Carol Elaine Channing (January 31, 1921 – January 15, 2019)
The White House announced the start of Operation Desert Storm on
this day in 1991. The operation was designed to drive Iraqi forces
out of Kuwait. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf is shown above at ease
with his tank troops in Saudi Arabia in January 12, 1991 before the
U.S. executed the operation.
On the evening of January 16,1991, President George H. W. Bush addressed the nation to discuss the launch of Operation Desert
Storm.
Coalition troops from Egypt, Syria, Oman, France and Kuwait
during Operation Desert Storm.
The launch of Space Shuttle Columbia was planned to begin on
January 11, 2001, but the mission was delayed 18 times and
eventually launched on January 16, 2003 (above).
During the lift-off of Columbia’s 28th mission, a piece of foam
insulation broke off from the Space Shuttle’s external tank and
struck the left wing of the craft. An accident investigation board determined the damage to the wing allowed hot atmospheric
gases to inter the heat shield, destroying the internal wing
structure and caused the spacecraft to become unstable and
break apart upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere on February
1, killing all seven crew members.
The crew of Space Shuttle Columbia in October 2001. From left to
right: Brown, Husband, Clark, Chawla, Anderson, McCool, Ramon.
Remains of a helmet found in a field after the space shuttle Columbia disaster.