.
Born: 1502 · Cusco, Peru
Died: Jul 26, 1533 · Cajamarca, Peru
Siblings: Huáscar (Brother) · Túpac Huallpa (Brother) · Manco Inca Yupanqui (Brother)
Parents: Huayna Capac (Father)
Highlights
  • 1525: Atahualpa inherited the Kingdom of Quito from his father the Sapa Inca Huayna Capac in 1525.

  • 1532: In April 1532, Quizquiz and his companions led the armies of Atahualpa to victory in the battles of Mullihambato, Chimborazo and Quipaipan.

  • 1533: In accordance with his request, he was strangled with a garrote on 26 July 1533.

  • 1533: Atahualpa died on July 26, 1533 in Cajamarca, Peru.

wiki/Atahualpa
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Today in History 08/17 (Hurricane Camille)

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A shopping center and motel complex in Biloxi, Mississippi, after high winds and tides slashed the Mississippi gulf coast on Aug 18, 1969 (© AP)(1969) America’s Gulf Coast is slammed by monster storm
A monstrous Category 5 hurricane, whose vortex of clouds fills almost the entire Gulf of Mexico, packs 175-mph winds and pushes a storm surge 24 feet high as it rages into the US at the mouth of the Mississippi River. In the end, Camille will kill 259 and cause $1.42 billion in damage.
Hurricane Camille was the second-most intense tropical cyclone to strike the United States on record. The most intense storm of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season, Camille formed as a tropical depression on August 14 south of Cuba from a long-tracked tropical wave. Located in a favorable environment for strengthening, the storm quickly intensified into a Category 2 hurricane before striking the western part of the nation on August 15. Emerging into the Gulf of Mexico, Camille underwent another period of rapid intensification and became a Category 5 hurricane the next day as it moved northward towards the Louisiana–Mississippi region. Despite weakening slightly on August 17, the hurricane quickly re-intensified back to a Category 5 before it made landfall in Pass Christian, Mississippi early on August 18 with a pressure of 900 mbar. This was the second-lowest pressure recorded for a U.S. landfall; only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane had a lower pressure at landfall. As Camille pushed inland, it quickly weakened and was a tropical depression by the time it was over the Ohio Valley. Once it emerged offshore, it was able to restrengthen to a strong tropical storm, before it became extratropical, being absorbed by a cold front over the North Atlantic on August 22.
Damages: $1.43 billion USD (1969)
Formed: Aug 14, 1969
Dissipated: Aug 22, 1969
Total fatalities: 259
Lowest pressure: 900 mbar (hPa), 26.58 inHg
Affected areas: Mississippi · Cuba · Louisiana · Alabama · Southern United States

Hurricane Camille 16 aug 1969
Hurricane Camille on August 16, 1969. Image capture by NASA’s ATS III satellite
wiki/Hurricane_Camille
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(1969) America’s Gulf Coast is slammed by monster storm.
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1908 | Paris smiles at history’s first animated film
For 1 minute and 20 seconds, Parisians gaze on a fanciful figure seemingly drawn from chalk who morphs and leaps, changing form in amusing and amazing ways in ‘Fantasmagorie,’ a stream-of-consciousness silent film that will come to be regarded as the first animated cartoon.
1945 | Dutch face a revolution in a long-held colony
An end to more than three centuries of Dutch colonization and control is declared by the Indonesian National Revolution and its leaders Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta. WWII had weakened the Netherlands’ hold on the Southeast Asian archipelago and now Indonesia heads towards independence.
1959 | Miles Davis remakes jazz music with a landmark album
A new cool modality unfurls on Miles Davis’ latest album, ‘Kind of Blue.’ Davis’ brilliant horn playing, and his sublime supporting ensemble, including Bill Evans and John Coltrane, will make the disc an enduring success, and it will be considered by some the greatest jazz record of all time.

Today in History 08/17/17

Sukarno, leader of the Indonesian National Party, addresses a rally in Macassar, demanding independence from the Netherlands in an undated photo (© AFP/Getty Images)(1945) Dutch face a revolution in a long-held colony
An end to more than three centuries of Dutch colonization and control is declared by the Indonesian National Revolution and its leaders Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta. WWII had weakened the Netherlands' hold on the Southeast Asian archipelago and now Indonesia heads towards independence.
The Indonesian National Revolution or Indonesian War of Independence was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire, and an internal social revolution following the postwar and postcolonial Indonesia. It took place between Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1945 and the Dutch recognition of Indonesia's independence at the end of 1949. The Indonesian independence movement began in May 1908, which is commemorated as the "Year of National Awakening".
Start date: Aug 17, 1945
End date: Dec 27, 1949
RI Transfer Signing
The signing ceremony recognizing Indonesian sovereignty in The Hague, 27 December 1949

wiki/Indonesian_National_Revolution
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Today in History 08/07 (Philippe Petit)

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Philippe Petit walks across a tightrope suspended between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York on Aug 7, 1974 (© Alan Welner/AP)(1974) High-wire artist walks between the Twin Towers
Frenchman Philippe Petit walks out onto a cable he’s illegally rigged 1,350 feet in the air between the Twin Towers of New York City’s World Trade Center. Petit performs a 45-minute high-wire act, complete with a bit of joyful dancing, to the cheers of astounded onlookers.
Philippe Petit is a French high-wire artist who gained fame for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, on the morning of August 7, 1974 as well as his high wire walk between the towers of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, 1971. For his unauthorized feat 400 metres above the ground – which he referred to as “le coup” – he rigged a 200-kilogram cable and used a custom-made 8-metre long, 25-kilogram balancing pole. He performed for 45 minutes, making eight passes along the wire. The following week, he celebrated his 25th birthday. All charges were dismissed in exchange for him doing a performance in Central Park for children.
Born: Aug 13, 1949 (age 68) · Nemours, France
Height: 5′ 7″
Nationality: French
Parents: Edmond Petit (Father)

Philippe Petit 2009
Philippe Petit at the 81st Academy Awards
wiki/Philippe_Petit
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(1974) High-wire artist walks between the Twin Towers.
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1789 | Congress shines a spotlight on lighthouses
US Congress approves an act for the establishment and support of lighthouse, beacons, buoys, and public piers. In 1989, Congress will mark the 200th anniversary of the signing by declaring August 7 as National Lighthouse Day.
1959 | Earth is ready for its close-up as Explorer 6 launches
NASA’s Explorer 6 satellite blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to orbit the Earth on a 60-day mission. A UHF transmitter will send back the first satellite TV image of the Earth from orbit a few days later, beginning an era of astounding portraits of our planet.
2007 | Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron’s record
Barry Bonds hits his 756th career home run, breaking Hank Aaron’s record. The 2007 season will be Bonds’ last, and he’ll finish with 762. His career, however , will also be remembered for his legal troubles related to the BALCO steroids scandal.

Today in History 08/07/17

Explorer 6 satellite (© NASA)(1959) Earth is ready for its close-up as Explorer 6 launches
NASA's Explorer 6 satellite blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to orbit the Earth on a 60-day mission. A UHF transmitter will send back the first satellite TV image of the Earth from orbit a few days later, beginning an era of astounding portraits of our planet.
Explorer 6, or S-2, was an American satellite launched on August 7, 1959. It was a small, spheroidal satellite designed to study trapped radiation of various energies, galactic cosmic rays, geomagnetism, radio propagation in the upper atmosphere, and the flux of micrometeorites. It also tested a scanning device designed for photographing the Earth's cloud cover, and transmitted the first pictures of Earth from orbit.
Date: Aug 07, 1959
Thor-Able III Explorer 6 Launch
The launch of Explorer 6

wiki/Explorer_6
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Today in History 04/08/18

Dr. Grace Hopper, pioneering computer scientist (© AP)(1959) Grace Hopper leads computer programming milestone
Mathematician, computer scientist, and rare woman in her field, Grace Hopper consults at a two-day conference with the best brains in the new realm of computer programming. The committee will build on Hopper’s earlier work to develop what will be the groundbreaking programming language COBOL.
Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first compiler related tools. She popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today.
Lived: Dec 09, 1906 – Jan 01, 1992 (age 85)
Spouse: Vincent Foster Hopper (m. 1930 – 1945)
Inventions: COBOL · FLOW-MATIC · MATH-MATIC
Education: Yale University · Vassar College (1924 – 1928) · Wardlaw-Hartridge School
Parents: Walter Fletcher Murray (Father) · Mary Campbell Van Horne Murray (Mother)
Awards: Defense Distinguished Service Medal · American Campaign Medal · National Medal of Technology and Innovation (1991) · IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award (1988)
Highlights
  • 1930: Grace Hopper married Vincent Foster Hopper in 1930; their marriage lasted 15 years till 1945.

  • 1949: In 1949, Hopper became an employee of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation as a senior mathematician and joined the team developing the UNIVAC I. Hopper also served as UNIVAC director of Automatic Programming Development for Remington Rand.

  • 1952: By 1952, Hopper finished her program linker (originally called a compiler), which was written for the A-0 System.

  • 1954: In 1954 Hopper was named the company’s first director of automatic programming, and her department released some of the first compiler-based programming languages, including MATH-MATIC and FLOW-MATIC.

  • 1959: In 1959, she participated in the CODASYL consortium, which consulted Hopper to guide them in creating a machine-independent programming language.

  • 1992: She retained that position until her death at age 85 in 1992.

Grace Hopper and UNIVAC
Grace Murray Hopper at the UNIVAC keyboard, c. 1960. Grace Brewster Murray: American mathematician and rear admiral in the U.S. Navy who was a pioneer in developing computer technology, helping to devise UNIVAC I. the first commercial electronic computer, and naval applications for COBOL (common-business-oriented language).
wiki/Grace_Hopper
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(1959) Grace Hopper leads computer programming milestone.
Also on this day,
1093 | Winchester Cathedral
1820 | Venus found
1974 | Home run record