HIstory of the day 1. On this day in 1896: Bridget Driscoll was run over by a Benz car in the grounds of the Crystal Palace, London, the worlds first motoring fatality. 2. On this day in 1943: In World War II, the Royal Air Force began ‘Operation Hydra’, the first air raid of the Operation Crossbow strategic bombing campaign against Germanys V-weapon program. Operation Hydra was a Royal Air Force attack on the Peenemünde Army Research Center. It was the first time a Master Bomber was used for the Main Force, Group Captain John Searby CO of 83 Squadron, commanded the operation. 3. On this day in 1958: The Pioneer 0 (also known as Thor-Able 1) was a failed United States space probe that was designed to go into orbit around the Moon, carrying a television camera, a micro-meteorite detector and a magnetometer, as part of the first International Geophysical Year (IGY) science payload. 4. On this day in 1959: ‘Quake Lake’ was formed by the 7.5 magnitude earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana. ‘Quake Lake’ is a lake in southwestern Montana in the United States. The lake is mostly within Gallatin National Forest. 5. On this day in 1960: Gabon got independence from France. Gabon is a sovereign state on the west coast of Central Africa. Its capital is Libreville. 6. On this day n 1970: The Venera 7 was a Soviet spacecraft, part of the Venera series of probes to Venus. It became the first man-made spacecraft to successfully land on Venus and transmit data from there back to Earth. 7. On this day in 1977: The Soviet icebreaker Arktika became the first surface ship to reach the North Pole. NS Arktika was a retired nuclear-powered icebreaker of the Soviet (now Russian) Arktika class. 8. On this day in 1978: Double Eagle II piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman became the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean. It landed on 17 August 1978 in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours 6 minutes after leaving Presque Isle, Maine. 9. On this day in 1982: The first Compact Discs (CDs) were released to the public in Germany. 10. On this day in 1988: President of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel were killed in a plane crash. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was the sixth President of Pakistan from 1978 until his death. He was Pakistans longest-serving head of state and ruled for eleven years. 11. On this day in 2008: American swimmer Michael Fred Phelps II became the first person to win eight gold medals in one Olympic Game. He is an American swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time, with a total of 22 medals. [Disclaimer: All the facts and information stated above have been sourced from various websites.]
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 05:30:34 +0000