Time Line in Space Exploration: On this Date: October 25 1671 - Giovanni Cassini discovers Iapetus satellite of Saturn 1877 - Henry Norris Russell, astronomer (Hertzsprung-Russell diagram) is born. 1935 - Russell L. (Rusty) Schweickart, astronaut (Apollo 9) is born. 1974 - Air Force fires 1st ICBM 1975: The Venera 10 Lander (bottom) touched down on the surface of Venus on October 25, 1975 at 5:17 UT, about 16° N, 291° E. The Lander was inclined about 8 degrees. It returned this image during the 65 minutes of operation on the surface. The sun was near zenith during this time, and the lighting was similar to that on Earth on an overcast summer day. Today in Naval History: October 25 1812 - USS United States (CAPT Stephen Decatur) captures HMS Macedonian. 1861: Keel of the USS Monitor is laid -- On this day in 1861, signaling an important shift in the history of naval warfare, the keel of the Union ironclad Monitor is laid at Greenpoint, New York. Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles appointed an Ironclad Board when he heard rumors that the Confederates were trying to build an iron-hulled ship, as such a vessel could wreak havoc on the Unions wooden armada. In September 1861, the board granted approval for engineer John Ericsson, a native of Sweden, to begin constructing the U.S. Navys first ironclad. The wooden keel was laid at the Continental Iron Works at Greenpoint. Carpenters worked around the clock on the frame while the iron sheathing was prepared for the hull. The vessel was not large—172 feet long and 41 feet wide—but its design was unique. The craft had an unusually low profile, rising from the water only 18 inches. A 20-foot cylindrical turret in the middle of the ship housed two 11-inch Dahlgren guns that topped the flat, iron deck. The ship had a draft of less than 11 feet so it could operate in the shallow harbors and rivers of the South. Ericsson pushed the production to be as speedy as possible, but he could not deliver the ship by the January 12, 1862, delivery date. It was finally launched into New Yorks East River on January 30. Many small engine problems also needed to be solved before the craft was commissioned on February 25. The Monitor sailed for Virginia soon after, arriving at Chesapeake Bay on March 6. On March 8, 1862, it engaged in one of the most famous naval duels in history when it clashed with the Confederate ironclad the Virginia (which had been constructed from the captured Union ship Merrimack). A day of heavy pounding produced a draw; each ship was immune from the others shots. A new naval era had dawned. 1924 - Airship, USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), completes round trip transcontinental cruise that began on 7 October. 1944 - During Battle of Leyte Gulf in Battle of Surigao Straits, U.S. battleships execute the maneuver of crossing the tee of the Japanese forces. In Battle Off Samar, escort carriers, destroyers and destroyer escorts heroically resist attacks of Japanese Center Force. In Battle Off Cape Engano, 3rd Fleet carriers attack Japanese Northern Force sinking several small carriers. 1950 - Chinese Communist Forces launch first offensive in Korea. 1952 – The USS Missouri hurled 500 tons of high-explosive shells against entrenched enemy in the vicinity of Tanchon. 1966 - Operation Sea Dragon logistics interdiction began. North Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong guerrillas were not exempt from this time-honored adage. They were dependent on the vast quantities of food and munitions smuggled across South Vietnam’s shores and waterways. It was because of this waterborne logistic highway that the destroyers Mansfield and Hanson sailed north toward the 17th parallel before dawn on October 25, 1966. At 0500 hours, the ships entered North Vietnamese waters and opened a new phase of the war, attacking WBLC (pronounced “wib-lic” and meaning waterborne logistic craft) and coastal lines of communication targets still in Communist waters. As part of Operation Sea Dragon, Seventh Fleet destroyers, cruisers and eventually one battleship participated in this new mission between October 1966 and November 1968. 1983 - U.S. Marines and U.S. Army troops land on Grenada to evacuate U.S. citizens threatened by the islands unstable political situation. 1985 – CGC Polar Sea arrived home to Seattle after a voyage through the Northwest Passage by way of the Panama Canal, the east coast, and then Greenland, sparking an international incident with Canada. She completed the first solo circumnavigation of the North American continent by a U.S. vessel and the first trip by a Polar-Class icebreaker. She also captured the record for the fastest transit of the historic northern route. She had departed Seattle to begin the voyage on 6 June 1985. 1993 – Colonel Irene Trowell-Harris, from the New York Air National Guard, is promoted to Brigadier General on this date; thus becoming the National Guard’s first African American woman to hold general officer rank. She was serving as the Assistant to the Director, Medical Readiness, Office of the Surgeon General, Headquarters, USAF. She started her Guard career as a flight nurse by joining the 102nd Aeromedical Evacuation Flight, NY Air National Guard in 1963. She steadily moved up in rank and responsibility, becoming the nurse administrator of the105th Tactical Air Command Hospital in 1985. In 1986 she was appointed to command the 105th, the first nurse in Air Guard history to command a medical facility. Promoted to Major General in September 1998, she retired in September 2001. 2002 – In Utah 2 F-16 fighter jets collided during training and 1 pilot survived. The 2nd pilot’s body was found Oct 26. Today in Coast Guard History: October 25 •1941-The Navy formally established the Greenland Patrol by combining the South Greenland Patrol with the three cutters of the Northeast Greenland Patrol. •1985-CGC Polar Sea arrived home to Seattle after a voyage through the Northwest Passage by way of the Panama Canal, the east coast, and then Greenland, sparking an international incident with Canada. She completed the first solo circumnavigation of the North American continent by a U.S. vessel and the first trip by a Polar-Class icebreaker. She also captured the record for the fastest transit of the historic northern route. She had departed Seattle to begin the voyage on 6 June 1985. Today in Aviation History: October 25 1924 - Airship, USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), completes round trip transcontinental cruise that began on 7 October. The U.S.S. Shenandoah (ZR-1), the first American-built rigid airship, made her first flight on September 4, 1923. She was lost in a storm over southeastern Ohio on September 3, 1925, taking the lives of fourteen of her crew, including the ship’s captain, Lieutenant Commander Zachary Lansdowne. One of the ship’s officers, Charles Rosendahl, free-ballooned in the detached bow section along with a number of other survivors until the bow came to rest on the ground. 1930 --1st scheduled transcontinental air service began 1944: First kamikaze attack of World War begins -- On this day in 1944, during the Battle of the Leyte Gulf, the Japanese deploy kamikaze (divine wind) suicide bombers against American warships for the first time. It will prove costly--to both sides. This decision to employ suicide bombers against the American fleet at Leyte, an island of the Philippines, was based on the failure of conventional naval and aerial engagements to stop the American offensive. Declared Japanese naval Capt. Motoharu Okamura: I firmly believe that the only way to swing the war in our favor is to resort to crash-dive attacks with our planes.... There will be more than enough volunteers for this chance to save our country. The first kamikaze force was in fact composed of 24 volunteer pilots from Japans 201st Navy Air Group. The targets were U.S. escort carriers; one, the St. Lo, was struck by a A6M Zero fighter and sunk in less than an hour, killing 100 Americans. More than 5,000 kamikaze pilots died in the gulf battle-taking down 34 ships. For their kamikaze raids, the Japanese employed both conventional aircraft and specially designed planes, called Ohka (cherry blossom) by the Japanese, but Baka (fool) by the Americans, who saw them as acts of desperation. The Baka was a rocket-powered plane that was carried toward its target attached to the belly of a bomber. All told, more than 1,321 Japanese aircraft crash-dived their planes into Allied warships during the war, desperate efforts to reverse the growing Allied advantage in the Pacific. While approximately 3,000 Americans and Brits died because of these attacks, the damage done did not prevent the Allied capture of the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. 1950 – Transport aircraft of the 315th Air Division hauled 1,962 tons of cargo for the largest 24-hour total for the Korean war. 2000: Russian military plane crashes into mountain --a Russian military plane crashes into a mountain in Georgia, killing all 83 people on board. Poor visibility and pilot error caused the horrific crash. The Ilyushin-18 jet was built in 1968 and was used to transport military personnel. On October 25, a crew of 11 was flying 72 soldiers from Chkalovsky Airport near Moscow to the Batumi Airport in Georgia, in the Caucasus region east of the Black Sea. On the approach to Batumi, at dusk, low clouds and rain severely reduced visibility. Because of the poor weather, the pilots decided to land from the northeast rather than the usual western approach into Batumi Airport. The new route would take them over Mt. Mtirala, which rises approximately 5,000 feet above sea level. As the Ilyushin-18 descended from 10,000 feet, the pilots made a navigational error, descending further than they should have. Meanwhile, the air-traffic controllers at the airport lost the plane on their radar and therefore were unable to inform the pilots of their error. Several miles from the airport, the plane slammed straight into the side of the mountain. The jet exploded in a massive fireball, killing everyone on board instantly. This was only the 12th worst of a total of 92 crashes involving an Ilyushin-18 aircraft
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 15:19:50 +0000
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