Browsing: June 4

A Brief History On June 4, 1989, an estimated tens of thousands Chinese military troops opened fire on perhaps a million Chinese protestors at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the capital of China.  While numbers of troops, protestors, and casualties are only estimates, because historically, governments cannot be counted on to provide accurate accounts of embarrassing events, as many as 10,000 or more of the peaceful protestors may have died in the massacre. Digging Deeper Not only were hundreds or thousands of people shot, but many others were also trampled in the rush to avoid the gunfire or crushed under the…

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on June 4th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On June 4, 1411, King Charles VI of France granted a monopoly to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon for the ripening of Roquefort cheese. On June 4, 1784, Élisabeth Thible became the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon, soaring for a 4 kilometer trip that took 45 minutes and reached perhaps 5000 feet above the ground, making her the…

A Brief History On June 4, 2010, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster made its first flight, and since then has been used as the launch booster for well over 200 launches, only one of which was a failure and one other a partial failure. Digging Deeper A reusable heavy lift orbital launch booster, the Falcon 9 is famous as the only privately made rocket to have carried humans into orbital flight, and is the only current US sourced rocket certified for manned flight. In 2021, the amazing Falcon 9 set a space launch record by launching a mind boggling…

A Brief History On June 4, 1784, Élisabeth Thible became the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon, soaring for a 4 kilometer trip that took 45 minutes and reached perhaps 5000 feet above the ground, making her the world’s first female aviatrix.  Today we discus 10 brave women who dared death or severe injury in the quest of a thrill or an accomplishment that other women could be proud of.   (Note: 10 is not enough to give dare devil flying women justice, so an additional list of 10 Military Women Aviators will be forthcoming!) Digging Deeper…

A Brief History On June 4, 1855, Major Henry C. Wayne got on board the USS Supply in New York Harbor and headed to the Mediterranean Sea to procure camels (29 of the Dromedary or one-hump variety and 2 of the Bactrian or two-hump kind) for use by the US Army in the Western United States. In 1848, Wayne had conducted a more detailed follow-up study to the 1836 report submitted to the Army by Major George Crossman who had recommended the US Army acquire camels as pack animals for hot weather environments. These reports and recommendations went nowhere until…