05:25 am - QotD
"The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse
to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal - every other
affliction to forget: but this wound we consider it a duty to keep
open - this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude." --
Washington Irving (b. 1783-04-03, d. 1859-11-28)
Today starts a dark part of the calendar for many of us,
with rememberances of:
- 1967-01-27: Grissom, White and Chaffe burned to death in
Apollo 1
- 1986-01-28: Space Shuttle Challenger (51-L) explodes 74
seconds after liftoff killing Scobee, Smith,
McNair, Resnick, Jarvis, Onizuka and McAuliffe
- 2003-02-01: Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107) disintegrates
over Texas during re-entry killing Husband,
Anderson, Brown, Chawla, Clark, McCool, Ramon
And at the end of this span we also have:
- 1959-02-03: The Day The Music Died; Buddy Holly, Richie
Valens, and the Big Bopper are killed in a plane
crash outside Mason City, Iowa
In the middle of these grim anniversaries we also have the
more positive:
- 1958-01-31: Explorer I launched. (Van Allen Belt discovered)
- 1961-01-31: "Ham" the chimpanzee soars into space aboard
Mercury-Redstone 2