Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Today in History”
On this day, May 9, in 1962, a pulse light laser beam sent by a team of scientists from MIT successfully bounced off the moon, the first lunar laser ranging experiment. Later similar experiments used a reflector left on the moon’s surface by the Apollo 11 mission to increase accuracy.
The Laser Ranging Retroreflector mirrors … Read the rest
Battle Of The Wilderness Facts
Location: Spotsylvania and Orange Counties, Virginia
Dates: May 5-7, 1864
Generals: Union: Lt. Gen Ulysses S. Grant | Confederate: General Robert E. Lee
Soldiers Engaged: Union: 102,000 | Confederate: 61,000
Outcome: Inconclusive
Casualties: Union: 18,400 | Confederate: 11,400
Battle Of The Wilderness Summary: The Battle of the Wilderness began Lt. … Read the rest
These are Michael Bakich’s picks for the most famous eclipses in history.
Nov. 30, 3340 B.C. – Spiral petroglyphs on the Loughcrew Cairn L Megalithic Monument in Ireland indicate this was the earliest observed solar eclipse for which a record exists.
March 30, 1578 B.C. – The partial solar eclipse that was closer to total … Read the rest
In 1960 “La Dolce Vita” directed by Federico Fellini and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg has its film premiere in Italy. On February 3, 1960, the Italian dramedy ‘La dolce vita,’ directed by Federico Fellini, had its world premiere, marking a significant milestone in cinema history. The film quickly gained widespread … Read the rest
James Arthur Baldwin (1924 – 1987) was born in Harlem, New York on August 2, 1924 to Emma Berdis Jones, originally from Deal Island, Maryland. He was reared by his mother and stepfather David Baldwin, a Baptist preacher, originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, whom Baldwin referred to as his father and whom he described as
Poet and writer Langston Hughes, famous for his elucidations of black American life in his poems, stories, autobiographies, and histories, was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1901 or 1902.
I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as
Stanley Kubrick’s black comic masterpiece, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb opens in theaters to both critical and popular acclaim. The movie’s popularity was evidence of changing attitudes toward atomic weapons and the concept of nuclear deterrence.
The movie focused on the actions of a … Read the rest
No writer has the ability to evoke a sense of horror and dread more effectively than Edgar Allan Poe, born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe’s parents were actors. Their brilliant and unstable son grew up to be a romantic poet, a master of macabre tales, the originator of the modern detective … Read the rest