On January 28

On this day in ...
... 1986 (25 years ago today), as thousands watched at Cape Canaveral, Florida, a U.S. space shuttle exploded soon after its launch. The worst accident in NASA history, the Challenger explosion claimed the lives of all 7 astronauts, among them Christa McAuliffe, 37, "a high-school social studies teacher from New Hampshire," who'd won "a nationwide competition to be the first private citizen to fly aboard a space shuttle." (credit for photo of McAuliffe, standing 2d from left, along with fellow astronauts: left to right in front row, Commander Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, and Dr. Ronald McNair; standing, Lt. Col. Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Dr. Judith A. Resnik) No humans would again travel in U.S. space vehicles until September 1988.

(Prior January 28 posts are here, here, and here.)

On May 28

On this day in ...
... 1959 (50 years ago today) , 2 females became "the first living creatures to survive a space flight." Both were monkeys -- Able, a 7-pound rhesus monkey, and Baker, a 1-pound squirrel monkey (left). (photo credit) They traveled at speeds of up to 10,000 mph during a flight that sent them 300 miles into space in a Jupiter missile. It began at Florida's Cape Canaveral and and ended 15 minutes later in the Atlantic Ocean near Puerto Rico. Another female, a dog named Laika, had died during a 1957 flight launched by the Soviet Union (right). (credit for photo of Bulgarian stamp)
... 1964 (45 years ago today), at a meeting held by the Palestinian National Congress at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Jerusalem, the Palestinian Liberation Organization was formed. (image credit)

(Prior May 28 posts are here and here.)

On May 25

On this day in ...
... 2005, Dr. Ruth Wijdenbosch was re-elected to the Parliament of Surinam. She was brought to IntLawGrrls' attention last summer by a comment that told how Wijdenbosch (right) was instrumental in securing Surinam's accession to the Rome Statute, making it the 107th state party to the International Criminal Court. On the 10th anniversary of the Rome Statute in 2008, Wijdenbosch delivered a speech in which she: told of her record as a human rights convener in Suriname's post-dictatorship era; spoke of the need for a permanent international court "to protect individuals and groups if the national judicial systems are not able or willing to do so"; and expressed her opposition to Bush Administration efforts to secure for the United States bilateral immunity agreements. (photo credit)
... 1961, in a speech broadcast nationally on radio and TV, U.S. President John F. Kennedy declared:

'I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.'

Thus began a multibillion-dollar space program that would culminate in the also-televised July 20, 1969, moonwalk of NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong, depicted in the video below.





(Prior May 25 posts are here and here.)

On September 12

On this day in ...

... 1992, Dr. Mae Carol Jemison became the 1st African-American woman in outer space, as a member of a NASA mission aboard the shuttle Endeavour. Born in Alabama, raised in Chicago, and educated at Stanford and Cornell universities, Jemison (right) earned her M.D. degree in 1981. She practiced medicine in Los Angeles and worked for the Peace Corps in Africa before beginning to train as an astronaut in 1987. Jemison left NASA a year after her shuttle mission, started a consulting group, and wrote a young readers' book, Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life (2001).

... 1974, a military junta led by Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam and known as the Derg, or Committee, seized control of Ethiopia from 82-year-old Emperor Haile Selassie I. Scores of political opponents were killed in the aftermath; the former emperor himself was strangled 11 months after the coup. The authoritarian regime lasted until May 1991, when Mengistu (left) "fled the country for asylum in Zimbabwe." Similar to the domestic judgment levied last month against Chad's former dictator (IntLawGrrls' post here), this past May a court in Ethiopia convicted Mengistu in absentia of genocide and sentenced him to death. It's a judgment that Mengistu might one day have to face, should the current crisis in his country of asylum, Zimbabwe, end with the departure of its longtime leader, Robert Mugabe.

On June 24

On this day in ...

... 1983 (25 years ago today), astronaut Dr. Sally K. Ride (left), the United States' 1st woman in space, returned to Earth after completing a 6-day flight in the Challenger space shuttle. The 32-year-old Ride, the 3d woman ever to travel in space, is a former a tennis champion. Ride received a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University in 1978, the same year she entered NASA's training program. Among her books is To Space and Back (1989), written with Susan Okie.

... 1859, French and Sardinian troops fought Austrian troops in the Battle of Solferino, the carnage of which inspired establishment of the International Committee of the Red Cross. More than 6,000 persons were killed and 40,000 wounded in a day; those of the latter who could headed to Castiglione, the village nearest the battlefield, in what is now northern Italy. There the Geneva, Switzerland-born Jean Henri Dunant, also known as "Henry Dunant, helped by local women, cared for the wounded and dying for three days and three nights." Dunant recounted the experience in A Memory of Solferino, 1st published in 1862. He would win the 1901 Nobel Peace Prize.

On October 4 ...

... 1957 (50 years ago today), as Americans awaited a sitcom, "Leave It To Beaver," due to premiere that night, "[h]istory changed," in the words of the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The event? The Soviets' successful launch and consequent 18,000-mph Earth-orbit of a 180-or-so-pound metal orb the size of a basketball, named Sputnik (model above). This launch date for the 1st-ever satellite marks the beginning of the United Nations' annual World Space Week. This year's theme: "Space for Humanity." Though Sputnik I transmitted data for just 3 weeks, its legacy of a space race and "political, military, technological, and scientific developments" has lasted much longer.
... 1830, Belgians declared independence from the Netherlands, having risen in insurrection on August 25. A Dutch counterattack would fail, and the split-up of the 2 countries was made final in a series of London conferences. This year's anniversary arrives amid prolonged political crisis in Belgium.

On May 18, ...

...2007 (today), is the 1st-ever Endangered Species Day, observed at zoos, aquariums, and elsewhere. Another way to honor the day:
Take a look at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, better known as CITES, which entered into force in 1975 and now has 171 states parties (including the United States). Have a read of "Restoring Endangered Species: The Importance of Being Wild" by our colleague Holly Doremus. Then ponder how to improve efforts to prevent habitat loss, trafficking, and other threats to our world's precious living resources.
... 1953, pilot Jackie Cochran, who'd organized the 1st U.S. women's military flight support unit during World War II, flew at a speed of 447.47 mph to become the 1st woman to break the sound barrier.
... 1991, having responded to a Help Wanted ad, cosmonaut Helen Sharman became the 1st Briton in outer space when she and 2 men were launched in a Soyuz craft. Sharman's feat took place 8 years after Sally Ride became the 1st American woman in space -- and more than 30 years after American women 1st trained for that job. As detailed in Martha Ackmann's "The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight," Jerrie Cobb (below) and her 12 comrades matched their male counterparts in fitness and performance. Yet in 1962 -- just 1 year before the 1st woman cosmonaut, Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova of the Soviet Union, entered space -- the 13 were rejected by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The physician who tested them distilled to 1 word the reason NASA deemed the women unsuitable:
"Ovaries. The world just wasn't ready at that time."