A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on April 17th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On April 17, 1897, a UFO hit a windmill and crashed, killing its pilot! On April 17, 1905, the US Supreme Court dealt a blow to Progressives that were mobilizing across the United States to reform business practices, government, and a myriad of social and cultural institutions. On April 17, 1964, Ford rolled out the Mustang, introducing a new class of sporty…
Browsing: April 17
A Brief History On April 17, 2014, the Kepler space telescope operated by NASA confirmed the existence of Kepler-186f, the first discovery of a planet of equivalent size to Earth within the “habitable zone” of another solar system. The newly discovered planet is in the solar system of a red dwarf star called Kepler-186, only about 582 light years away! (A light year is roughly 6 trillion miles.) Digging Deeper We know that at some point the Earth will become uninhabitable for human civilization. This eventuality may take hundreds of millions of years, or even billions of years, when our…
A Brief History On April 17, 2019, the nation celebrates National Cheese Ball Day, or at least we should. Cheese Balls are a mainstay of wine tasting parties and are a favored Hors d’oeuvre at seasonal get togethers and office parties, but apparently the delicious dairy treat needs its own day anyway. We happen to love Cheese Balls, and this gastronomical love affair causes us to wonder, “Why do people refer to something that is cheap, tawdry, or otherwise crumby as ‘Cheese Ball’?” (Note: There is another kind of “Cheese Ball,” the salty snack type that is akin to cheese…
A Brief History On April 11, 1970, NASA launched their third moon-landing mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida carrying three astronauts. After so many preparations, and failed attempts NASA is finally ready to send Jack L. Swigert, 38, with previous experience from Apollo 7, Jim A. Lovell, 42, he had unbelievable 572 spaceflight hours of experience, and Fred W. Haise, 36, with previous experience on Apollo 8 and 11 on a lunar landing mission. They did incredible things just to train the astronauts and made simulations of every obstacle they might encounter like reduced gravity walking simulator, water landing (which came…
A Brief History On April 17, 2018, the United States mourns the loss of former First Lady of the United States and mother of the 43rd President, Barbara (née Pierce) Bush, who died surrounded by family in Houston, Texas at the age of 92. Only one other woman has had the honor of serving as First Lady and also being the mother of a President, and that other fortunate woman was Abigail Adams, wife of second President John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams, our 6th President. Former President George H. W. Bush, the grieving widower, is now almost…
