Space Shuttle Challenger  was NASA’s second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, Columbia being the first. Its maiden flight was on April 4, 1983, and it completed nine missions before breaking apart 73 seconds after the launch of its tenth mission, on January 28, 1986, resulting in the death of all seven crew members. The break up was ultimately due to the failure of an O-ring on its right solid-fuel rocket booster (SRB). The failure was due to a variety of factors, including unusually low temperatures prior to liftoff.

The accident led to a two-and-a-half year grounding of the shuttle fleet. The  missions resumed in 1988 with the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery.

    
                                                 The Challenger crew

   
                                                

             Challenger memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia

John Hancock  was a merchant, statesman, and prominent patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. As president of the Congress, Hancock was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. Hancock died on October 8, 1793, at 56 years of age.

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective – fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. Poe died on October 7, 1849. The actual cause remains a mystery.

In January 1845 Poe published his poem “THE RAVEN” to instant success.

WILD KINGDOM was hosted by Zoologist and zoo curator Marlin Perkins.
The half-hour nature program aired Sundays on NBC-TV until 1971, when
it went into syndication. Perkins was host for most of the show’s history
until he was forced to retire in 1985 for health reasons. Perkins died the 
following year at the age of 81. Jim Fowler, seen below, a long-time
assistant of Marlin’s became the host.  

   
                                                     Jim Fowler   

     
                    Marlin Perkins with one of his many animal friends