SANDY KOZEL

Before and after shuttle explosion (first visible signs of
danger on left, just after explosion on right).

At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle
Challenger lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and
Christa McAuliffe is on her way to becoming the first
ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space.

McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies teacher
from New Hampshire, won a competition that earned her
a place among the seven-member crew of the Challenger.

She underwent months of shuttle training but then, beginning
January 23, was forced to wait six long days as the Challenger‘s
launch countdown was repeatedly delayed because of weather
and technical problems. Finally, on January 28, the shuttle lifted
off.

Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on the ground,
including Christa’s family, stared in disbelief as the
shuttle broke up in a forking plume of smoke and fire.

The Final Crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

President Ronald Reagan addressing the nation from the
White House on the day of the space shuttle Challenger explosion.

The Apollo 1 crew, from left, Edward H. White II, Virgil I.
"Gus" Grissom, and Roger B. Chaffee.

A launch pad fire during Apollo program tests at Cape Canaveral,
Florida, killed all three astronauts of Apollo 1 on this day in 1967. 
     
An investigation indicated that a faulty electrical wire inside the
Apollo 1 command module was the probable cause of the fire.

The astronauts, the first Americans to die in a spacecraft, had been participating in a simulation of the Apollo 1 launch scheduled for
the following month.

The entrance to the tribute to the three astronauts who died
in the fire.

The three-part hatch that was in place on the Apollo 1
spacecraft is shown in the tribute.This is the first time
any part of the Apollo 1 spacecraft has been displayed
publicly. 

SANDY KOZEL

John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005)

Lyndon Baines Johnson ( August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973)

Johnson was sworn into office following the November
1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

President Lyndon Johnson launched an ambitious slate of
progressive reforms aimed at creating a “Great Society”
for all Americans. Many of the programs he championed—
Medicare, Head Start, the Voting Rights Act and the Civil
Rights Act—had a profound and lasting impact on health,
education and civil rights.

President Lyndon B Johnson Lifts his Beagle by the Ears. The
incident, called canine cruelty by some, occurred in 1964. 

(FOX NEWS) – Garth Hudson, the last surviving member of
Canadian-American rock group The Band, died in his sleep
this morning. He was 87.

His death was confirmed Tuesday by The Canadian Press,
which cited Hudson’s friend, Jan Haust. Additional details
were not immediately available. Hudson had been living in
a nursing home in Woodstock, upstate New York.

Garth Hudson made his most recent public appearance on
April 16, 2023, performing in Kingston, New York.