Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died at her home in San Diego on July 23, 2012. Ride flew on two missions on the space shuttle Challenger (one in 1983 and the other in 1984). Although an extremely private person, Ride later became an advocate for getting girls interested in science and created a company called Sally Ride Science to reinvigorate science programs in schools. Sally Ride died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Five Men Volunteer to Stand Beneath an Atomic Bomb
In 1957, the U.S. government conducted a test in which they exploded a 2-kiloton nuclear bomb in Nevada at 18,500 feet with six people standing underneath. Five of these men volunteered for the duty; one did not. The whole experience was filmed. You can now view this video on NPR's website. Just as a spoiler: the men don't die.
Interesting Facts About the History of the Academy Awards
Did you know that there was one X-rated film to win an Academy Award? Where did Oscar get its name? Which movie won an Academy Award 20 years after it was first released? Find out the answers to these questions as well as a lot more interesting facts about the history of the Academy Awards.
Another Round of Posthumous Baptisms of Holocaust Victims
In the past, the Mormon Church has posthumously baptized Jewish victims of the Holocaust, which was supposed to have stopped after a huge public outcry against it. However, it has happened again. This time, amidst the list of Holocaust victims, was famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal's mother, Rosa. Rosa died in the Belzec concentration camp in 1942.
The Mormon Church has issued an apology, putting blame on a single individual. They said that it is against Church policy to baptize Holocaust victims and that the person responsible would no longer be allowed to access the Church's genealogy records.
For more about this most recent round of Holocaust victim baptisms, see this Telegraph article.
Arrest Made in 1995 Sarin Gas Attack in Japan
During rush hour on the morning of March 20, 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult orchestrated a coordinated sarin gas attack on subway trains in Tokyo, Japan. A dozen people were killed and thousands of others were injured. After the attack, the Japanese government shut down the cult and arrested many of its members. However, up until recently, there were still two people connected with the sarin gas attack that had escaped arrest. This week, 17 years after the attack, one of them was arrested.
Naoko Kikuchi, the woman believed to have helped make the sarin gas, was arrested at her home in Sagamihara, just outside of Tokyo. Tired of being on the run, reports say that Kikuchi was relieved to be captured.
For more about this story, including before and after pictures of Kikuchi, check out this Los Angeles Times article.
Quote on Martin Luther King Memorial to Be Fixed
The problem is that King never actually said that. He said something similar, but by summarizing his words, King's meaning was lost. The original quote comes from King's February 4, 1968 sermon called, "The Drum Major Instinct," in which King said, "Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter."
Not quite the same thing. On Friday, January 13, 2012, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar gave the National Park Service 30 days to fix the quote.
(Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)
Mata Hari Exotic Dancer and World War I Spy
Her husband whisked her off to Indonesia, where she was incredibly lonely. Then her young son was poisoned. Determined to escaape from her life, she left her family and moved to Paris, where she reinvented herself as an exotic dancer named Mata Hari. After she became famous as both a dancer and a courtesan, the French government thought the men she slept with told her state secrets while they were in bed together. Was Mata Hari a World War I spy?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)