A date in history of medicine, science, environmental study, space exploration of benefit to our knowledge of earth and life sciences of interest.
On this day in Sault Ste Marie Ontario, future neuro-ophthalmologist and payload specialist Roberta Lynn Bondar was born. Of course, no one knew all that at the time. Or even what those words meant. She had to learn to walk first! And to prefer…
On August 25, 1916, the United States National Park Service was created by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act to care for all national parks, historic battlefields, and monuments throughout the country. More than 400 National Parks later… the USNPS celebrates its…
On August 24, 79, the first recorded explosion of Mount Vesuvius, Italy, was witnessed by the 18-year-old nephew of the Commander of the Roman Fleet. His uncle sailed with ships to rescue survivors, leaving the teen to observe the eruption from home across the…
On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to travel into space. He made a 108-minute orbital flight in the fully automated Vostok 1 space capsule. Gagarin did not land in his space capsule. Vostok 1’s reentry into the atmosphere…
On February 22, 1857, German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was born. He was a student and protégé of the great Hermann von Helmholtz. Hertz began his career as a university lecturer and quickly established himself as an accomplished speaker. In his lab, Hertz demonstrated…
On October 16, 1975, NASA launched GOES-1 – the first Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. Over the Indian Ocean, GOES-1 achieved a specific geostationary orbit, approximately 35,785 km (22,236 mi) above the equator, following the direction of Earth’s rotation, matching its rotation period, and appearing…
On May 20, 1570, the world’s first true modern atlas, was published in Antwerp. Compiled by Flemish geographer and cartographer Abraham Ortelius (Ortels), Theatrum Orbis Terrarum [Theatre of the World] was a bound collection of maps and explanatory text. The maps could be bound…
On May 18, 1980, in Washington state, Mount St. Helens volcano exploded leaving 57 people dead or missing. This was a Plinian eruption. It validated Pliny the Younger’s eyewitness description, often regarded as exaggeration, of the Vesuvius explosion that buried Pompeii and Heraculaneum. Mount…
On February 21, 1849, Canadian inventor and surveyor, Édouard Gaston Daniel Deville was born in France. A naval school graduate who served in the French navy, he conducted marine surveys around Peru and South Pacific islands, using sounding lines, to measure and describe features…
On February 17, 1858, educator, illustrator, biologist, photographer, and writer Margaret Warner Morley was born. After graduating as a teacher in New York City, she studied at what is now the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods…