A Brief History On January 19, 1983, a space traveling chimpanzee named Ham died at the age of 25 at the North Carolina Zoo. Born in Africa and sent to The Miami Rare Bird Farm in Florida, Ham was then acquired by the US Air Force in 1959. Digging Deeper The Air Force obtained 40 chimps to prepare for use as test ape-ronauts prior to sending humans into space aboard Mercury space capsules. After whittling down the candidates, #65 was chosen for the January 1961 flight aboard the Mercury capsule launched by a Redstone Rocket. You may have noticed that…
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A Brief History On January 19, 1995, a Bristow Helicopters Eurocopter AS332L Super Puma suffered a terrifying lightning strike while transporting 16 oil workers and a crew of two from Aberdeen, Scotland to an offshore oil rig. Much like the more famous “Miracle on the Hudson” in 2009, the skilled pilot was able to make a water landing and saved all on board. Digging Deeper Unlike the Hudson River, the North Sea is farther from shore and considerably rougher, with far fewer folks around to conduct an immediate rescue. The icy cold water in January could kill survivors within minutes…
A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on January 19th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On January 19, 1913, the Holly Hotel in Holly, Michigan burned for the first time! On January 19, 1983, a space traveling chimpanzee named Ham died at the age of 25 at the North Carolina Zoo. On January 19, 1995, a Bristow Helicopters Eurocopter AS332L Super Puma suffered a terrifying lightning strike while transporting 16 oil workers and a crew of two from Aberdeen, Scotland to…
A Brief History On January 19, 2007, 3 intrepid Britons and their equally intrepid Canadian comrade made an incredible journey across Antarctica, using only leg power driving skis and the assistance of kites, to reach a point known as the Antarctic pole of inaccessibility. Digging Deeper The team, called “Team N2i,” trekked almost 1100 miles over the frozen terrain to the place called POI, for short, a spot on the globe previously visited by explorers using motorized tracked vehicles and aircraft back in 1965. So, what is this “POI?” It is defined as the point in Antarctica that is furthest…
A Brief History On January 19, 2020, our cable news stations are abuzz with the latest news and speculation about the impeachment of President Donald Trump. At the heart of the impeachment, is a scandal in which Trump is accused of holding back hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid from the Ukrainian government unless that same government announced an investigation into former US Vice President Joseph Biden and his son, Hunter. (All alleged, of course.) Between the ongoing war with Russia, which stole (they “annexed” or “reclaimed”) the region known as the Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and…