the news
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October 14, 2012: Baumgartner Jumps From the Edge of Space — the Supersonic Leap Watched by Millions
On October 14, 2012, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner rode a helium balloon 39 kilometers above the New Mexico desert — to the edge of space — and stepped out. In free fall, he broke the sound barrier with his body, reaching 1,357 km/h before his parachute opened. Roughly eight million people watched live on YouTube,…
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October 13, 2010: The Chilean Miners Rise — 69 Days Underground, the World Holds Its Breath
At 11:11 p.m. on October 13, 2010, Florencio Ávalos emerged from a 21-inch capsule at the San José copper mine in Chile’s Atacama Desert — the first of 33 miners rescued after 69 days trapped 700 meters underground. More than a billion people watched live on television and online as, one by one, the last…
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October 12, 1492: Columbus Reaches the Americas — Two Worlds Collide Forever
Before dawn on October 12, 1492, a lookout aboard the Spanish ship Pinta sighted land — an island in the Bahamas the inhabitants called Guanahani. Christopher Columbus, commanding three ships on a westward voyage backed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, had reached the Americas. The encounter he opened between the hemispheres transformed…
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October 11, 1968: Apollo 7 Launches — the Mission That Saved the Moon Program
On October 11, 1968, an eleven-day flight began that almost nobody thought should happen. Twenty-one months after the Apollo 1 fire killed three astronauts on the launch pad, Apollo 7 carried Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham into Earth orbit — NASA’s first crewed mission in nearly two years, and the test that decided…
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October 10, 1964: Tokyo Opens the Olympics — the First Games in Asia, Broadcast to the World
On October 10, 1964, Emperor Hirohito opened the XVIII Olympic Games in Tokyo — the first Olympics held in Asia, and the first broadcast live to the world via satellite. Japan used the Games to announce its return from the ashes of war; the world watched, live, for the first time. The Games That Should…
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October 9, 2006: Google Buys YouTube — the $1.65 Billion Bet That Paid Off a Thousandfold
On October 9, 2006, Google announced it would acquire YouTube — an 18-month-old video-sharing startup with 67 employees and no profit — for $1.65 billion in stock. Silicon Valley snickered at the price. Nineteen years later, YouTube generates that amount in revenue roughly every month. Three PayPal Colleagues and a Dinner Party YouTube was founded…
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October 8, 1871: The Great Chicago Fire Begins — the Blaze That Rebuilt a City
On the night of October 8, 1871, a fire broke out in a barn behind 137 DeKoven Street on Chicago’s West Side. Fanned by drought and a strong southwest wind, it burned for two days, destroying 17,500 buildings across nine square kilometers, killing an estimated 300 people and leaving 100,000 Chicagoans — a third of…
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A Five-Year Track Record: How Have Thelen’s Funds Really Performed?
On 1 September 2021, Frank Thelen launched his first retail investment fund, 10xDNA – Disruptive Technologies. Demand was strong: within a few months, the fund raised around €100 million. Thelen’s stated goal was ambitious – to triple investors’ money within four to five years. Then came 2022. Rising interest rates, a tech sell-off – high-beta…
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October 7, 1959: Luna 3 Photographs the Far Side of the Moon — the Soviet Answer to Sputnik Shock
On October 7, 1959, the Soviet Union’s Luna 3 spacecraft transmitted the first photographs of the far side of the Moon — a region of the lunar surface no human eye had ever seen. Two years after Sputnik stunned the world, the USSR struck again, revealing that the Moon’s hidden face was a different world.…
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October 6, 1927: ‘The Jazz Singer’ Premieres — the Movies Learn to Talk
On October 6, 1927, at the Warner Theatre in New York, “The Jazz Singer” had its premiere — and the movies changed forever. When Al Jolson turned to the camera midway through the film and improvised the line “Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet,” audiences heard a movie speak for…