Watch the launch of Apollo 11, the beginning of the journey of the first three brave men to complete a manned mission to the lunar surface. This brief clip shows the perfect liftoff of the rocket as it sends astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins hurtling to the moon in 1969.
Nuclear Test program Operation Greenhouse Including Dog, Easy, George and Item Nuclear Test Blasts.
Operation Greenhouse nuclear weapons testing was conducted in the months of April and May of 1951. This test series consisted of four weapons related test shots from the 300-foot level on towers on the Enewetak Atoll Pacific Ocean. Two of these weapon tests greatly aided the pursuit of a hydrogen, or thermonuclear, weapon.
These tests were carried out by the Atomic Energy Commission. The test shots were:
Dog, April 7, 81 kilotons
Easy, April 20, 47 kilotons
George, May 8, 225 kilotons
Item, May 24, 45.5 kilotons
The George experiment was particularly important. It proved a hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) was possible and led to a crash development program for the first true thermonuclear weapon. Item was the first test of the boosting principle, which involved increasing the yield of a weapon.
Here is a film clip of the Operation Greenhouse explosions.
Antietam was the bloodiest day of the American Civil War and one of the bloodiest days of any war. In memory of that event, Warde Ford performs the Battle of Antietam Creek ballad.
The video below plays the Battle of Antietam Creek while showing a slideshow of actual images that were taken of the area and the troops involved in the battle - both living and dead.
Learn about the Westinghouse Time Capsule buried as part of the 1939 New York World’s Fair - to be opened 5000 years in the future.
The 1939 New York World’s Fair time capsule was created by Westinghouse as part of their exhibit. It measured 90 inches in height, weighed 800 pounds and had an interior diameter of 6.5 inches. It was constructed of a copper, chromium and silver alloy which Westinghouse named “Cupaloy”, which they claimed was harder than steel. It contained everyday items such as a spool of thread and doll, a Book of Record, a vial of staple food crop seeds, a microscope and a 15-minute RKO Pathe Pictures newsreel. Microfilm spools condensed the contents of a Sears Roebuck catalog, dictionary, almanac, and other texts.
The New York Times maintains a complete list of all the items contained in the time capsule. The list included hundreds of items in a broad range of categories including:
Small articles of common use
Textiles and materials
Miscellaneous items
More than 22,000 pages of materials in microfilm with an included microfilm reader
and much more
The list of items is fascinating as it captures the life, technology and times of 1939. It is well worth investing a few minutes reading the list to see how much has changed since then (and how much is still the same.)
The film clip below is part of the film The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair. This clip discusses how it is made of Cupaloy a mix of tempered copper, chromium and silver and an overview of some of the contents and its purpose.
“Ich bin ein Berliner” (”I am a Berliner”) is a quotation from the June 26, 1963 speech by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. The phrase was used to show solidarity with the West German people shortly after the Soviets constructed the Berlin Wall to prevent relations between East and West Germany.
This speech is considered the very best of John F. Kennedy and marks a notable moment in the Cold War. It served as a huge moral boost to West Berliners - who were living deep inside the Soviet territory of East Germany and clearly showed them the support being offered by the United States against Soviet Aggression.
Speaking from the balcony of Rathaus Schöneberg, Kennedy said,
Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was civis Romanus sum [I am a Roman citizen]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’… All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’
This message of defiance was aimed as much at the Soviets as it was at Berliners, and was a clear statement of U.S. policy in the wake of the construction of the Berlin Wall. Many in the diplomatic community criticized the speech as it acknowledged the true reality of the situation in Berlin - which was in stark contrast to the official status of Berlin in its entirety being under the joint occupation of the four Allied Powers. This speech made it clear this was a nice falsehood that the world was living under and that East Berlin was in fact nothing more than another part of the Soviet bloc.
This bold move by Kennedy was decided by him in the final moments before the speech and to help him get the phraseology correct, he had a cue card prepared that showed the phrase and its phonetics to ensure that he pronounced it properly.
Here is a video of Kennedy delivering this famous speech.
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