The Rohna was a seventeen year old British liner/troopship carrying 2,193
passengers including 1,988 U.S. troops and a crew of 198. It was part of a
convoy travelling east from Oran to the Far East via the Suez Canal. when
the convoy was attacked by about 30 German Heinkel 177 bombers. The
Rohna was hit by a HS 293 ‘glider bomb’ considered to be the world’s first
guided missile. The ship sank in less than 30 minutes taking 1,015 U.S.
troops and 102 crew members to a watery death.

The attack was the largest loss of U.S. troops at sea in a single incident. For 
reasons of national security, details of the tragedy were kept secret for many  
years and were not fully released until 1967 as a result of the Freedom of
Information Act.

 
A Henschel HS 293 glide bomb

On November 21, 1783, physicist Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier, along with the
Marquis d’Arlandes, became the first humans to fly. Their flight, in a untethered hot
air balloon designed by brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier, was witnessed by thousands in Paris, France including the royal family and Benjamin Franklin. It soon  
inspired a ballooning craze that exists to this day.

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is a actor and film producer. He has received many
awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Howard Hughes in The Aviator (2004), and has been nominated by the Academy Awards,
Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. DiCaprio began his career appearing in TV commercials and soon landed roles in shows
such as the ABC sitcom Growing Pains in the early 1990s. He made his film debut
in the sci-fi/horror comedy Critters 3 (1991). DiCaprio’s first major role was in This
Boy’s Life (1993).

1993

1997

Leonardo DiCaprio as FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, in
Clint Eastwood’s current biopic J. Edgar.

Major Robert White flew his X-15 rocket plane (above) at a world record speed
of 4,093 mph. The flight made him the first pilot to fly a winged craft at six times
the speed of sound (Mach 6). President John F. Kennedy used the occasion to
confer the most prestigious award in American aviation, the Robert J. Collier
Trophy, jointly to White and three of his fellow X-15 pilots; NASA’s Joseph
Walker, CDR Forrest S. Peterson of the United States Navy, and North
American Aviation test pilot Scott Crossfield.

The Robert J. Collier Trophy, considered to be the “Oscar” of
space achievement.