December 28, 1978

United Airlines Flight 173 was a scheduled flight from John F.
Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Portland
International Airport in Portland, Oregon, with a scheduled
stop in Denver, Colorado.

On Thursday, December 28, 1978, the aircraft flying this route
ran out of fuel while troubleshooting a landing gear problem
and crashed in a suburban Portland neighborhood near NE
157th Avenue and East Burnside Street.

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The crash site as it looks today.

On January 6, 1912, New Mexico was admitted into
the United States as the 47th state.

Spanish explorers passed through the area that would
become New Mexico in the early 16th century, they
encountered the well-preserved remains of a 13th-
century Pueblo civilization. Exaggerated rumors about
the hidden riches of these Pueblo cities encouraged the
first full-scale Spanish expedition into New Mexico, led
by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1540. Instead of
encountering the long-departed Pueblo people, the
Spanish explorers met other Indigenous groups, like
the Apaches, who were fiercely resistant to the early
Spanish missions and ranches in the area.

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado
(1510 – 22 September 1554)

The Canal connects the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean via
the Hudson River. Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York, the
driving force behind the project, led the opening ceremonies
and rode the canal boat Seneca Chief from Buffalo to New York
City.

Work began on the waterway in 1817. Teams of oxen plowed the
ground, but for the most part the work was done by immigrants,
among them Irish diggers who had to rely on primitive tools. They
were paid $10 a month, and barrels of whisky were placed along
the canal route as encouragement.

A painting at the Syracuse Canal Museum depicts Governor Dewitt Clinton bringing water from Lake Erie to New York
City, in the ceremony known as the “Wedding of the Waters.”

The Erie Canalway today.

At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising
Flight 19 took off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida
on a routine three-hour training mission. Flight 19 was scheduled to
take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back
over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base.
They never returned.

Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron, who
had been flying in the area for more than six months, reported that
his compass and back-up compass had failed and that his position
was unknown. The other planes experienced similar instrument malfunctions. Radio facilities on land were contacted to find the
location of the lost squadron, but none were successful. After two
more hours of confused messages from the fliers, a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.

SANDY KOZEL

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into low Earth orbit in
1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope,
but it is one of the largest and most versatile, renowned both as a
vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy.

The Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble
(below) and is one of NASA’s Great Observatories.

Edwin Powell Hubble
(November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953)