The Girl Scout organization of the United States was founded on this day in 1912 by Juliette Gordon Low (above).The original name of the movement was Girl Guides.
On this day in 1998, President Clinton denied having an affair with a former White House intern, saying "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." Denial of the affair lead to Clinton being only the second president to be impeached in US history. .
The Columbia’s 28th space mission, designated STS-107, was originally scheduled to launch on January 11, 2001, but was delayed numerous times for a variety of reasons over nearly two years. Columbia finally launched on January 16, 2003, with a crew of seven.
Eighty seconds into the launch, a piece of foam insulation broke off from the shuttle’s propellant tank and hit the edge of the shuttle’s left wing.
When Columbia re-entered the earth’s atmosphere on the morning of February 1, 2003, the damage allowed hot atmospheric gases to penetrate the heat shield and destroy the internal wing structure, which caused the spacecraft to become unstable and break apart.
The first debris began falling to the ground in West Texas near Lubbock at 8:58 a.m. One minute later, the last communication from the crew of five men and two women was heard, and at 9 a.m. the space shuttle disintegrated over northeast Texas, near Dallas.
Crewmember helmet found in a field after the space shuttle Columbia disaster.
Charles Robert Darwin ( February 12, 1809 – April 19, 1832)
On this day in 1831, English naturlist Charles Darwin set out on a voyage to the Pacific aboard the HMS Beagle. His discoveries during the voyage helped him form the basis of his theories on evolution.
HMS Beagle, a 10-gun, Cherokee-class brig sloop of the Royal Navy’s survey service, sets sail from Plymouth, England on its second voyage as a survey vessel. On board, at the invitation of Beagle captain Robert FitzRoy, is a young biologist called Charles Darwin.
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg is considered one of the founding pioneers of the New Hollywood era and one of the most popular directors and producers in film history. He started in Hollywood directing television and several minor theatrical releases, becoming a household name as the director of Jaws (1975).