Champion of Environment Stewardship
On May 27, 1907, Rachel Louise Carson was born. She spent her entire life loving the natural world, particularly the ocean. She studied English and marine biology and wrote copy for weekly education broadcasts for U.S. Bureau of Fisheries [later named the U.S. Fish…
Under Fixed and Rotary Wing
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…
Leader First and Fastest
On May 11, 1906, world-renowned aviator Jacqueline Cochran was born. She held more speed, distance, and altitude records than any other flyer during her career, receiving over 200 awards as a pilot. In 1941, Cochran piloted a bomber to England and, as a flight…
Double Play!
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…
A Hit and a Miss
On May 2, 1497, John and Sebastian Cabot set sail from Bristol, England, financed by Italian banks and authorized by Henry VII to find and investigate new lands. Cabot father and son reached a new found land on June 24th. Thinking it to be…
When the Crust Crumbles
On April 26, 1900, physicist and seismologist Charles Francis Richter was born. A Californian intrigued by earthquakes and the waves of energy they release, he worked with Beno Gutenberg, a world authority on Earth’s interior physics and the man who proved Earth had a…
Seer of the Sierras
On April 21, 1838, John Muir was born. Muir was a naturalist who championed the creation of the first National Forests in the United States of America and co-founded the Sierra Club. As an explorer and writer, he inspired President Theodore Roosevelt’s innovative wildlife…
Mapping Each Eyeful
On April 20, 1798, geologist William Edmond Logan was born in Montreal. He began assessing coal suppliers for an uncle’s copper plant in Wales. Logan became involved in mapping out coal resources nearby that were so accurate, that the Geological Survey of Great Britain…
Solar Spotting
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…
Running Wild
On March 31, 1839, Russian military explorer Nikolai Przewalski was born. A curious boy who wanted to travel, he realized early that his best chances for this were increased if he joined the army; the army travelled! When he finally became a commissioned officer,…