Category: Facts
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February 8, 1974: The Skylab 4 Crew Returns to Earth After 84 Days in Space
The Longest Goodbye On February 8, 1974, at 11:16 AM EST, three tired men splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, 176 miles southwest of San Diego. Commander Gerald Carr, Science Pilot Edward Gibson, and Pilot William Pogue had spent 84 days, 1 hour, and 16 minutes in orbit—longer than any humans before them. When they…
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February 6, 2018: SpaceX Falcon Heavy Makes Its Maiden Flight
The Most Spectacular Launch in Decades On February 6, 2018, at 3:45 PM EST, a new era in space exploration began with a roar that shook Cape Canaveral. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket launched since the Saturn V moon rockets of the 1970s, lifted off from Launch Complex 39A—the same pad that had…
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February 3, 1984: Elizabeth Holmes Is Born
The Birth of a Silicon Valley Myth On February 3, 1984, Elizabeth Holmes was born in Washington, D.C. to a well-connected family—her father was a vice president at Enron (a fact that would later seem prophetic), and her mother was a congressional committee staffer. Forty years later, she would be serving an 11-year prison sentence…
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February 1, 2003: The Columbia Disaster
A Tragic Homecoming On February 1, 2003, at 9:00 AM EST, families gathered at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, waiting to welcome their loved ones home. Children held signs. Cameras were ready. It was a routine end to a successful mission—Space Shuttle Columbia was returning from a 16-day scientific research flight. But 16 minutes before…
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January 31, 1971: Apollo 14 Launches to the Moon
Return to the Moon On January 31, 1971, at 4:03 PM EST, a Saturn V rocket thundered away from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Aboard were three astronauts: Commander Alan Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell. Their destination was the Fra Mauro Highlands on the Moon—a site…
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January 28, 1958: Lego Patents the Modern Brick
The Click That Changed Play Forever On January 28, 1958, a Danish toy company filed a patent application that would prove more enduring than almost any other product design in history. The patent described a simple plastic brick with tubes inside and studs on top—a connection system so perfect that bricks made that year still…
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January 26, 2009: Nadya Suleman Gives Birth to Octuplets
Eight Babies, One Delivery On January 26, 2009, at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower, California, medical history was made. Nadya Suleman, a 33-year-old single mother, gave birth to eight living babies—only the second set of octuplets ever born in the United States, and the first where all eight survived longer than the first week.…
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January 25, 1995: The Norwegian Rocket Incident
Ten Minutes to Armageddon On January 25, 1995, Russian President Boris Yeltsin was awakened in the middle of the night and handed a device known as the “Cheget”—the Russian nuclear briefcase. For the first and only time in history, a Russian leader activated the system used to authorize a nuclear strike. Radar stations had detected…
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January 22, 1970: The Boeing 747 Enters Commercial Service
The Queen Takes Flight On January 22, 1970, aviation history was made at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Pan American World Airways Flight 2, a Boeing 747-121 named “Clipper Victor,” pushed back from the gate and took off for London Heathrow. Onboard were 324 passengers and 18 crew members. The world’s first “jumbo…
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January 21, 1968: The Thule Nuclear Accident
A Broken Arrow in the Arctic On January 21, 1968, a United States Air Force B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed onto the sea ice near Thule Air Base in northwest Greenland. The aircraft had been flying a “Chrome Dome” mission—a Cold War routine where nuclear-armed bombers remained airborne 24/7, ready to strike the…