Félicette, a Parisian stray, became the first—and only—cat
in space. The black-and-white feline traveled 98 miles into
space for 13 minutes before her capsule safely parachuted
to Earth.
The mission, part of the French space program, trained
14 cats to monitor their neurological and physiological
responses to spaceflight.
On October 18, 1867, the U.S. formally took possession of Alaska
after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less
than two cents an acre.
Indigenous peoples had settled the unforgiving territory thousands
of years earlier. The Alaska purchase comprised 586,412 square
miles, about twice the size of Texas, and was championed by
William Henry Seward, the enthusiastically expansionist
secretary of state under President Andrew Johnson.
Signing of the Alaska Treaty, The Alaska Purchase.
William Henry Seward (1801 – 1872)
Andrew Johnson (1808 – 1875)
On October 16, 1958, Chevrolet began to sell a car-truck hybrid
that it called the El Camino. Inspired by the Ford Ranchero,
which had already been on the market for two years, the El
Camino was a combination sedan-pickup truck built on the
Impala body, with the same “cat’s eye” taillights and dramatic
rear fins.
It was, ads trilled, “the most beautiful thing that ever shouldered
a load!” “It rides and handles like a convertible,” Chevy said,
“yet hauls and hustles like the workingest thing on wheels.”
Modern anesthesia is born when dentist and physician William
T.G. Morton demonstrates ether for the first time during a
public surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital.
His earlier efforts included stimulants, intoxication, opium and mesmerism.
William Thomas Green Morton
(August 9, 1819 – July 15, 1868)
Replica of the inhaler used by William T. G. Morton in
the first public demonstration of surgery using ether.
