Esteban Enrique "Steve" Bellan, born October 1, 1849 in Havana, Cuba, is the first Latin American to play professional baseball in the US. He attended school at what is now know as the Fordham University in the Bronx, from 1866 to 1868. He joined the Live Oaks, a Second Division baseball team. After graduation, he played a season for the Union of Morrisania, a member of the NABBP, and helped them win the national championship in 1868. He joined the Troy Haymakers in 1869.
Sometime after that he went to the New York Mutuals until 1873. Bellan moved by to Cuba to play in their baseball leagues. He played for Club Habana and beat Club Matanzas on December 27, 1874, in the first organized baseball game in Cuba. He has been called the Father of Cuban Baseball for his role in organizing the game.
He passed away in Havana, Cuba in 1932.
The crew woke up to John Denver’s Leaving on a Jet Plane on Day
3, October 7. They lowered Challenger’s
orbit to 140 miles, which was the optimal altitude for the Shuttle Imaging
Radar-B (SIR-B) and other Earth-observing instruments. Garneau continued his
CANEX investigations. Leestma conducted several
scheduled ORS fuel transfers.
Scully-Power continued his oceanography studies.
The second day of flight STS-41-G, the Challenger crew woke up to Irene Cara’s Flashdance…What a Feeling. Starting with Apollo 15, NASA started playing music to wake up the flight crew. Each song is chosen specifically by the astronauts’ families and typically has a special meaning to their family member or the crew. Or it can be applicable to their daily activities. I haven’t found which astronaut is connected to this song.
The crew lowered the Challenger’s orbit to an altitude of
151 miles, down from 218 miles the day before. Marc Garneau began the Canadian
experiments (CANEX), sponsored by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada. His experiments included investigations into
medical, atmospheric, climatic, materials, and robotic sciences. One piece of equipment Garneau used was the
Sunphotometer, a handheld instrument which measures solar radiation at several
wavelengths. The Canadian Atmospheric Environment
Service used the readings to measure local atmospheric constituents and to
monitor acidic haze.
Paul Scully-Power (Australian-American astronaut) began
oceanographic observations, and successfully photographed spiral eddies in the
world’s oceans.
David Leestma completed tests on the Orbital Refueling
System remote-controlled hydrazine fuel transfer. The structure was designed to
develop and demonstrate equipment and techniques for refueling satellites in
orbit.
