Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012)

On June 18, 1983,  the space shuttle Challenger was launched
into space on its second mission. On board the shuttle is Dr. 
Sally K. Ride, who as a mission specialist, became the first
American woman to travel into space. 

Ride, who had earlier pursued a professional tennis career,
answered a newspaper ad in 1977 from NASA calling for
young tech-savvy scientists who could work as mission
specialists. She died of pancreatic cancer at age 61.

              
Presidential Medal of Freedom
         (2013, posthumous)

Sir James Paul McCartney

June 18, 1812: The day after the Senate followed the House of Representatives in voting to declare war against Great Britain,
President James Madison signed the declaration into law—and
the War of 1812 began.

The American war declaration, opposed by a sizable minority
in Congress, had been called in response to the British
economic blockade of France, the induction of American
seaman into the British Royal Navy against their will,  and
the British support of Indian tribes along the Great Lakes  
frontier.     

A faction of Congress known as the “War Hawks” had
been advocating war with Britain for several years and
had not hidden their hopes that a U.S. invasion of Canada
might result in significant territorial land gains for the
United States.         

Shure model SM33 ribbon microphone.

The microphone was saved from a trash bin by "The Tonight
Show" chief boom operator Stan Sweeney.

An anonymous bidder in 2005 snatched a piece of TV history,
offering $50,787 for the microphone that sat prominently on
the desk of late-night king Johnny Carson until the 1980s.

The offer was about twice that expected at auction.

1938