The solid fuel used in NASA space shuttles feels much like a rubber eraser when it hardens. The shuttle Challenger exploded on launch when a leak developed in the right side SRB (solid rocket booster).
Charles Goodyear made the commercial use of rubber feasible by his discovering of vulcanization. The Goodyear Tire company is named in his honor, but has no other connection.
Clarence Shaler invented the “hot patch”, a repair kit that would vulcanize a patch onto a rubber inner tube for a punctured tire, revolutionizing motoring convenience. As a child, I lived in the former house of the late Mr. Shaler, with much of his laboratory still intact in the garage. My parents worked at the Shaler company, which still manufactured hot patches and other automotive products. Shaler also commissioned the first monument=sized casting of James Earl Fraser’s “The End of the Trail”, the iconic Native American statue of the dying warrior on an exhausted horse.
The Oregon Trail is a 2,200-mile east–west wagon route and emigrant trail that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of the future state of Kansas and nearly all of what are now the states of Nebraska and Wyoming. The western half of the trail spanned most of the future states of Idaho and Oregon. From the early to mid-1830s to the 1870’s, the Oregon Trail and its many offshoots were used by about 400,000 settlers, ranchers, farmers, miners, and businessmen and their families.
On December 10, 1869, Territorial Governor John Allen Campbell extended the right to vote to women, making Wyoming the first territory and then U.S. state to grant suffrage to women. In addition, Wyoming was also a pioneer in welcoming women into politics. Women first served on juries in Wyoming (Laramie in 1870); Wyoming had the first female court bailiff (Mary Atkinson, Laramie, in 1870); and the first female justice of the peace in the country (Esther Hobart Morris, South Pass City, in 1870). Also, in 1924, Wyoming became the first state to elect a female governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross, who took office in January 1925.
There is one day of the year when more athletes observe their birthday than any other. Race horses all become a year older on January 1, the date a 2-year-old begins to race as a 3-year old, etc.
American statesman Abraham Lincoln and British scientist Charles Darwin shared a birthday: February 12, 1809.
Cape Race, on the southern tip of Newfoundland, was a major communications hub in the early 20th century. As ships came into radio range, they would send messages by Morse code to Cape Race. The messages would then be relayed by stronger wireless broadcasters to others points in North America.
As passenger liners crossing the Atlantic came into range of Cape Race, it was customary for the more well-to-do passengers to pay for messages to be sent to their relations, letting them know the voyage was almost over.
On the evening of April 14, 1912, Jack Phillips, senior wireless operator on the British ship RMS Titanic, was busy sending a stack of messages to Cape Race for relay onwards. A signal came in from Cyril Evans, wireless operator on the nearby Californian to warn Titanic that there was an ice field ahead.
Phillips signalled “Shut up! Shut up! I’m busy working Cape Race!”
Rebuked, Evans waited a short while, then turned off his radio and went to bed.
15 minutes later Titanic hit an iceberg.
Since October 1963 the USAFSCN (US Air Force Satellite Control Network) has had a tracking station in the Indian Ocean, on Mahe, the main island of the Seychelles. This tracking station, nicknamed INDI (like ‘Indy’), is one of a worldwide network of tracking stations collecting telemetry and communications from several satellite constellations.
Steven Spielberg originally suggested Harrison Ford to portray the character of Indiana “Indy” Jones; George Lucas resisted the idea, since he had already cast the actor in American Graffiti, Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, and did not want Ford to become known as his the actor in every Lucas film…[42] During an intensive casting process, Lucas and Spielberg auditioned many actors, and finally cast actor Tom Selleck . However, CBS refused to release Selleck from his contractual commitment to Magnum, P.I.
After Spielberg suggested Ford again, Lucas gave in, and Ford was cast in the role less than three weeks before filming began.
The name Magnum has been used to designate a model of car or truck made by Chevrolet, Dodge., Renault and Vauxhall.
Golden State Warriors phenom and current NBA MVP Stephen Curry has been instrumental in helping the team establish their current NBA record of starting this season with 24 straight wins. The Warriors beat the Celtics in Boston last night in double overtime, 124-129. The Warriors play the Bucks tonight in Milwaukee to finish their longest road trip of the season before playing the Phoenix Suns at home on the 16th.
Stephen Curry is not even the highest paid player on the team. He’s not even the second or third highest paid player. Curry is the team’s fifth highest paid player. There are times when Stephen Curry can walk onto the basketball court with Andre Iguodala, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Andrew Bogut and understand that he’s the lowest-paid Warrior on the court. Curry is a model of humility who does not let the situation bother him.
The name “Celtics”, pronounced with an S, predates the Boston Celtics. There’s a Celtic Football Club, founded in Glasgow, which dates back to 1887, and they also pronounce their name that way.
New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, is one of the towns in Canada that was founded by Scots displaced by The Highland Clearances, the forced displacement during the 18th and 19th centuries of a significant number of people from traditional land tenancies in the Scottish Highlands
The Highland Clearances resulted from enclosures of common lands and a change from farming to sheep raising, an agricultural revolution largely carried out by hereditary aristocratic landowners. The Clearances were a complex series of events occurring over a period of more than a hundred years.
The Clearances are particularly notorious as a result of the brutality of many evictions at short notice (year-by-year tenants had almost no protection under Scots law), and the abruptness of the change from the traditional clan system, in which reciprocal obligations between the population and their leaders were well recognised.
The Clearances resulted in significant emigration of Highlanders to the coast, the Scottish Lowlands, and further afield to North America and Australasia. In the early 21st century, more descendants of Highlanders are found in these diaspora destinations than in Scotland.
Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, although born in Corfu of Greek/Danish parents, is now a British citizen and holds the Scottish title of Duke of Edinburgh.
Phillip Schofield took over the role of Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat from Jason Donovan on the West End stage 1992 revival. While appearing in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Schofield was approached to record a cover of Close Every Door to be released as a single, which was released in December 1992 and peaked at number 27 on the UK Singles Chart.
Although invented in 1916, Technicolor did not really make its mark in studio motion pictures until 1939. It was nearly universally used for color films until 1952, when Eastman Kodak revolutionized the process with EastmanColor. Eastman enabled producers to shoot directly to color film, without needing to go thorough Technicolor’s expensive labs.
Boston Red Sox pitcher Babe Ruth pitched 13 shutout innings of shutout ball in game 2 of the 1916 World Series. The Red Sox won that series 4 games to 1 over the Brooklyn Robins. The Red Sox would also win the 1918 World Series over the Chicago Cubs, and then the NY Yankees would sign Babe Ruth and thus begin the “Curse of the Bambino” when the Red Sox failed to win a World Series until 2004 when they finally won again.
Babe Ruth set the record for the most consecutive scoreless innings by a pitcher in World Series competition with 29. It was finally surpassed by Whitey Ford, who reached 33. Mario Rivera has the postseason record, but that included innings outside the World Series.