MIKE GRACIA

On August 1, 1966, after stabbing his mother and his wife to death
the night before, Charles Whitman,(above) a former Marine, took
rifles and other weapons to the observation deck atop the Main
Building tower at the University of Texas at Austin, then opened
fire indiscriminately on persons on the surrounding campus and
streets. Over the next 96 minutes he shot and killed 16 people
(including one unborn child) and injured 31 others; a final victim
died in 2001 from the lingering effects of his wounds. The incident
ended when a policeman and a civilian reached Whitman and shot
him dead. The attack was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone
gunman in U.S. history until it was surpassed 18 years later by the
San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre.

The University of Texas at Austin Tower, Austin, Texas.

TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1996, a single homemade pipe bomb left in a knapsack exploded amid a crowd of spectators in Centennial Olympic Park,
near the main sites of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. The blast
caused by the crude device killed one person and injured 112
others.  

Eric Robert Rudolph, the Olympic Park Bomber.

CARLATA BRADLEY

The Eagle prepares to land: Photo shows Lunar Module ‘Eagle’ photographed from Command Module ‘Columbia’.

The Command Service Module Columbia.

On this day in 1969, Apollo 11 made thirty orbits of the moon which allowed
them to view the landing site: the southern Sea of Tranquility, one of the
most suitably flat areas. This area had confirmed by the Apollo 10 ‘dress
rehearsal’ mission in which the crew captured vital film footage and photos 
while orbiting the moon.

ROSS SIMPSON

George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799)

George Washington, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States,
served as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the
Revolutionary War, then was inaugurated as the first U.S. President
on April 30, 1789.

Washington’s legacy as a commander at Valley Forge, Yorktown, and
Boston was honored in 1917 when an asteroid was named after him:
the 886 Washingtonia asteroid.

General George Washington (left) and French military leader Marquis
de Lafayette at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777–78 (AP)

Washington praying at Valley Forge.

A reproduction of Emanuel Leutze’s 1851 oil painting ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware." (Associated Press)

TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1968, two black athletes, Tommie Smith and John
Carlos, were suspended by the U.S. Olympic Committee for giving
a "black power" salute (above) during a ceremony in Mexico City.

The three scientists shared the Nobel Prize on this day in 1962 for
DNA discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic
acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.”

Watson and Crick DNA model.