On October 17, 1936, Japanese geophysicist Hiroo Kanamori was born. Recipient of many prizes and awards, he has spent his life investigating the magnitude and energy releases of great earthquakes. Like Charles Richter, Kanamori has taught at the California Institute of Technology. The original…
On September 26, 1774, Jonathan Chapman aka Johnny Appleseed was born in Massachusetts. A restless, wiry man with some apprenticeship in plant nursery craft, he had a talent for understanding what a tree required and a spiritual desire to live a simple, waste-free life.…
On July 22, 1898, American aviator Wiley Hardeman Post was born. Wiley achieved his fame in what is often called the “Golden Age” of air racing, the 1930’s. First it was his win at the National Air Race Derby, from Los Angeles to Chicago.…
On May 25, 1889, Russian-born scientist, engineer, pilot and entrepreneur Igor Sikorsky was born. In 1913 he built the first fixed-wing four-engine aircraft in the world, achieving speed and altitude records only ten years after the Wright Brothers flight in 1903. Learning as he…
On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America’s first space traveller as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in a space capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. He splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean where, in the routine retrieval of that…
On April 4, 1947, the largest sunspot group known was being recorded, often referred to as the “Great Sunspot of 1947”. Sunspots are counted in groups rather than individually. That April, this largest group of sunspots eventually covered a total area of the sun’s…
On March 29, 1910, Prince Albert I inaugurated the Musée Océanographique de Monaco / Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. He stocked it with specimens he collected over his 30 years of sea exploration and expeditions. Some of these specimens had not been seen before. The…
On February 3, 1821, Anglo-American physician Elizabeth Blackwell was born. Encouraged to pursue a degree in medicine, Blackwell turned to teaching to earn money. Arranging to live in a physician’s house, she also acquired some medical training and introduction to Greek and Latin. Although…
On June 26, 1824, British mathematician, physicist, and inventor Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, was born. A student-researcher of many natural phenomena, Thomson spent his life learning and applying his knowledge and expertise to them all and, often, simultaneously. Lauded as a giant of…
On March 12, 1993, another great “Nor’easter” began and continued until the 15th – the Blizzard of 1993 or, as some have called it, “the Storm of the Century”. The storm moved from the Gulf of Mexico up into and finally blew itself out…