For the last day of Black History Month, I'm featuring (gasp!) a black astronaut! Robert "Bobby" Satcher, born September 22, 1965 just down the road here in Hampton, Virgina, flew on the space shuttle Atlantis (STS-129) November 2009.
During the mission, he completed two EVAs for over 12 hours. He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT and a medical doctorate from Harvard Medical School.
Left to right: Pierre Thuot, John Casper, John Creighton, Richard Mullane, David Hilmers
Mission patch
Space Shuttle Atlantis, launched February 28, 1990, was the sixth flight for Atlantis and carried a classified payload for the U.S. Department of Defense. Its crew consisted of Commander John Creighton, Pilot John Casper, mission specialists Pierre Thuot, David Hilmers and Richard Mullane.
It has been theorized that the crew deployed a reconnaissance satellite "Misty" for the DoD, but that is still classified.
Louis Prima wrote and recorded Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing) with the New Orleans Gang and released it on Brunswick Records February 28, 1936. It has become synonymous with the big band and swing eras.
Benny Goodman recorded it in July 1937, which was 8 minutes and 43 seconds, which took up both sides of a 12" 78 rpm record. His recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1982.
The 22nd Grammy Awards was held February 27, 1980
in Los Angeles and my man Billy Joel took home Grammy for Album of the Year and
Pop Male Vocalist, 52nd Street!
It must have been an awesome night. Look at some of the other winners:
John Williams: Best Original Score for a Motion Picture, Best
Instrumental Composition – Superman
Supertramp: Best Album Package. Best Engineered Recording –
Breakfast in America
Doobie Brothers: Record of the Year, Best Cast Show Album –
What a Fool Believes
Charlie Daniels Band: Best C&W Performance – Duo or Group
with Vocal – Devil Went Down to Georgia
Kenny Rogers: Best C&W Male Vocal Performance – The Gambler
Gloria Gaynor: Best Disco Recording – I Will Survive
Ella Fitzgerald: Best Jazz Vocal Performance – Fine and
Mellow
Herb Alpert: Best Pop Instrumental Performance – Rise
Michael Mack became the first African-American actor to portray a Romulan on Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Pegasus, January 8, 1994. Up to this point, all actors had been white. Mack, who also appeared in Star Trek: Generations as an ensign, played the Romulan Commander Sirol deliciously evilly.
Soyuz MS-06/Expedition 45 crew: Joe Acaba, Alexander Misurkin, Mark Vande Hei
Commander Alexander Misurkin, Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei will climb back into Soyuz MS-06, today about 2:15p and depart the International Space Station, landing about 9:30pm (EST) in Kazakhstan.
Soyuz MS-06 launched back on September 12, 2017 where they joined the second part of Expedition 53. In December, Misurkin became commander of the ISS for Expedition 54, when Soyuz MS-07 brought three more astronauts to ISS.
Misurkin, Acaba and Vande Hei have spent 168 days in space, orbiting Earth 2,688 times. They conducted many experiments including maintenance. During one EVA, they replaced a degraded latching end effector (LEE) on one end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm, which the crews have affectionately named "Mr. Roboto".
The second single from Nancy Sinatra's debut album Boots, the iconic These Boots Are Made for Walkin', reached #1 in the U.S. February 26, 1966. Her first single So Long, Babe was a minor hit but this one was a major hit and shot up the charts, after being released in January. It repeated its success in the U.K., Australia, and Ireland and it has been covered by various artists more than a dozen times.
I think everyone can probably sing the words to the refrain by memory.
Andre Cailloux, born 1825 in Louisiana, was one of the first black officers in the Union Army to be killed in combat during the Civil War, during an unsuccessful attack on Port Hudson, Louisiana, a Confederate fort.
After he gained his freedom, he became a successful cigar maker and was a well-respected member of the 10,000 "free men of color" in New Orleans.
When the Civil War broke out, Cailloux was commission as a lieutenant in the Confederate regiment the Native Guard, which consisted entirely of free men of color, but the regiment was just for show and the Confederates never supplied them with uniforms or weapons. They disbanded the Guard in February 1862, just two months before New Orleans fell to Union Admiral David Farragut in April.
Union General Benjamin Butler, now headquartered in New Orleans, ordered an all-black Union Army, 1st Louisiana Native Guard in September. Cailloux was comissioned as captain of Company E and his was considered the best in the Guard.
In December 1862, Nathaniel Banks replaced Butler and in May 1863, moved most of his army to surround Port Hudson, a Confederate fort, strategically located on a bend in the Mississippi River. Banks launched a poorly coordinated attack. Cailloux was ordered to lead his company of 100 men into a suicide assault against the Confederate sharpshooters. Cailloux led his troops on several charges, but on the last charge a ball hit his arm and left it hanging by his side. He continued to charge until an artillery shell killed him.
Confederates granted a truce the next day so Union troops could recover their dead, but the rebel sharpshooters kept them from collecting the black casualties. Cailloux's body lay for 47 days until Port Hudson surrendered to Banks July 9, 1863.
His body was retunred to New Orleans and he was honored by thousands of attendees.
Comedienne Josephine Tewson, born February 26, 1931 in London, has been acting since the late 50's, but she is probably best known for her role as the nervous, oppressed next-door neighbor Elizabeth to Hyacinth Bucket (prounced "bouquet") on Keeping Up Appearances. Afterwards she starred as the librarian in Last of the Summer Wine.
She is at least the fourth cast member of Keeping Up Appearances to celebrate a birthday in February!
I just found out that comedienne Nanette Fabray passed away this past Thursday, February 22, 2018. She was born October 27, 1920 in San Diego. She started acting at a young age and overcame a significant hearing impairment. She continued to advocate for rights for deaf and hearing-impaired.
She won 3 Primetime Emmys for her comedic genius.
I remember watching her on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and One Day At a Time, but my fondest memories are of her on the Carol Burnett Show.
In June 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed executive order 8802, which prohibited racial discrimination by any government agency. In January 1944, the Navy accelerated 2-month officer training for 16 African-American men at the then-named Camp Robert Smalls in Illinois.
All 16 members but only 12 were commissioned in March 1944 as ensigns:
John Walter Reagan (b.1920-d.1994)
Jesse Walter Arbor (b.1914-d.2000)
Samuel David Jones
Darion Damon Ivy lll (b.1914 - d. 2014)
Graham Edward Martin (b.1917- d.?)
Phillip George Barnes
Reginald Goodwin
James Edward Hair (b.1915-d.1992)
Samuel Edward Barnes
George Clinton Cooper
William Sylvester White
Dennis Denmark Nelson
Charles Byrd Lear (b.1920-d.2006) was appointed as a Warrant Officer.
From left to right: Alvin Drew, Nicole Stott, Eric Boe, Steven Lindsey, Michael Barratt and Steve Bowen
Mission Patch
Space Shuttle Discovery took off February 24, 2011, NASA's 133rd shuttle mission to the International Space Station and the last flight of Discovery. Its crew consisted of Commander Steven Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe, Nicole Stott, Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt, Stephen Bowen
It was originally slated to launch in September 2010, but moved back to October 2010 and then February 2011. It also took several attempts to land, scrubbing the first five tries.
Vasily Lazarev, born February 23, 1928 in the Soviet Union, flew aboard Soyuz 12 and the flawed Soyuz 18a in April 1975.
The Soyuz 12, with Lazarev and Oleg Makarov, was the first manned mission after the trafic events of the Soyuz 11, when 3 cosmonauts perished when their capsule depressurized.
On April 5, 1975, Lazarev and Makarov launched in Soyuz 18a. Onlky minutes after take-off, the spacecraft suffered a high-altitude booster accident and the mission was aborted. The cosmonauts landed on a snow-covered slope and began sliding downhill until the parachutes, which opened correctly, snagged on vegetation, stopping their decent.
Lazarev never recovered completely from his injuries and did not go into space again. He passed away December 31, 1990 in Moscow.
Michael Steele, born October 19, 1958 in Andrews Field, Maryland, became the first African-American lieutenant governor of Maryland January 13, 2003 and served until January 15, 2007. He served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee from January 2009-January 2011.
Although Republican, Steele has been a vocal critic of The Donald's administration.
Super country group Alabama won the Grammy for Best Country & Western Performance - Duo or Group with Vocal February 23, 1983 for the song Mountain Music. It is the title track to their top-selling album, Mountain Music, which has been certified 5 x platinum.
Kosmos 110 (Cosmos 110), launched February 22, 1966, carried two dogs, Veterok (Light Breeze) and Ugolyok (Coal) into orbit. They were part of an experiment to study the Van Allen radiation belts. They remained in orbit for 22 days and were successfully recovered March 16.
Their trip holds the record for longest time in space for dogs.
Stephanie Wilson is the second black female astronaut to travel into space, after Mae Jemison, and she is a veteran of three space shuttle flights. She has spent more time in space than any other black astronaut, male or female.
Born September 27, 1966 in Boston, Massachusetts, she began her astronaut training in August 1996 and first went into space on Discovery (STS-121) as mission specialist in July 2006. She and fellow astronaut Lisa Nowak operated the robotic arm on the International Space Station during the mission.
Her second flight was on Discovery (STS-120) October-November 2007. She operated the robotic arm again.
Her third and latest (hopefully not the last) mission was on back on Discovery (STS-131) in April 2010 as mission specialist. She participated in interviews while on board as well as operating the robotic arm.
Styx released their eleventh studio album, Kilroy Was Here, February 22, 1983. The concept album, which is based on a dystopian future where rock music is outlawed, was in part a mocking reponse to fundamentalist Christian groups, who managed to persuade the Arkansas State Senate to pass a bill requiring that all albums containing "back-masking" be labeled. Styx was among other groups such as the Beatles, ELO, Pink Floyd and Queen.
According to wikipedia.com, the fifth track Heavy Metal Poisoning, contains the two mottoes found on the U.S. one-dollar bill back masked.
This is the last album of original material to be released by the "classic" lineup of Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, James Young, and twins John and Chuck Panozzo.
The biggest hit from teh album was Mr. Roboto, which reach #3 on the Billboard charts.
Soyuz TM-23, launched February 21, 1996, was the 25th manned mission to the space station Mir. Its crew consisted of Commander Yuri Onufrienko and Flight Engineer Yury Usachov. It docked with Mir on February 23, and joined expedition EO-21 which included Shannon Lucid.
They performed an EVA on March 15, the second on May 20, a third May 24, the fourth on May 30, the fifth on June 6 and the final one on June 13.
Soyuz TM-23 undocked from Mir on September 2 and returned to Earth with Claudie Andre-Deshays on board.
Twins Mark Edward Kelly and Scott Joseph Kelly, born February 21, 1964 in Orange, New Jersey, are both astronauts, who were selected by NASA in 1986 and have logged many hours in space.
Mark Kelly is a veteran of four space shuttle flights. His first trip into space was aboard Endeavour (STS-108) to the International Space Station in December 2001 as pilot. His second missin was aboard Discovery (STS-121) also to the ISS as pilot in July 2006. He served as commander on his third flight back on Discovery (STS-124) May-June 2006. His fourth and final flight was on Endeavour (STS-134) as commander May-June 2011. He retired from NASA June 21, 2011 to help his wife, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded in an assassination attempt, recover from her injuries.
Scott Kelly has flown two space shuttle missions and set a record in 2015 for the total number of accumulated days. This record was broken the following year by Jeff Williams, and the year after by Peggy Whitson.
His first flight was aboard Discovery (STS-103) as pilot in December 1999, a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. His second mission was on Endeavour (STS-118) as commander to the ISS in August 2007. He flew to the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-01M to the ISS with Commander Aleksandr Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka in October 7, 2010. He first served as flight engineer on Expedition 25, beginning the second part of the expedition. He became commander of Expedition 26 which began on November 10, 2010. He returned to Earth March 16, 2011.
His fourth and final mission was on Soyuz TMA-16M launched March 27, 2015 with Mikhail Kornienko, when he began a year-long mission aboard the ISS. He spent 11 months inspace, conducting 3 EVAs before he returned to Earth March 2016 on Soyuz TMA-18M. He was aboard the ISS for Expeditions 43-46. Upon his return, he retired from NASA in April 2016.
He published a book last year Endurance about his time in space.
Of course, I'm not going to let Black History Month go by without giving a shout out to my girls, the beautiful, talented Pointer Sisters. Not just because they are my favorite group but they also pushed back race barriers through their beautiful music.
October 25, 1974, they became the first African-American vocal group to perform at the Grand Ol' Opry. Charley Pride appeared in 1967. They performed Fairytale, a country song written by Anita and Bonnie which appeared on their album That's a Plenty, released in February 1974. It was a departure from their usual R&B sound, but it paid off. It gave them their first Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for 1974. It was the first Grammy to an all-female vocal group.
Anita and Bonnie were nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Song for writing Fairytale.
They planned to record an album of all C&W songs, but only one song was released, Live Your Life Before You Die. It was a minor hit but it did give them another Grammy nomination for Best Country Group Performance.
Wonderful and hilarious Rue McClanahan, born February 21, 1934 in Healdton, Oklahoma(!), became a favorite of television fans when she appeared as ditzy neighbor Vivian Harmon on the sitcom Maude starring Bea Arthur. She starred in Mama's Family with Vicki Lawrence as Aunt Fran and a guest appearance on Murder, She Wrote with Angela Lansbury.
Then she landed a role that cemented her fanbase forever, when she was cast as the seductive, unashamedly promiscuous Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls with Betty White and Bea Arthur.
She remained active by appearing in roles throughout the 1990s and 2000s when she starred as Peggy Ingram in the mini-series Sordid Lives, a prequel to the movie of the same name.
Rue left us in June 2010 when she suffered a brain hemorrhage.
Vasily Tsibliyev, born February 20, 1954, is a veteran of two Soyuz missions and served as commander of Mir. Selected as a cosmonaut in March 1987, Vasily first went into space on Soyuz TM-17, July 1993 - January 1994 as commander. It was the 17th mission to Mir.
His second and final flight was on Soyuz TM-25, from February - August 1997. During his command, a Progress spacecraft, an unmanned craft which ferries supplies to Mir, hit the space station, damaging Mir.
But the crew managed to save Mir. Watch the video below: I haven't found the continuation of it though.
Soyuz TM-29, launched February 20, 1999, was the 38th mission to Mir. Its crew consisted of Commander Viktor Afanasyev, Flight Engineer Jean-Pierre Haignere (France), and Research Cosmonaut Ivan Bella (Slovakia). Bella is the first Slovak citizen to go into space. He stayed on Mir for about a week and returned to Earth on Soyuz TM-28.
Afanasyev and Haignere remained on board until August 28 and returned with fellow cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev.
Lt. Ronald Johnson was the first black trooper in the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. He graduated from the patrol's academy in 1968 when he was 34 years old. Johnson had retired from the U.S. Air Force and applied to the academy the previous year but was told the department had "lost his application". And the commander at the time said the OHP was not ready for a black trooper.
Johnson reapplied the following year and, out of 26 recruits, he was one of seven men to graduate. He retired from the OHP in 1987 and passed away in 2011.
Bernard Harris, Jr., born June 26, 1956 in Temple, Texas, is a veteran of two space shuttle flights and is the first African-American to walk in space.
His first mission was on Columbia (STS-55) in April-May 1993 as mission specialist.
His second flight was on Discovery (STS-63) in February 1995 as mission specialist to the space station Mir, but didn't dock. During this mission, he became the first African-American to walk in space. His fellow astronaut, Michael Foale, with whom he performed the EVA, became the first Brit to walk in space.
Mir space station, as seen from Space Shuttle Endeavour during the STS-89 mission February 1998
Mir insignia patch
Mir space station, launched February 19, 1986, was the next
step in the Soviet space program following the Salyut project. It was the first modular space station and it
was assembled in orbit over the following ten years until 1996. It became the first continuously inhabited
long-term research station at 3,644 days, until the International Space Station
surpassed its record in October 2010.
Over the course of its existence, it was visited by
astronauts from France, UK, Austria, Germany and Slovakia. The U.S. and the Russians cooperated in the
Mir-Space Shuttle program in the 1990s.
Shannon Lucid recorded the longest stay for a woman on Mir.
During its lifetime, Mir hosted 28 expeditions and saw 80
EVAs.
It was decommissioned and re-entered Earth’s atmosphere
March 21, 2001.
Lunar probe Ranger 8, launched February 17, 1965, sent back over 7000 images of the moon before it impacted the surface in a planned maneuver. On February 18, at about 160,000 miles from the moon, Ranger 8 made a course correction and reached its target two days later.
In its final 23 minutes of flight, it took 7,137 images of good quality of the lunar surface. It impacted the moon at about 6,000 mph.
Ida B. Wells, born July 16, 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi, was a teacher, journalist suffragist, a leaer in the early Civil Rights Movement and co-founder of the NAACP. She was orphaned at 16 years old, but went to work as a teacher to provide and care for her younger siblings so the family could stay together.
May 4, 1884, she purchased a ticket with the Memphis and Charleston Railroad in the first-class ladies car, but was told to move. When she refused, she was forcibly dragged from the car. She sued the railroad company and won the initial case in the local circuit court but the railroad company appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which reversed the lower court's ruling.
In 1889, Thomas Moss, an entrepeneur and friend of Wells, was lynched with two other men. Moss had opened a grocery store that competed and did better than the white-owned grocery store across the street. This prompted Wells to research and document lynching and their causes. She published her findings in a pamphlet "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases" in 1892.
She fiercely campaigned against lynching and even traveled to Europe twice to promote her message.
Wells passed away of kidney failure in March 1931 in Chicago.
Valentin Bondarenko, born February 16, 1937 in Ukraine, was an ill-fated cosmonaut in the early years of the Soviet space program. He attended an Air Force college and became a pilot, rising to the rank of Senior Lieutenant in 1959.
The next year, he was selected as a cosmonaut in 1960. On March 23, 1961, Day 10 of a 15-day endurance test, Bondarenko was in a low pressure altitude chamber with an atmosphere of at least 50% oxygen. He removed some monitoring biosensors attached to his body, and washed off his skin with a cotton ball that had been soaked in alcohol. He threw the cotton ball away but it landed on a hot plate, which he was using to brew tea. The cotton ignited. Bondarenko tried to smother the flames but the sleeves of his coveralls were wool, and also caught fire in the oxygen-rich atmosphere.
It took the monitoring doctor almost half an hour to open the chamber because of the pressure difference. By that time, Bondarenko's clothing had burned until all the oxygen had been depleted and he had suffered third-degree burns over most of his body, only the soles of his feet were spared, since his boots had protected them from the flames.
Yuri Gagarin served as a 'deathwatch officer' for several hours until Bondarenko died of shock 16 hours after the accident. Less than three weeks later, Gagarin made his his historic Vostok 1 flight.
The news and circumstances of Bondarenko's death were not released at the time and the Soviets even went so far as to air-brush him out of pictures, since he had already appeared in group photos and films. Details of his death were finally made public about 1980.
There has been speculation that if the Soviets had released information surrounding Bondarenko's death in an oxygen-rich atmosphere, the same fate would not have happened to the Apollo 1 crew. However, NASA was fully aware of the dangers of 100% oxygen atmospheres by 1966.
So if NASA knew about the dangers, why did they not do something to prevent it? Did they gamble with the astronauts' lives? Did they feel it wasn't necessary to change the atmosphere, because they thought something like that would never happen?
What do you think?
As with Chaffee, Apollo 1 astronaut whose birthday we celebrated yesterday, a crater on the far side of the moon has been named for Bondarenko.
Leland Melvin, born February 15, 1964 in Lynchburg, Virginia, is an African-American astronaut and a veteran of two space shuttle flights. He graduated from the University of Richmond with a degree in Chemistry!
He was recruited by the Detroit Lions in the 11th round of the 1986 NFL Draft as a wide receiver but pulled a hamstring during training and was released.
Melvin was selected as an astronaut in 1998 and flew on his first mission in February 2008 on Atlantis (STS-122) as mission specialist to the International Space Station.
His second was aboard Atlantis (STS-129) in November 2009 as mission specialist to the ISS.
My man Billy Joel won two Grammy awards for Just the Way You Are, a track from his fifth studio album, The Stranger, at the awards show on February 15, 1979. It was his first gold single in the U.S. and it topped Billboard's Easy Listening Chart for all of January 1978.
It won for Record of the Year and Song of the Year for 1979.
According to wikipedia, Billy didn't like the song even though he wrote it and didn't want to include it on the album, but Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow convinced him to include it.
Roger Chaffee, born February 15, 1935 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was an astronaut, who perished in the Apollo 1 fire, January 27, 1967. He had risen to the rank of lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy and was selected as an astronaut in 1963.
He was capsule communicator for the Gemini 3 and Gemini 4 missions, before being assigned to the Apollo 1 mission, planned for launch February 21, 1967. During a routine pre-launch test on Janary 27 with fellow astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Ed White, a fire broke out in the capsule. The flame was fueled by the oxygen rich atmosphere and the burning materials released toxic gases which contributed to the astronauts' death.
As a result of the tragedy, the capsule went under a significant redesign.
Chaffee has been memorialized in many ways, including naming a crater on the far side of the moon after him.
Winston Scott, born August 6, 1950, is the veteran of two space shuttle missions. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in music from Florida State University but then went into Aeronautical Engineering and got a Masters from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.
He first went into space aboard Endeavour (STS-72) in January 1996 as mission specialist. He performed his first EVA during the flight.
His second mission was on Columbia (STS-87) in November-December 1997, when he performed two more EVAs.
Scott wrote a book Reflections From Earth Orbit, which is about his experiences in space.
Pham Tuan, born February 14, 1947 in Thai Binh, Vietnam, is the first Vietnamese cosmonaut and first Asian in space. His only mission was aboard Soyuz 37 which was launched July 23, 1980 with fellow cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko to Salyut 6.
He returned to Earth on Soyuz 36 July 31 with Gorbatko. It was his only mission into space.
Absalom Jones, born November 7, 1746, was the first African-American to be ordained as an Episcopal priest in the U.S. Jones became a lay minister in an interracial church St. George's Methodist in Philadelphia and became one of the first African-Americans to preach in the Methodist Church.
In 1792, Absalom and other black members were told they could not join the rest of the congregation and had to sit in the back and then on the balcony. They all walked out.
Jones established a black congregation independent of white control and still remain part of the Episcopal Church. He successfully petitioned to open African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, the first black church in Philadelphia, July 17, 1794. He was ordained as a priest in 1804, the first African-American priest in the Episcopal Church.
He passed away February 13, 1818 and is listed on the Epsicopal calendar of Saints on the date of his death.
Sigmund Jahn, born February 13, 1937 in Saxony, Germany, is the first German native and first East German cosmonaut. He was born before Germany was split into West and East Germany in 1945, and went into space in 1978. The Soviet Union emphasized his accomplishment as an East Germany victory over West Germany.
Jahn's only mission in space started aboard Soyuz 31, launched August 26, 1978 to Salyut 6 with Valery Bykovsky. They returned aboard Soyuz 29 on September 3.
This was another one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Thine Own Self which aired February 12, 1994. Data (Brent Spiner) is tracking a failed probe which crashed onto a primitive planet, that is unaware of interstellar beings and warp drive.
Unfortunately, Data also crashes and loses his memory. He wanders into a nearby village that appears to be technologically similar to medieval England. He is taken in by a kindly widower Garvin and his daughter Gia. Without his memory, Data inadvertently exposes the inhabitants to radioactive rocks, and soon people start getting sick. So one can imagine what happens when a stranger comes to town and people fall ill.
The village doctor Talur (played by actress Ronnie Claire Edwards [an Okie!] is a strong female character who accepts Data and is not afraid of him.
Meanwhile, Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) is taking her bridge officer tests, which Riker (Jonathan Frakes) is supervising. She keeps failing the engineering engineering test.
Thomas L. Jennings, born in 1791 to a free family in New York City, is the first African-American to be awarded a United States Patent. Jennings owned and operated a tailoring and dry-cleaning business. He developed a process known as "dry scouring" for cleaning clothes. He applied for and received a patent for the process in March 1821.
His patent was controversial when granted because patents were supposed to be granted to the master of a slave, but Jennings was free-born so he was able to retain all of his rights. He used his early earnings to buy his wife and some children out of slavery.
Jennings was also an activist for African-American rights. His daughter Elizabeth was forcibly removed from a 'whites only' streetcar, so he organized a movement against racial segregation in public transportation. Elizabeth won her case in 1855, but it wasn't until a decade later that New York City streetcar companies ceased segregation.
Soyuz TM-9, the ninth mission to the Mir space station, was launched February 11, 1990. Its crew consisted of Commander Anatoly Solovyev and Flight Engineer Aleksandr Balandin. It experienced so many problems that the Soviets considered sending Soyuz TM-10 with a single cosmonaut as a rescue mission. However, Solovyev and Balandin managed to fix the problems such that they returned safely to Earth August 9.
Astronaut Robert Curbeam, born March 5, 1962 in Baltimore, Maryland(!), has performed the most spacewalks (four) in a single mission. He accomplished this record during his third and final space shuttle mission on Discovery (STS-116) in December 2006.
His first flight was on Discovery (STS-85) in August 1997 and his second was on Atlantis (STS-98) in February 2001 when he conducted three EVAs.
One of the best foreign films, one of the best WWII films and definitely the best submarine movie of all time, Das Boot premiered in the U.S. February 10, 1981.
The German film featured a submarine crew operating in the Atlantic Ocean during the war and depicted the men in a sympathetic manner. Politics, enemies and their mission all took backseats to the issues they faced every day. The threat of being discovered and destroyed. Living in such close quarters where privacy is just a word. Returning safe. Das Boot did not glorify Naziism or the Third Reich.
I saw this with my German class when I was in college, and I've only seen it once since but it still remains to be a masterpiece. Definitely, one everybody should see.
Ralph Bunche, born August 7, 1904, is the first African-American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He was awarded the honor for his mediation in Israel during the late 1940s. John F. Kennedy awarded him the Presidential Medal of Honor in 1963.
Bunche served as assistant to the UN Special Committee on Palestine, and then as the principal secretary of the committee. He was the chief aide to Count Folke Bernadotte (of Sweden) who had been appointed by the UN to mediate the conflict.
Bernadotte was assassinated in Jerusalem in September 1948. Following the assassination, Bunche became the UN's chief mediator. He achieved the Armistice Agreement in 1949 and received the Nobel Prize the following year.
New Horizons spacecraft, which made a flyby of Pluto in July 2015, took images of two Kuiper Belt objects, the farthest images from Earth ever captured by a spacecraft.
These are falso-color images of 2012 HZ84 and 2012 HE85 are the closest-ever pictures of Kuiper Belt objects.
New Horizons is the fifth spacecraft to travel beyond the solar system at about 700,000 miles a day. It made a course correction back in December to set it on its way to visit dwarf planet MU69 on January 1, 2019.
Peggy Whitson, born February 9, 1960 in Mount Ayr, Iowa, holds the U.S. record for spending the most time in space, 665 days.
Her first mission was on Endeavour (STS-111) in June 2002 as mission specialist to the International Space Station. She stayed on board as Expedition 5 until December 2002 when she returned on Endeavour (STS-113).
Her next trip into space was aboard Soyuz TMA-11 as flight engineer in October 2007. She served as commander of Expedition 16, returning in April 2008.
Her next trip to the ISS was on Soyuz MS-03 in November 2016 as part of Expeditions 50-52. She returned to Earth September 3, 2017 on Soyuz MS-04.
Only seven Russian men have stayed in space longer than Peggy.
