Today in History – January 31, 1958 – Explorer 1 became the United States of America’s first satellite to orbit the Earth after it was launched on January 31, 1958. After the Soviet Union’s successful launch of Sputnik I on October 4, 1957, the United States of America embarked upon a program to launch it [...]

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Today in History – January 28, 1986 – Space Shuttle Challenger explodes after launch, killing the entire crew. American’s stared in shock at their televisions watching the Challenger accident in full motion video. The 35th Challenger’s flight had been previously scheduled for January 22, but delayed because of bad weather, high winds and icicles on [...]

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Today in History – January 26, 1697- Isaac Newton solves Bernoulli’s brachistochrone problem, inventing the “calculus of variations”. The story goes that Jean Bernoulli gave Isaac Newton a challenge solve the following problem in six months: We are given two fixed points in a vertical plane. A particle starts from rest at one of the [...]

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Today in History – January 20, 1986 – First federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King. Through fifteen years of the persistent efforts of Congress Members John Conyers (Michigan), Shirley Chisholm (New York) and an army of other supports, Martin Luther King Day legislation was passed in 1983. A number of changes were required for it [...]

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Today in History- January 15, 1955 – first solar-heated and radiation-cooled house in the United States. Respect for the powers of the sun has been a critical part of building design since humans first built shelters for protection from the environment. I grew up in the American Southwest and recall that adobe buildings were designed [...]

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