A Brief History On November 16, 1974, a radio signal was sent from Earth to the star cluster known as M13 in an attempt to communicate with whatever intelligent life forms may exist in that area of the Universe. The single message was sent from the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico (USA), via FM (frequency modulated) radio waves. Incredibly optimistic of the (questionable intelligence) people that arranged this message, the target stars are 25,000 light years away! Digging Deeper A message of just under 3 minutes duration consisting of 1679 binary digits (210 bytes) at a power of 1000…
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A Brief History On November 15, 1971, a History changing event took place when Intel Corporation released their 4004 microchip processor for sale, allowing the manufacture of small computers. (Happy 45th Birthday, Intel 4004!) A Santa Clara, California (“Silicon Valley”) company, Intel is the world’s largest manufacturer and seller of semi-conductor chips for use in computers. Digging Deeper Back in 1971 great strides were being made in the development of electronic processors and the miniaturization of them, allowing the first hand held calculators and increasingly smaller computers, including a mini-computer in the (then) high technology F-14 Tomcat fighter plane. Other…
A Brief History On November 14, 1941, British Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sunk after being torpedoed by a German U-boat (submarine) the day before. The Aircraft carrier would replace the battleship as the capital ship of each fleet during World War II, but the little submarine, with a crew of only a few dozen compared to the 1500-2500 men on a battleship or aircraft carrier could sink either of those monstrous and monstrously expensive ships. Digging Deeper When we think of World War II submarine warfare, we usually think in terms of German U-boats sweeping the Atlantic…
A Brief History On November 12-13, 1970, an Indian Ocean cyclone with winds over 150 mph hit what is now Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) killing more than three times the number of people killed in the Atom Bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined! Half a million people died in the low lands of the Ganges River delta, mostly from the storm surge that flooded the area. Digging Deeper In addition to massive loss of human life, thousands of homes and other buildings were washed away, thousands of acres of crops were destroyed, thousands of domestic and wild animals died,…
A Brief History On November 7, 1492, the same year that Christopher Columbus made his epic voyage to the New World, a large meteor fell on the town of Ensisheim, Alsace, Austria, in what is now France. Seen as a falling fireball 100 miles away, the meteorite (when it hits the ground, a meteor becomes a “meteorite”) landed safely in a wheat field. Digging Deeper The 280 pound rock left a crater 3 feet deep (not bad for a rock that size) and was quickly set upon by curious villagers. Contrary to popular belief, people back then were not a…