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

Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was a Confederate general during the Civil War, and probably the most well-known Confederate commander after General Robert
E. Lee. His military career includes the Valley Campaign of 1862 and his service as a corps commander in the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee. He died of
complications of pneumonia on May 10, 1863 at the age of 39. Military historians
consider Jackson to be one of the most gifted tactical commanders in U.S. history. 

                  Monument of Stonewall Jackson in Richmond, Virginia

Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis  is an actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model, and a women’s Olympics archery team semi-finalist. She is known for her roles in The Fly (1986), Beetlejuice (1988), Thelma & Louise (1991), and The Accidental Tourist (1988), for which she won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2004, she won the Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Television Series Drama for her role in Commander in Chief on ABC (2005 – 2006).

                          Geena Davis as Veronica in The Fly

     
     Geena with her 1988 Academy Award for Best Supporting  Actress

 
On December 15, 1791 Virginia became the final state to ratify the first
ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. These were incorporated into
the Constitution and became the Bill of Rights. In 1941 President
Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed December 15th as a day to honor
America’s freedoms.

           George Washington died at his Mount Vernon home from a
           throat infection at the age of 67. His last words were”Tis well”.

                                      Mount Vernon, Virginia 

             Washington’s tomb at Mount Vernon.