On this day in history.

[KevinJS]

Haven't fact checked this one, but quite fascinating, if true.

On this day in 1971, the Apollo 15 Saturn IVB stage impacted the moon and left this crater, 30 metres across.

 

[scifan57]

Haven't fact checked this one, but quite fascinating, if true.

On this day in 1971, the Apollo 15 Saturn IVB stage impacted the moon and left this crater, 30 metres across.

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I found this article which talks about the Lunar impacts of the Saturn IV b stages of the Apollo 13 - 17 missions. The last impact site to be discovered was that from the Apollo 16 mission, which was discovered in January 2016. Handbook of Space Engineering, Archaeology, and Heritage

Here's the official NASA list of the impacts. Lunar Impact Sites

 

[giradman]

First Atom Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima this day by the Enola Gay!

Today in 1945, the first atom bomb was dropped on Japan w/ devastating results in quote below; a second bomb, code named “Fat Man”, was dropped three days later over Nagasaki, Japan. It is estimated that between 129,000- 246,000 people died, up to half of them in the first hour, as the results of these two bombs. By August 14, 1945, Japan had unconditionally surrendered (Source). Dave

On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout (Source).

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[scifan57]

First Atom Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima this day by the Enola Gay!

Today in 1945, the first atom bomb was dropped on Japan w/ devastating results in quote below; a second bomb, code named “Fat Man”, was dropped three days later over Nagasaki, Japan. It is estimated that between 129,000- 246,000 people died, up to half of them in the first hour, as the results of these two bombs. By August 14, 1945, Japan had unconditionally surrendered (Source). Dave


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When the decision was made to restore the Enola Gay there was quite a bit of controversy over whether or not the plane should be restored or even preserved. I think the right decision was made because no matter how a person feels about what happened it's a part of history that should never be forgotten.

 

[giradman]

When the decision was made to restore the Enola Gay there was quite a bit of controversy over whether or not the plane should be restored or even preserved. I think the right decision was made because no matter how a person feels about what happened it's a part of history that should never be forgotten.

Yes, that decision by Truman was indeed a moment in history that is impossible to argue about in retrospect - Operation Downfall was the code name for the planned invasion of Japan near the end of 1945, which was of course not needed after the two atomic bomb events.

Quoted from the link and estimates vary wildly but the one below is startling, i.e. over a half million American deaths and millions of Japanese deaths may have been averted - at the end of the war, America in toto had just over 400,000 fatalities which could have doubled w/ invasion of that island. Dave

A study done for Secretary of War Henry Stimson's staff by William Shockley estimated that conquering Japan would cost 1.7–4 million American casualties, including 400,000–800,000 fatalities, and five to ten million Japanese fatalities. The key assumption was large-scale participation by civilians in the defense of Japan.

 

[scifan57]

August 6, 1926;

Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Gertrude Ederle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[giradman]

Jesse Owens Wins 4th Gold Medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics!

Appropriate w/ the Summer Olympics in progress in Rio at the moment - an Afro-American runner/jumper embarrasses Adolph Hitler and his belief in Aryan supremacy - Jesse wins four Gold Medals in Berlin - below a few pics - the third is a plaque in Ann Arbor, Michigan where I spent 7 years as an undergrad and a medical school student - my father-in-law was also an undergrad there in the 1930s and was at that meet where Owens set the records shown.

Last month (and final image below), I streamed the new film Race which is about Owens in the mid-1930s when the Ann Arbor & Berlin events occurred - highly recommended! Dave

At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, African American track star Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal of the Games in the 4×100-meter relay. His relay team set a new world record of 39.8 seconds, which held for 20 years. In their strong showing in track-and-field events at the XIth Olympiad, Jesse Owens and other African American athletes struck a propaganda blow against Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who planned to use the Berlin Games as a showcase of supposed Aryan superiority (Source).

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[scifan57]

August 9, 1974;

Richard M. Nixon resigns, becoming the first U.S. President to resign from office. Richard Nixon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He was succeeded by Gerald R. Ford, who was the first person to assume the office through appointment, having been appointed to replace disgraced Vice President Spiro Agnew eight months earlier.
Gerald Ford - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[giradman]

He was succeeded by Gerald R. Ford, who was the first person to assume the office through appointment, having been appointed to replace disgraced Vice President Spiro Agnew eight months earlier.
Gerald Ford - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Gerald Ford, yet another University of Michigan undergrad - he was on the football team and played a number of positions - 3 years older that my father in-law, so they would have overlapped a year or two, but not sure if they knew each other?

Ford was not known as the 'brightest' of presidents, so a joke of the times was that he played too much football and forgot to put his helmet on? Of course, not true and the guy lived into his 90s (1913-2006) - Dave
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[giradman]

Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay opens in 1934 for Federal Prisoners!

Alcatraz Island, a small piece of land in San Francisco Bay becomes a federal prison for the 'most dangerous' convicts in the country, including the infamous Al Capone - now closed for years, a great tour which I've taken probably three times - the views of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge can be spectacular unless heavy fog obscures the view, not uncommon.

Below some pics of the island and of one of its famous prisoners, Al Capone - the last image is a satellite view of the bay showing the location of the two bridges one to Marin County and Muir Woods (a MUST visit) and continuing up HW 101 to Napa & Sonoma Valleys for wine lovers - also, ferries are available to Sausalito & Tiburon, special bay area towns w/ great restaurants and art galleries - we've visited both areas multiple times over the decades and highly recommended - could add a post of some of the art work and jewelry we've bought in those places - Dave

A group of federal prisoners classified as “most dangerous” arrives at Alcatraz Island, a 22-acre rocky outcrop situated 1.5 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay. The convicts–the first civilian prisoners to be housed in the new high-security penitentiary–joined a few dozen military prisoners left over from the island’s days as a U.S. military prison (Source).

In 1934, Alcatraz was fortified into a high-security federal penitentiary designed to hold the most dangerous prisoners in the U.S. penal system, especially those with a penchant for escape attempts. The first shipment of civilian prisoners arrived on August 11, 1934. Later that month, more shiploads arrived, featuring, among other convicts, infamous mobster Al Capone. In September, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, another luminary of organized crime, landed on Alcatraz (Source).

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[scifan57]

Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay opens in 1934 for Federal Prisoners!

Alcatraz Island, a small piece of land in San Francisco Bay becomes a federal prison for the 'most dangerous' convicts in the country, including the infamous Al Capone - now closed for years, a great tour which I've taken probably three times - the views of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge can be spectacular unless heavy fog obscures the view, not uncommon.

Below some pics of the island and of one of its famous prisoners, Al Capone - the last image is a satellite view of the bay showing the location of the two bridges one to Marin County and Muir Woods (a MUST visit) and continuing up HW 101 to Napa & Sonoma Valleys for wine lovers - also, ferries are available to Sausalito & Tiburon, special bay area towns w/ great restaurants and art galleries - we've visited both areas multiple times over the decades and highly recommended - could add a post of some of the art work and jewelry we've bought in those places - Dave




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If you plan to visit Alcatraz, advance reservations are highly recommended as same day sailings are usually fully booked.
When I took the tour I enjoyed seeing the cells where the most famous prisoners were housed as well as where various movies were filmed, such as Escape From Alcatraz, starring Clint Eastwood.

 

[giradman]

Aztec Capital Falls to Cortés on this day in 1521!

The Aztec capital Tenochtitlán in the Valley of Mexico is captured and then destroyed by Cortés and his Spaniards and Native American Allies, victims of the Aztec Empire. The continuation of centuries to come for North & South American native populations of death mainly from disease, destruction of numerous cultures, translocations to other lands (e.g. Trail of Tears), and countless broken treaties - this was the worst human genocide in the history of the planet, and is well detailed in the book shown below, the American Holocaust (1992) - synopsis in last quote from Amazon - need to re-read my copy.

Tenochtitlán was built on the western side of Lake Texcoco - the city had canals and beautiful causeways that astounded the Spanish (pictoral representation below) - Mexico City was built (and much expanded) on its ruins. Back in the 1972 (I was still a medical intern & before our son was born), we did a 2-week trip of Mexico (starting in Cozumel, then Merida and the Mayan ruins, and finally Mexico City w/ several side trips) - but if you're in the Mexican capital, then a visit to the National Museum of Anthropology is a MUST - below just one image of the reconstructed central plaza of the Aztec city. Dave

After a three-month siege, Spanish forces under Hernán Cortés capture Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire. Cortés’ men leveled the city and captured Cuauhtemoc, the Aztec emperor. Tenochtitlán was founded in 1325 A.D. by a wandering tribe of hunters and gatherers on islands in Lake Texcoco, near the present site of Mexico City. In only one century, this civilization grew into the Aztec empire, largely because of its advanced system of agriculture (Source).

The empire came to dominate central Mexico and by the ascendance of Montezuma II in 1502 had reached its greatest extent, extending as far south as perhaps modern-day Nicaragua. At the time, the empire was held together primarily by Aztec military strength, and Montezuma II set about establishing a bureaucracy, creating provinces that would pay tribute to the imperial capital of Tenochtitlán. The conquered peoples resented the Aztec demands for tribute and victims for the religious sacrifices, but the Aztec military kept rebellion at bay (Source).

For four hundred years--from the first Spanish assaults against the Arawak people of Hispaniola in the 1490s to the U.S. Army's massacre of Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee in the 1890s--the indigenous inhabitants of North and South America endured an unending firestorm of violence. During that time the native population of the Western Hemisphere declined by as many as 100 million people. Indeed, as historian David E. Stannard argues in this stunning new book, the European and white American destruction of the native peoples of the Americas was the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world (Source).

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[giradman]

Panama Canal Opens to Traffic This Day in 1914!

The Panama Canal Project started by the French in 1881 resulting in high mortality rates, and was taken over by the United States in 1904, and completed ten years later; likely the greatest engineering projects of its time and incredibly expensive (see quotes below from the same Wiki article). Several months ago the new expanded canal lanes opened to permit passage of the newer HUGE container ships - in the United States, multiple ports along the Gulf Coast & up the Atlantic Coast are expanding their docks at great cost to accommodate these larger ships. Dave

The Panama Canal is a man-made 48-mile (77 km) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. There are locks at each end to lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, 26 metres (85 ft) above sea level. The original locks are 33.5 metres (110 ft) wide. A third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016. The expanded canal began commercial operation on June 26, 2016. The new locks allow transit of larger, Post-Panamax ships, which have a greater cargo capacity than the previous locks were capable of handling (Source).

France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The United States took over the project in 1904, and opened the canal on August 15, 1914. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduced the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan (Source).

The construction of the canal was completed in 1914, 401 years after Panama was first crossed by Vasco Núñez de Balboa. The United States spent almost $375,000,000 (roughly equivalent to $8,600,000,000 now[46]) to finish the project. This was by far the largest American engineering project to date. The canal was formally opened on August 15, 1914, with the passage of the cargo ship SS Ancon (Source).

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[scifan57]

August 16, 1896;

Gold is discovered in the Yukon Territory. George Carmack and his two Native American companions Skookum Jim and Tagish Charlie were camping near a tributary of the Yukon River called Rabbit creek when one of them spotted gold nuggets in the creek bank. A little digging quickly revealed that the area was thick with gold deposits. They staked their claim the next day and their discovery set off the last big gold rush of the 19th century. George Carmack was one of the few prospectors to leave the Yukon a rich man, having amassed $1,000,000 worth of gold. Klondike Gold Rush - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Prospectors climbing the Chilkoot Pass on their way to the Klondike.

 

[giradman]

Roanoke Island - First English Colony on North Carolina Coast Found Deserted in 1590?

In 1585, the first attempt to establish an English settlement was on Roanoke Island (about a 4 1/2 hr drive for us - see maps below) - Sir Walter Raleigh was the impetus w/ the help of Elizabeth I behind the colony although he never traveled there - our state capital is named after him (and the state of Virginia after Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen). The island lies between the mainland and the upper Outer Banks of North Carolina (site of the 1903 flight of the Wright Brothers).

Virginia Dare (grand daughter of John White, the governor of Roanoke Island) was the first 'English child' born in the American colonies. White was also an excellent artist and made many watercolors of the American Natives, their culture, and the nearby flora & fauna - an excellent exhibit of his original paintings was held at the NC Museum of History not too long ago (I may have posted pics in one of the forums here?). The Spanish Armada in 1585 delayed a return to Roanoke Island and on this day in 1590, White finally arrived and found a deserted colony which remains unexplained to this day.

On Roanoke Island today, there is a National Historic site (pics below) which has a number of attractions, including an outdoor drama, The Lost Colony - the now deceased actor & television star, Andy Griffith performed in the drama from 1947 to 1953 in the role of Raleigh. Also, one of the three NC Aquariums is located on the island and is worth a visit. Dave

The Roanoke Island colony, the first English settlement in the New World, was founded by English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh in August 1585. The first Roanoke colonists did not fare well, suffering from dwindling food supplies and Indian attacks, and in 1586 they returned to England aboard a ship captained by Sir Francis Drake. In 1587, Raleigh sent out another group of 100 colonists under John White. White returned to England to procure more supplies, but the war with Spain delayed his return to Roanoke. By the time he finally returned in August 1590, everyone had vanished (Source).

John White, the governor of the Roanoke Island colony in present-day North Carolina, returns from a supply-trip to England to find the settlement deserted. White and his men found no trace of the 100 or so colonists he left behind, and there was no sign of violence. Among the missing were Ellinor Dare, White’s daughter; and Virginia Dare, White’s granddaughter and the first English child born in America. August 18 was to have been Virginia’s third birthday. The only clue to their mysterious disappearance was the word “CROATOAN” carved into the palisade that had been built around the settlement. White took the letters to mean that the colonists had moved to Croatoan Island, some 50 miles away, but a later search of the island found none of the settlers (Source).

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