DIANE KEPLEY
Beyoncé (Giselle Knowles-Carter) is 44 years young today.
Beyoncé is widely regarded as one of the most culturally
significant figures of the 21st century.
Credited with revolutionizing the music industry, Beyoncé
is often deemed one of the greatest entertainers
and most influential artists in history..
Viking 1, an unmanned U.S. planetary probe,was launched from
Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to Mars on this day in
1975.
On June 19, 1976, the spacecraft entered into orbit around Mars
and devoted the next month to imaging the Martian surface with
the purpose of finding an appropriate landing site for its lander.
On July 20–the seventh anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing
–the Viking 1 lander separated from the orbiter and touched down
on the Chryse Planitia region, becoming the first spacecraft to successfully land on the surface of Mars.
The same day, the craft sent back the first close-up photographs
of the rust-colored Martian surface.
In September 1976, Viking 2—launched only three weeks after
Viking 1—entered into orbit around Mars, where it assisted Viking
1 in imaging the surface and also sent down a lander.
First "clear" image ever transmitted from the surface of Mars
– shows rocks near the Viking 1 Lander (July 20, 1976).
First color image taken by the Viking 1 lander (July 21, 1976).
From the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida,
the U.S. unmanned spacecraft Explorer 6 was launched into
an orbit around the earth.
The spacecraft, commonly known as the “Paddlewheel”
satellite, featured a photocell scanner that transmitted a
crude picture of the earth’s surface and cloud cover from
a distance of 17,000 miles.
The photo, received in Hawaii, takes nearly 40 minutes to
transmit.
Released by NASA in September, the first photograph ever
taken of the earth by a U.S. satellite.
One of the first pictures of Earth transmitted.
Ranger 7, an unmanned U.S. lunar probe, took the first close-up
images of the moon—4,308 in total—before it hit the lunar surface northwest of the Sea of Clouds. The images were 1,000 times as
clear as anything ever seen through earth-bound telescopes.
In July 1969, two Americans walked on the moon in the first
Apollo Program lunar landing mission.
Globe manufacturing has come a long way since the early 20th
century when globes were painstakingly crafted by hand.
In 1933, the process involved carving wooden spheres and
meticulously painting maps of the world onto strips of paper,
which were then painstakingly attached to the globes (above).
originally published on travellergazette.com
A 1930’s Art Deco world globe.
