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Jack Lousma

Jack Lousma

Jack Robert Lousma (born February 29, 1936) is a former NASA Astronaut.

Personal data

Lousma was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Lousma and his wife, Gratia Kay, have been married since 1956. They have four children and six grandchildren. He is a golfing enthusiast and enjoys hunting, fishing, and aviation.

Education

He graduated from Ann Arbor High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan; received a bachelor of science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1959, and a master of science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1965; presented an honorary doctorate of Astronautical Science from the University of Michigan in 1973, an honorary Doctor of Science from Hope College in 1982, and an honorary Doctor of Science in Business Administration from Cleary College in 1986.

Organizations

He is a fellow of the American Astronautical Society; member of the Society of the Sigma Xi, the University of Michigan "M" Club, the Officer's Christian Fellowship, and the Association of Space Explorers.

Special honors

Awarded the Johnson Space Center Certificate of Commendation (1970) and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal (1973); presented the Navy Distinguished Service Medal and the Navy Astronaut Wings (1974), the City of Chicago Gold Medal (1974), the Robert J. Collier Trophy for 1973 (1974), the Marine Corps Aviation Association's Exceptional Achievement Award (1974), the Federation Aeronautique Internationale's V. M. Komarov Diploma for 1973 (1974), the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy for 1975 (1975), the AIAA Octave Chanute Award for 1975 (1975), the AAS Flight Achievement Award for 1974 (1975); inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame (1982). NASA Distinguished Service Medal (1982), Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal (1982), NCAA Silver Anniversary Award (1983). Inducted into the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame (1988).

Experience

Lousma was a reconnaissance pilot with VMCJ-2, 2nd Marine Air Wing, at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, before being assigned to Houston and the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. He became a Marine Corps officer in 1959 and received his wings in 1960 after completing training at the U.S. Naval Air Training Command. He was then assigned to VMA-224, 2nd Marine Air Wing, as an attack pilot and later served with VMA-224, 1st Marine Air Wing, at Iwakuni, Japan. He has logged 7000 hours of flight time--including 700 hours in general aviation aircraft, 1619 hours in space, 4,500 hours in jet aircraft, and 240 hours in helicopters. helicopter]]

NASA experience

Lousma was one of the 19 astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966. He served as a member of the astronaut support crews for the Apollo 9, 10, and 13 missions. He may have also been selected for the crew of Apollo 20, which was canceled. He was the pilot for Skylab 3 (July 28 to September 25, 1973) and was spacecraft commander on STS-3 (March 22-30, 1982), logging a total of over 1,619 hours in space. Lousma also spent 11 hours on two spacewalks outside the Skylab space station. He also served as backup docking module pilot of the United States flight crew for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission which was completed successfully in July 1975. Jack Lousma left NASA in 1983.

Space flight experience

Skylab 3 (SL-3) (July 28 to September 25, 1973). The crew on this 59-1/2 day flight included Alan L. Bean (spacecraft commander), Jack Lousma (pilot), and Owen K. Garriott (science-pilot). SL-3 accomplished 150% of mission goals while completing 858 revolutions of the earth and traveling some 24,400,000 miles in earth orbit. The crew installed six replacement rate gyros used for attitude control of the spacecraft and a twin-pole sunshade used for thermal control, and they repaired nine major experiment or operational equipment items. They devoted 305 man hours to extensive solar observations from above the earth's atmosphere, which included viewing two major solar flares and numerous smaller flares and coronal transients. Also acquired and returned to earth were 16,000 photographs and 18 miles of magnetic tape documenting earth resources observations. The crew completed 333 medical experiment performances and obtained valuable data on the effects of extended weightlessness on humans. Skylab-3 ended with a Pacific Ocean splashdown and recovery by the USS NEW ORLEANS. STS-3, the third orbital test flight of space shuttle Columbia, launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on March 22, 1982, into a 180-mile circular orbit above the earth. Jack Lousma was the spacecraft commander and C. Gordon Fullerton was the pilot on this 8-day mission. Major flight test objectives included exposing the Columbia to extremes in thermal stress and the first use of the 50-foot Remote Manipulator System (RMS) to grapple and maneuver a payload in space. The crew also operated several scientific experiments in the orbiter's cabin and on the OSS-1 pallet in the payload bay. Space Shuttle Columbia responded favorably to the thermal tests and was found to be better than expected as a scientific platform. The crew accomplished almost 100% of the objectives assigned to STS-3, and after a 1-day delay due to bad weather, landed on the lakebed at White Sands, New Mexico, on March 30, 1982, having traveled 3.4 million miles during 129.9 orbits of the earth. Mission duration was 192 hours, 4 minutes, 49 seconds.

Political experience

In 1984, Lousma ran for the U.S. Senate against Carl Levin, incumbent senator from Michigan, but lost.

Source


- Wright, Jerry, et. al., "Astronaut biographies: [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/lousma-jr.html Jack R. Lousma]". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Lousma, Jack Robert Lousma, Jack Robert Lousma, Jack Robert

February 29

February 29 is the 60th day of a leap year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 306 days remaining. A year which has a February 29 is, by definition, a leap year. This date only occurs approximately every four years, in years evenly divisible by 4, such as 1992, 1996, or 2004, with some exceptions in century years. A century year, that is, a year which ends in two zeros (1800, 1900, 2000, etc.), is not a leap year unless it is also evenly divisible by 400. To correct a slight inaccuracy that remains in the Gregorian Calendar, it has been proposed that years evenly divisible by 4000 should not be leap years, but this has yet to be officially adopted. This means that the year 2000 was a leap year and 2400 and 2800 will also be, but 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, and the years 2100, 2200, and 2300 will not be leap years either. Because of this, a leap day is more likely to fall on a Monday than on a Sunday. If, for example, February 29 falls on a Sunday, you would expect it to fall on Sunday again after 28 years, but if there's a century year in these 28 years, the pattern can become disrupted. The Gregorian calendar repeats itself every 400 years, and 400 years have 97 leap days, which is not divisible by seven, so these days can never be distributed evenly. A leap day on a Sunday occurs 13 times in these 400 years, so approximately every 30.8 years, a Monday however occurs 15 times, which is roughly every 26.7 years. Those who are born on this day usually celebrate their birthdays on February 28 or March 1 during non-leap years. In the comic musical The Pirates of Penzance, Frederic, born on February 29, was apprenticed to a band of pirates until his 21st birthday, in theory until he was 88 years old (as his lifetime included a non-leap centennial year). This day may be colloquially termed a leap day, though in the Roman calendar it was February 24 in a leap year which was added, giving the name of "bissextile" day or extra sixth day in the lead up to the 'Calends' of March. The Romans, realizing the need for an extra day, chose February 24 in particular only because it followed the last day of their year, which at that point in history was February 23. An English law of 1256 decrees that in leap years the leap day and the day before are to be reckoned as one day for the purpose of calculating when a full year has passed; thus, in England and Wales a person born on February 29 legally reaches the age of 18 or 21 on February 28 of the relevant year. In the European Union, February 29 only officially became the leap day in 2000. There is a tradition that women may make a proposal of marriage to men only on February 29; this is a tightening of an older tradition that such proposals may only occur in leap years. In 1288 the Scottish parliament legislated that any woman could propose in Leap Year. The man may, of course, refuse but, by tradition, he should soften the blow by providing a kiss, one pound currency and a pair of gloves (some later sources say a silk gown). This law was adopted in France, Switzerland and Italy and the tradition was carried to America. In France, there is an humorous periodical called la Bougie du sapeur (the sapper's candle) published every February 29 since 1980. The name is a reference to the sapeur Camembert. In 2004, the seventh number of la bougie du sapeur, subtitled Dimanche, was published. The eighth issue will be published in 2008.

Events


- 1504 - Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies.
- 1704 - Queen Anne's War: French forces and Native Americans attack and destroy Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 100 men, women, and children.
- 1712 - February 29 is followed by February 30 in Sweden, in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar for a return to the Old style.
- 1720 - Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband who becomes King Frederick I
- 1864 - American Civil War: Kilpatrick-Dahlgren raid fails - Plans to free 15,000 Union soldiers being held near Richmond, Virginia are thwarted.
- 1892 - Saint Petersburg, Florida incorporated.
- 1916 - Child labor: In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill, and mine workers is raised from twelve to fourteen years old.
- 1932 - TIME magazine features eccentric American politician William "Alfalfa" Murray on its cover after Murray stated his intention to run for President of the United States.
- 1936 - Baby Snooks, played by Fanny Brice, debuts on the radio program The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air.
- 1940 - For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.
- 1940 - Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations
- 1944 - World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded in the American General Douglas MacArthur-led Operation Brewer.
- 1952 - The island of Heligoland is restored to German authority.
- 1960 - An earthquake in Morocco kills over 3,000 people and nearly destroys Agadir in the southern part of the country.
- 1964 - In Sydney, Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser sets a new world record in the 100-meter freestyle swimming competition (58.9 seconds).
- 1972 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.
- 1972 - Hank Aaron becomes the first player in the history of Major League Baseball to sign a $200,000 contract.
- 1984 - Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announces he will retire as soon as the Liberals can elect another leader.
- 1988 - The soap opera Day by Day premieres on NBC.
- 1988 - South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town
- 1996 - Novelist Joan Collins wins US$1 million from Random House for breach of contract.
- 1996 - A Peruvian Boeing 737 crashes in the Andes, killing 123 people.
- 2000 - A seven-year-old student opens fire on a six-year-old classmate at Buell Elementary school in Mount Morris Township, Michigan. [http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/02/29/school.shooting.02/]
- 2004 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as President of Haiti following popular rebel uprising.

Births


- 1468 - Pope Paul III (d. 1549)
- 1692 - John Byrom, English poet (d. 1763)
- 1736 - Ann Lee, American founder of Shakers (d. 1784)
- 1792 - Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer (d. 1868)
- 1840 - John Philip Holland, Irish inventor (d. 1914)
- 1860 - Herman Hollerith, American statistician (d. 1929)
- 1896 - Morarji Desai, Prime Minister of India (d. 1995)
- 1904 - Jimmy Dorsey, American bandleader (d. 1957)
- 1904 - Pepper Martin, baseball player (d. 1965)
- 1908 - Balthus, French-Polish painter (d. 2001)
- 1908 - Dee Brown, American writer and historian (d. 2002)
- 1916 - Dinah Shore, American singer (d. 1994)
- 1920 - James Mitchell, American actor
- 1920 - Michèle Morgan, French actress
- 1920 - Howard Nemerov, American poet (d. 1991)
- 1924 - Al Rosen, baseball player
- 1936 - Jack Lousma, astronaut
- 1936 - Henri Richard, Canadian hockey player
- 1936 - Alex Rocco, American actor
- 1940 - Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople
- 1944 - Dennis Farina, American actor
- 1944 - Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri, Italian illustrator
- 1952 - Tim Powers, American writer
- 1952 - Bart Stupak, American politician
- 1956 - Randy Jackson, American musician
- 1956 - Bob Speller, Canadian politician
- 1956 - Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer
- 1960 - Richard Ramirez, American serial killer
- 1960 - Tony Robbins, American motivational speaker
- 1972 - Antonio Sabato Jr., Italian-born actor
- 1972 - Dave Williams, American singer (Drowning Pool) (d. 2002)
- 1972 - Pedro Zamora, Cuban AIDS activist (d. 1994)
- 1976 - Ja Rule, American rapper and actor
- 1980 - Simon Gagné, Canadian hockey player
- 1984 - Darren Ambrose, English footballer
- 1984 - Cam Ward, Canadian hockey player

Deaths


- 1528 - Patrick Hamilton, Scottish religious reformer (martyred) (b. 1504)
- 1592 - Alessandro Striggio, Italian composer
- 1604 - John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1530)
- 1744 - John Theophilus Desaguliers, French philosopher (b. 1683)
- 1820 - Johann Joachim Eschenburg, German literary critic (b. 1743)
- 1868 - Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1786)
- 1940 - Edward Frederic Benson, American writer (b. 1867)
- 1944 - Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, President of Finland (b. 1861)
- 1956 - Elpidio Quirino, President of the Philippines (b. 1890)
- 1968 - Tore Ørjasæter, Norwegian poet (b. 1886)
- 1980 - Gil Elvgren, American artist (b. 1914)
- 1992 - Ruth Pitter, English poet (b. 1897)
- 2004 - Jerome Lawrence, American playwright (b. 1915)

Holidays and observances


- Bahá'í Faith - Day 4 of Ayyám-i-Há (Intercalary Days) (in leap years only) - days in the Bahá'í calendar devoted to service and gift giving.
- Discordianism - St. Tib's Day.

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/29 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/2/29 Today in History: February 29] ---- February 28 - (February 30) - March 1 - January 29 - March 29 -- listing of all days ko:2월 29일 ms:29 Februari ja:2月29日 simple:February 29 th:29 กุมภาพันธ์

NASA

] The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was established in 1958, is the agency responsible for the public space program of the United States of America. It is also responsible for long-term civilian and military aerospace research.

Vision and mission

NASA's vision is "to improve life here, extend life to there, and to find life beyond." Its mission is "to understand and protect our home planet; to explore the Universe and search for life; and to inspire the next generation of explorers."

History

Space Race

:For additional background, please see the Space Race article Space Race launch of Redstone rocket and NASA's Mercury 3 capsule Freedom 7 with Alan Shepard Jr. on the United States' first human flight into sub-orbital space. (Atlas rockets were used to launch Mercury's orbital missions.)]] Following the Soviet space program's launch of the world's first man-made satellite (Sputnik 1) on October 4, 1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. The U.S. Congress, alarmed by the perceived threat to U.S. security and technological leadership, urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his advisers counseled more deliberate measures. Several months of debate produced agreement that a new federal agency was needed to conduct all nonmilitary activity in space. On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA consisted mainly of the four laboratories and some 8,000 employees of the government's 46-year-old research agency for aeronautics, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), though the probably most important contribution actually had its roots in the German rocket program led by Wernher von Braun, who is today regarded as the father of the United States space program. NASA's early programs were research into human spaceflight, and were conducted under the pressure of the competition between the USA and the USSR (the Space Race) that existed during the Cold War. The Mercury program, initiated in 1958, started NASA down the path of human space exploration with missions designed to discover simply if man could survive in space. Representatives from the U.S. Army (M.L. Raines, LTC, USA), Navy (P.L. Havenstein, CDR, USN) and Air Force (K.G. Lindell, COL, USAF) were selected/requested to provide assistance to the NASA Space Task Group through coordination with the existing U.S. military research and defense contracting infrastructure, and technical assistance resulting from experimental aircraft (and the associated military test pilot pool) development in the 1950s. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American in space when he piloted Freedom 7 on a 15-minute suborbital flight. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962 during the 5-hour flight of Friendship 7. Once the Mercury project proved that human spaceflight was possible, project Gemini was launched to conduct experiments and work out issues relating to a moon mission. The first Gemini flight with astronauts on board, Gemini III, was flown by Virgil "Gus" Grissom and John W. Young on March 23, 1965. Nine other missions followed, showing that long-duration human space flight was possible, proving that rendezvous and docking with another vehicle in space was possible, and gathering medical data on the effects of weightlessness on humans.

Apollo program

Following the success of the Mercury and Gemini programs, the Apollo program was launched to try to do interesting work in space and possibly put men around (but not on) the Moon. The direction of the Apollo program was radically altered following President John F. Kennedy's announcement on May 25, 1961 that the United States should commit itself to "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by 1970. Thus Apollo became a program to land men on the Moon. The Gemini program was started shortly thereafter to provide an interim spacecraft to prove techniques needed for the now much more complicated Apollo missions. Gemini program.]] After eight years of preliminary missions, including NASA's first loss of astronauts with the Apollo 1 launch pad fire, and the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon (Apollo 8) at the end of 1968, the Apollo program achieved its goals with Apollo 11 which landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon's surface on July 20, 1969 and returned them to Earth safely on July 24. Armstrong's first words upon stepping out of the Eagle lander captured the momentousness of the occasion: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Twelve men would set foot on the Moon by the end of the Apollo program in December 1972. NASA had won the moon race, and in some senses this left it without direction, or at the very least without the public attention and interest that was necessary to guarantee large budgets from Congress. After President Lyndon Johnson left office, NASA lost its main political supporter, and rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was moved to a position lobbying in Washington. Plans for ambitious follow-on projects to construct a space station, establish a lunar base and launch a human mission to Mars by 1990 were proposed but with the end to procurement of Saturn and Apollo hardware, there was no capability to support these. The near-disaster of Apollo 13, where an oxygen tank explosion nearly doomed all three astronauts, helped to recapture national attention and concern. Although missions up to Apollo 20 were planned, Apollo 17 was the last mission to fly under the Apollo banner. The program ended because of budget cuts (in part due to the Vietnam War) and the desire to develop a reusable space vehicle.

Other early missions

Although the vast majority of NASA's budget has been spent on human spaceflight, there have been many robotic missions instigated by the space agency. In 1962 the Mariner 2 mission was launched and became the first spacecraft to make a flyby of another planet – in this case Venus. The Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter missions were essential to assessing lunar conditions before attempting Apollo landings with humans on board. Later, the two Viking probes landed on the surface of Mars and sent color images back to Earth, but perhaps more impressive were the Pioneer and particularly Voyager missions that visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune sending back scientific information and color images. Having lost the moon race, the Soviet Union had, along with the USA, changed its approach. On July 17, 1975 an Apollo craft (finding a new use after the cancelling of planned lunar flights) was docked to the Soviet Soyuz 19 spacecraft, in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Although the Cold War would last many more years, this was a critical point in NASA's history and much of the international co-operation in space exploration that exists today has its genesis with this mission. America's first space station, Skylab, occupied NASA from the end of Apollo until the late 1970s.

Shuttle era

Skylab 1981 ]] The space shuttle became the major focus of NASA in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Planned to be a frequently launchable and mostly reusable vehicle, four space shuttles were built by 1985. The first to launch, Columbia did so on April 12, 1981. The shuttle was not all good news for NASA – flights were much more expensive than initially projected, and even after the 1986 Challenger disaster highlighted the risks of space flight, the public again lost interest as missions appeared to become mundane. Work began on Space Station Freedom as a focus for the manned space programme but within NASA there was argument that these projects came at the expense of more inspiring unmanned missions such as the Voyager probes. The Challenger disaster aside the late 1980s marked a low point for NASA. Nonetheless, the shuttle has been used to launch milestone projects like the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The HST was created with a relatively small budget of $2 billion but has continued operation since 1990 and has delighted both scientists and the public. Some of the images it has returned have become near-legendary, such as the groundbreaking Hubble Deep Field images. The HST is a joint project between ESA and NASA, and its success has paved the way for greater collaboration between the agencies. In 1995 Russian-American interaction would again be achieved as the Shuttle-Mir missions began, and once more a Russian craft (this time a full-fledged space station) docked with an American vehicle. This cooperation continues to the present day, with Russia and America the two biggest partners in the largest space station ever built – the International Space Station (ISS). The strength of their cooperation on this project was even more evident when NASA began relying on Russian launch vehicles to service the ISS following the 2003 Columbia disaster, which grounded the shuttle fleet for well over two years. Costing over one hundred billion dollars, it has been difficult at times for NASA to justify the ISS. The population at large have historically been hard to impress with details of scientific experiments in space, preferring news of grand projects to exotic locations. Even now, the ISS cannot accommodate as many scientists as planned. During much of the 1990s, NASA was faced with shrinking annual budgets due to Congressional belt-tightening in Washington, DC. In response, NASA's ninth administrator, Daniel S. Goldin, pioneered the "faster, better, cheaper" approach that enabled NASA to cut costs while still delivering a wide variety of aerospace programs (Discovery Program). That method was criticized and re-evaluated following the twin losses of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander in 1999.

NASA's future

Mars Polar Lander and the planned crew and heavy lift launch vehicles]] NASA's most publicly-inspiring mission of recent years has probably been the Mars Pathfinder mission of 1997. Newspapers around the world carried images of the lander dispatching its own rover, Sojourner, to explore the surface of Mars in a way never done before at any extra-terrestrial location. Less publicly acclaimed but performing science from 1997 to date (2005) has been the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. Since 2001, the orbiting Mars Odyssey has been searching for evidence of past or present water and volcanic activity on the red planet. NASA expects to continue exploring the Red Planet with more spacecraft such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which will reach Mars in 2006. The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, which killed the crew of six American and one Israeli astronaut, and caused a 29-month hiatus in space shuttle flights, triggered a serious re-examination of NASA's priorities. The U.S. government, various scientists, and the public all considered the future of the space program. On January 14, 2004, ten days after the landing of Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, President George W. Bush announced a new plan for NASA's future, dubbed the Vision for Space Exploration. According to this plan, humankind will return to the moon by 2020, and set up outposts as a testbed and potential resource for future missions. The space shuttle will be retired in 2010 and the Crew Exploration Vehicle will replace it by 2014, capable of both docking with the ISS and leaving the Earth's orbit. The future of the ISS is somewhat uncertain – construction will be completed, but beyond that is less clear. Although the plan initially met with skepticism from Congress, in late 2004 Congress agreed to provide start-up funds for the first year's worth of the new space vision. Hoping to spur innovation from the private sector, NASA established a series of Centennial Challenges, technology prizes for non-government teams, in 2004. The Challenges include tasks that will be useful for implementing the Vision for Space Exploration, such as building more efficient astronaut gloves.

Criticisms

Some commentators, such as Mark Wade, note that NASA has suffered from a 'stop-start' approach to its human spaceflight programs. The Apollo spacecraft and Saturn family of launch vehicles were abandoned in 1970 after billions of dollars had been spent on their development. In 2004 the U.S. Government proposed eventually replacing the Shuttle with a Crew Exploration Vehicle that would allow the agency to again send astronauts to the Moon. Despite the reduction of its budget following project Apollo, NASA has maintained a top-heavy bureaucracy resulting in inflated costs and compromised hardware. Crew Exploration Vehicle on October 31, 1998.]] Currently, the ISS relies on the Shuttle fleet for all major construction shipments. The Shuttle fleet has lost two spacecraft and fourteen astronauts in two disasters in 1986 and 2003. While the 1986 loss was made up with a Shuttle built from replacement parts, NASA does not plan to build another shuttle to replace the second loss. (But see also CEV.) The ISS, which was intended to have a crew of seven as of 2005, now has a skeleton crew of two, causing many intended research projects to be delayed. Other nations that have invested heavily in the space station's construction, such as the members of the European Space Agency, are fearful that the ISS's fate will soon match the fate of Skylab. As of 2005, however, all of the European and Japanese contributions to the ISS are years behind development schedule themselves.

NASA spaceflight missions

Human spaceflight


- Mercury program
- Gemini program
- Apollo program
- Skylab
- Space Shuttle
- International Space Station (working together with ESA, Rosviakosmos and JAXA)
- Project Constellation

Robotic space missions


- Earth Observing
  - Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite
  - TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics)
- Lunar missions
  - Ranger
  - Surveyor
  - Lunar Orbiter
  - Clementine
  - Lunar Prospector
- Mercury missions
  - Mariner 10
  - MESSENGER
- Venus missions
  - Mariner 2, 5 and 10
  - Pioneer Venus
  - Magellan
- Mars missions
  - Mariner 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9
  - Viking 1 and 2
  - Mars Observer
  - Mars Pathfinder
  - Mars Climate Orbiter
  - Mars Polar Lander
  - Mars Global Surveyor
  - 2001 Mars Odyssey
  - Mars Exploration Rovers
  - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
  - Phoenix Lander (Planned for 2007)
  - Mars Science Laboratory (Planned for 2009)
- Jupiter missions
  - Pioneer 10
  - Galileo
  - Juno
- Saturn missions
  - Cassini-Huygens together with ESA
- Multi-planet missions
  - Pioneer 11 – Jupiter and Saturn
  - Mariner 10 – Venus and Mercury
  - Voyager 1 – Jupiter and Saturn
  - Voyager 2 – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
  - New Horizons (Planned for 2006) – Jupiter, Pluto and Kuiper Belt
- Asteroidal/cometary missions
  - NEAR Shoemaker
  - Deep Space 1
  - Stardust
  - Deep Impact
  - Dawn (Planned for 2006)
- Proposed or canceled planetary-asteroid missions
  - JIMO (cancelled)
  - CRAF (cancelled)
  - NetLanders (cancelled)
  - Pluto Kuiper Express (cancelled; New Horizons is replacement)
  - Titan Explorer (proposed)
  - Neptune Orbiter (proposed)
- Sun observing missions
  - SOHO – ESA partnership
  - Ulysses – ESA partnership
- Great Observatories for Space Astrophysics
  - Hubble Space Telescope – ESA partnership
  - Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
  - Chandra X-ray Observatory
  - Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, SIRTF)
- Other observatories
  - COBE
  - FUSE
  - Infrared Astronomical Satellite
  - James Webb Space Telescope – ESA partnership
  - WMAP

List of NASA administrators

# T. Keith Glennan (1958–1961) # James E. Webb (1961–1968) # Thomas O. Paine (1969–1970) # James C. Fletcher (1971–1977) # Robert A. Frosch (1977–1981) # James M. Beggs (1981–1985) # James C. Fletcher (1986–1989) # Richard H. Truly (1989–1992) # Daniel S. Goldin (1992–2001) # Sean O'Keefe (2001–2005) # Michael Griffin (2005–)

Field installations

In addition to headquarters in Washington, D.C., NASA has field installations at:
- Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
- Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
- John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, Ohio
- Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
  - Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York
  - Independent Verification and Validation Facility, Fairmont, West Virginia
  - Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, near Pasadena, California
  - Deep Space Network stations:
    - Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, Barstow, California
    - Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, Madrid, Spain
    - Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
- Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas
  - White Sands Test Facility, Las Cruces, New Mexico
- John F. Kennedy Space Center, Florida
- Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
- George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
  - Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, Louisiana
- John C. Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Awards and decorations

NASA presently bestows a number of medals and decorations to astronauts and other NASA personnel. Some awards are authorized for wear on active duty military uniforms. Current NASA awards are as follows:
- Congressional Space Medal of Honor
- NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal
- NASA Distinguished Service Medal
- NASA Equal Employment Opportunity Medal
- NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Administrative Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Bravery Medal
- NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Service Medal
- NASA Exceptional Technological Achievement Medal
- NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal
- NASA Public Service Medal
- NASA Space Flight Medal

Related legislation


- 1958 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration PL 85-568 (passed on July 29)
- 1961 – Apollo mission funding PL 87-98 A
- 1970 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Research and Development Act PL 91-119
- 1984 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act PL 98-361
- 1988 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act PL 100-685
- NASA Budget 1958–2005 in 1996 Constant Year Dollars

See also


- List of aerospace engineering topics
- Astronaut
- Small Aircraft Transportation System
- Space Shuttle
- Space exploration
- Space race
- Robert Gilruth, Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz (flight directors)
- KC-135 Reduced Gravity Aircraft
- Shirley Thomas
- Stewart Brand
- Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Vision for Space Exploration
- Asteroid 11365 NASA is named after the organization.

Other space agencies


- Canadian Space Agency
- CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales)
- China National Space Administration
- European Space Agency
- Italian Space Agency
- Indian Space Research Organisation
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
- National Space Agency of Ukraine
- Russian Federal Space Agency
- Soviet space program (historical)

External links

General


- [http://www.nasa.gov NASA Home Page]
- [http://www.nasawatch.com NASA Watch]
-

Further research


- [http://history.nasa.gov/series95.html NASA History Series Publications]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4012/cover.html NASA Historical Data Books (SP-4012)]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/hhrhist.pdf Research in NASA History: A Guide to the NASA History Program (large PDF – over 1,012 kb)]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/ NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server]
- [http://www.eventscope.org Eventscope] Category:Independent Agencies of the United States Government ko:미국항공우주국 ja:アメリカ航空宇宙局 simple:NASA th:องค์การนาซา

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 197,800. It is the county seat of Kent County, Michigan6. It is the second largest city in the state and is the principal city in the region of West Michigan.

History

West Michigan Over 2,000 years ago, the Hopewell Indians occupied the Grand River Valley. Around 1700 A.D., the Ottawa Indians moved into the area and founded several villages along the Grand River. The Grand Rapids area was first settled by Europeans near the start of the 19th century by missionaries and fur traders, who generally lived in reasonable peace alongside the Ottawa tribespeople, trading their European metal and textile goods for the fur pelts. Joseph and Madeline La Framboise established the first Indian/European trading post in West Michigan, on the banks of the Grand River near what is now Ada. After the death of her husband in 1806, Medaline La Franboise carried on, expanding fur trading posts to the west and north. La Framboise, a mix of French and Indian descent, later merged her successful operations with the American Fur Company and retired, at age 41, to Mackinac Island. The first permanent white settler in the Grand Rapids area was a Baptist minister named Isaac McCoy who arrived in 1825. In 1826 Detroit-born Louis Campau, the official founder of Grand Rapids, built his cabin, trading post, and blackmith shop on the east bank of the Grand River near the rapids. Campau returned to Detroit and came back a year later with his wife and $5,000 of trade goods to trade with the native tribes. In 1831 the federal survey of the Northwest Territory reached the Grand River and set the boundaries for Kent County, named after prominent New York jurist James Kent. Campau became perhaps the most important settler when, in 1831, he bought 72 acres (291,000 m²) of what is now the entire downtown business district of Grand Rapids from the federal government for $90 and named his tract Grand Rapids. Rival Lucius Lyon, who purchased the rest of the prime land, called his the Village of Kent. Yankee immigrants and others began immigrating from New York and New England in the 1830s. In 1836 John Ball, representing a group of New York land speculators, bypassed Detroit for a better deal in Grand Rapids. Ball declared the Grand River valley "the promised land, or at least the most promising one for my operations." By 1838 the settlement had incorporated as a village encompassing an area of approximately three-quarters of a mile (1 km) . The first formal census occurred in 1845 which announced a population of 1,510 and recorded an area of four square miles. The city of Grand Rapids was officially created on May 1, 1850, when the village of Grand Rapids voted to accept the proposed city charter. The population at the time was 2,686. By 1857, the city of Grand Rapids' boundary totaled 10.5 square miles (27 km²). During the second half of the 19th century the city became a major lumbering center and the premier furniture manufacturing city of the United States. For this reason it was nicknamed "Furniture City". After an international exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, Grand Rapids became recognized worldwide as a leader in the production of fine furniture. Today, Grand Rapids is considered a world leader in the production of office furniture. The city also became a center of Dutch immigration in the 19th century. In 1881, the country's first hydro-electric plant was put to use on the city's west side. With the new century, the people of Grand Rapids numbered 82,565. In 1916 the citizens of Grand Rapids voted to adopt a home rule charter that abolished the old aldermanic systems and replaced it with a commission-manager form of government, one of the first in the country. That 1916 Charter, although amended several times, is still in effect. Grand Rapids was home to the first regularly scheduled passenger airline in the United States when Stout Air Services began Grand Rapids to Detroit service on July 31, 1926. In 1945, Grand Rapids became the first city in the United States to add fluoride to its drinking water. Grand Rapids also lays claims to the first publicly-funded art installation. Grand Rapids has several large ethnic communities. It is home to the headquarters of the Christian Reformed Church and is a center of the Reformed Church in America, both because of the presence of a large group of Dutch Americans. Grand Rapids is also home to large Polish American and African American communities and a growing Hispanic community.

Geography

Grand Rapids sits on the banks of the Grand River, where there was once a set of rapids, at an altitude of 610 feet above sea level. It is approximately 30 miles (50 km) east of Lake Michigan. The state capital of Lansing lies about 60 miles (100 km) to the east-by-southeast, and Kalamazoo is about 50 miles (80 km) to the south. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 117.4 km² (45.3 mi²). 115.6 km² (44.6 mi²) of it is land and 1.8 km² (0.7 mi², 1.50%) of it is water (primarily the Grand River).

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there are 197,800 people, 73,217 households, and 44,369 families residing in the city. The population density is 1,710.8/km² (4,431.2/mi²). There are 77,960 housing units at an average density of 674.3/km² (1,746.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 67.30% White, 20.41% African American, 0.74% Native American, 1.62% Asian, 0.12% Pacific Islander, 6.63% from other races, and 3.19% from two or more races. 13.05% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 73,217 households out of which 32.0% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.3% are married couples living together, 15.8% have a female householder with no husband present, and 39.4% are non-families. 30.8% of all households are made up of individuals and 10.0% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.57 and the average family size is 3.24. In the city the population is spread out with 27.0% under the age of 18, 13.1% from 18 to 24, 31.5% from 25 to 44, 16.7% from 45 to 64, and 11.6% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 30 years. For every 100 females there are 95.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 92.5 males. The median income for a household in the city is $37,224, and the median income for a family is $44,224. Males have a median income of $33,050 versus $26,382 for females. The per capita income for the city is $17,661. 15.7% of the population and 11.9% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 19.4% are under the age of 18 and 10.4% are 65 or older.

Government and politics

Like the surrounding counties, Grand Rapids has traditionally been a stronghold for the Republican Party, giving clear majorities to its candidates for most county, state, and federal legislative seats. However, the city of Grand Rapids itself - excluding its suburbs - has sometimes given a majority of its votes to the Democratic Party candidate in recent presidential elections (Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004).

The Commission-Manager plan

Grand Rapids voters adopted the Commission-Manager form of municipal government in 1916. Under this system, the political reponsibilities are divided between an elected City Commission and a hired full-time City Manager. Two part-time Commissioners are elected to four-year terms from each of three wards, with half of these seats up for election every two years. The part-time Mayor is elected every four years by the city at large, and serves as chair of the Commission, with a vote equal to that of a Commissioner. The races - held in odd-numbered years - are formally non-partisan, although the party and other political affiliations of candidates do sometimes come up during the campaign period. The Commission sets policy for the city, and is responsible for hiring the City Manager and other appointed officials [http://www.ci.grand-rapids.mi.us/index.pl?page_id=350].

George Heartwell, current mayor

George Heartwell was elected mayor of Grand Rapids after long-serving mayor John H. Logie declined to run for re-election in 2003. Logie felt the position should be made full-time, but to avoid the question becoming a referendum on whether he should hold the job full-time, he announced that he would not run for re-election. The voters decided to keep the position part-time, and Heartwell was elected. Heartwell assumed office on January 1, 2004. Prior to being mayor, Heartwell was a City Commissioner for the third ward, 1992-1999. He is Director of the Community Leadership Institute at Aquinas College, where he is also a professor in the Community Leadership undergraduate study program. Mayor Heartwell is an ordained minister, for the United Church of Christ, and served for 14 years at Heartside Ministry, a program for the homeless in Grand Rapids. He was previously the president of Heartwell Mortgage Corporation [http://www.ci.grand-rapids.mi.us/1010].

Economy

Grand Rapids has long been a center for furniture and automobile manufacturing. More recently the city has attracted more bio-tech companies to the city with the addition of the Van Andel Research Institute, which is primarily focused on cancer research, and the new Cook-DeVos Medical Training Facility, which is a part of Grand Valley State University, along with part of Michigan State University medical school (the other part of the medical school will remain on campus in East Lansing) which is slated to arrive in West Michigan in the next three to five years. The new DeVos Place Convention Center is expected to continue the growth of the city, which has seen a significant increase recently. Other future projects in the city include a new art museum. Grand Rapids also has a reputation for being the Christian publishing capital of the USA, with four companies founded by Dutch-Americans based in the city: Eerdmans, Zondervan, Baker Books, and Kregel.

Education

Grand Rapids is home to several colleges and universities. Aquinas College, Calvin College, Reformed Bible College and Cornerstone University are private, religious schools, each with a campus on the east side of the city. Grand Rapids Community College maintains an extensive campus downtown and facilities in other parts of the city and surrounding region. Grand Valley State University continues to develop its presence in the city with an expanding downtown campus, begun in the late 1990s on the west bank of the Grand River. Ferris State University has a growing campus downtown, including Kendall College of Art and Design and the Applied Technology Center (operated with GRCC). Thomas M. Cooley Law School, a private institution, has a campus in Grand Rapids. Davenport University, a state-wide educational institution, has one of its main campuses in downtown Grand Rapids.

Culture

Davenport University Since 1970, Grand Rapids has been host to an annual festival of the arts downtown, known to locals simply as "Festival (insert year here)". During the first weekend in June, several blocks of downtown surrounding the Calder stabile next to City Hall are closed to traffic. [http://www.festivalofthearts.org Festival] features several stages with free live performances, food booths selling a variety of ethnic cuisine, art demonstrations and sales, and other arts-related activities. Organizers bill it as the largest all-volunteer arts festival in the United States. Also in Vandenberg Plaza are various country-specific ethnic festivals that occur throughout the summer season. In mid-2004, Grand Rapids began construction on a new, larger building for its art museum collection. The new building site is several blocks from the present museum, facing downtown's Rosa Parks Circle.

Media

The Grand Rapids Press is the daily newspaper serving the city, while the "Advance" group of weekly papers provides more community-based news. The Grand Rapids area is home to several television stations, and is the second largest television market in Michigan. Stations serving the area include WWMT (CBS), WOOD (NBC), WZZM (ABC), and WXMI (Fox). Other stations include WOTV, an ABC affiliate licensed to Battle Creek, WZPX (Pax/WB), and WTLJ (TBN). WXSP, a UPN affiliate, is a low-powered station while WGVU is the area's PBS member station.

Sites of interest

Grand Rapids is the home of John Ball Park, Belknap Hill, and the Gerald R. Ford Museum. The Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park is a major botanical garden and outdoor sculpture park. The DeVos Place Convention Center and Van Andel Arena are also located in the city.

Sports

Grand Rapids is the home of four professional sports teams. The Grand Rapids Rampage is an arena football team affiliated with the Arena Football League. The area's ice hockey team is the Grand Rapids Griffins, who is associated with the AHL. The West Michigan Whitecaps minor league baseball team is a member of the Midwest League, while the soccer team, the West Michigan Edge, is part of the Great Lakes Division of the USL Premier Development League.

Transportation

Public bus transportation is provided by the Interurban Transit Partnership, which brands itself as "The Rapid." Commercial air service to Grand Rapids is provided by Gerald R. Ford International Airport. Amtrak provides direct train service to Chicago. Several major highways serve the city, including:
- Michigan State Highway 6
- Michigan State Highway 11
- Michigan State Highway 21
- Michigan State Highway 37
- Michigan State Highway 44
- Michigan State Highway 44 Connector
- Michigan State Highway 45
- Interstate 96
- Interstate 196
- Interstate 296 (unsigned)
- U.S. Highway 131
- U.S. Highway 131 Business (Grand Rapids)

Notable current/former residents


- Mathias Alten, painter
- Gillian Anderson, lead actress of The X-Files
- Ray Bentley, Buffalo Bills linebacker and commentator
- Ralston Bowles, singer/songwriter
- Roger B. Chaffee, Apollo 1 astronaut
- Paul Collins, painter
- the DeBarge family, recording artists
- Christina Fong, violinist and violist
- Gerald R. Ford, U.S. president, of East Grand Rapids
- Al Green, singer
- Paul Henry, U.S. representative
- Jack Lousma, Skylab/Shuttle astronaut
- Chris Kaman, basketball player
- Stanley Ketchel, middleweight boxer
- Anthony Kiedis, lead singer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Floyd Mayweather Jr., lightweight boxer
- Mustard Plug, recording artists
- Andy Richter, television entertainer
- Paul Schrader, screenwriter and movie director
- Del Shannon, recording artist
- Casey Stratton, recording artist
- Chris Van Allsburg, children's book creator, of East Grand Rapids
- Arthur H. Vandenberg, U.S. senator
- Brian Vander Ark, lead singer of The Verve Pipe
- Whirlwind Heat, recording artists

External links


- [http://www.grand-rapids.mi.us/ Official Website of the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan]
- [http://www.infomi.com/city/grandrapids/ Grand Rapids Webpage at InfoMi]
- [http://grandrapids.50webs.com/ Comprehensive Collection of Downtown Photographs]
- [http://grwifi.net GRWifi.net: Wireless internet access in Grand Rapids]
- [http://www.andybrain.com/extras/wireless_hotspots.htm Wireless cafes, bookstores and coffee shops]
- [http://www.grr.org/ Gerald R. Ford International Airport]
- [http://www.gvsu.edu/healthsciences/ Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences]
- [http://www.vai.org/vari/default.asp/ Van Andel Research Institute]
- [http://www.grpl.org/ Grand Rapids Public Library]
- [http://www.ford.utexas.edu/museum/aboutmus.htm Gerald R. Ford Museum]
- [http://www.grmuseum.org/ Public Museum of Grand Rapids]

Cultural


- [http://www.gramonline.org/ Grand Rapids Art Museum]
- [http://www.grsymphony.org/ Grand Rapids Symphony]
- [http://www.operagr.com/ Opera Grand Rapids]
- [http://www.grct.org/ Grand Rapids Civic Theatre]
- [http://uica.org/ Urban Institute for Contemporary Art]
- [http://web.grcc.cc.mi.us/Theater/spectrumnew.htm Spectrum Theatre]
- [http://www.meijergardens.org/ Frederik Meijer Botanical Gardens & Sculpture Park]
- [http://www.grballet.com/ Grand Rapids Ballet]

Entertainment and media


- [http://www.GrandGardensMagazine.com/ Grand Gardens: local gardening magazine, 10x a year]
- [http://www.grbj.com/ Grand Rapids Business Journal: weekly local business newspaper]
- [http://www.grfamily.com/ Grand Rapids Family Magazine: monthly magazine]
- [http://www.grmag.com/ Grand Rapids Magazine: monthly magazine]
- [http://www.grnow.com/ GRNow.com :: Grand Rapids' Local Portal]
- [http://www.grstar.com/ GRstar.com :: Grand Rapids' Businesses]
- [http://www.mediamouse.org Media Mouse: local independent media]
- [http://www.mlive.com/grpress/ Michigan Live, online home to The Grand Rapids Press]
- [http://www.imdb.com/BornWhere?Grand%20Rapids,%20Michigan,%20USA/ Natives of Grand Rapids in the movie/TV industry] Category:All-America City Category:Cities in Michigan Category:Kent County, Michigan Category:Grand Rapids, Michigan Category:County seats in Michigan



1956

1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January-April


- January 1 - End of Anglo-Egyptian Codominium in Sudan.
- January 16 - President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine.
- January 26 - 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
- January 26 - The United Kingdom bans heroin.
- January 25-January 26 - Finnish troops reoccupy Porkkala after Soviet troops vacate its military base. Civilians can return February 4.
- February 6 - Paul Harvey arrested for trying to break into Argonne National Laboratory.
- February 15 - Urho Kekkonen is elected President of Finland.
- February 22 - Elvis Presley enters the music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel."
- February 23 - Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin as a "cult of personality."
- March 1 - the International Air Transport Association finalises a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization.
- March 2 - Morocco declares its independence from France.
- March 9 - British deport Archbishop Makarios from Cyprusto Seychelles.
- March 12 - United Kingdom abolishes death penalty for murder
- March 15 - The Broadway musical My Fair Lady opens in New York City.
- March 20 - Tunisia gains independence from France.
- March 23 - Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic.
- April 7 - Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco.
- April 9 - Habib Bouirgiba is elected prime minister of Tunisia.
- April 19 - British diver Lionel Crabb dives into the Portsmouth harbor to investigate visiting Soviet cruiser and vanishes.
- April 19 - Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

May-June


- early May - The Methodist Church in America decides at its General Conference to grant women full ordained clergy status.
- May 8 - Austria and Israel form diplomatic relations.
- May 8 - Constitutional union between Indonesia and Netherlands is dissolved.
- May 9 - First ascent of Manaslu, eighth highest mountain in the world.
- May 18 - First ascent of Lhotse (main), fourth highest mountain.
- May 21 - Nuclear testing: In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
- May 23 - French minister Pierre Mendes-France resigns due to government's policy on Algeria.
- June 1 - Vyacheslav Molotov resigns as a foreign minister of Soviet Union; he later becomes ambassador in Mongolia.
- June 6 - In Singapore, chief minister David Marshall resigns after breakdown of talks about internal self government in London.
- June 10 - 1956 Summer Olympics: Equestrian events open in Stockholm, Sweden.
- June 14 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the phrase "under God" should be added to the Pledge of Allegiance
- June 18 - Last foreign troops leave Egypt.
- June 23 - Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes the second president of Egypt.
- June 28 - MP Sydney Silverman's bill for abolition of death penalty passes the British House of Commons.
- June 28 - Labour riots at Poznan, Poland, are crushed with heavy loss of life. Soviet troops fire at crowd that protests high prices - 53 dead.
- June 29 - Actress Marilyn Monroe marries the playwright Arthur Miller.
- June 30 - A TWA Lockheed Constellation and United Airlines Douglas DC-7 collide in mid-air over the Grand Canyon in Arizona and crash. All 128 people aboard the two aircraft are killed in the disaster. The accident prompts tighter air traffic control to be implemented in the United States.

July-August


- July 2 - Two passengers planes collide and fall into Grand Canyon - 127 dead
- July 8 - First ascent of Gasherbrum II.
- July 10 - British House of Lords defeats the abolition of death penalty.
- July 24 - At New York City's Copacabana Club, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perform their last comedy show together which started on July 25, 1946.
- July 25 - 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the Swedish ship SS Stockholm in heavy fog, killing 51.
- July 26 - Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation.
- July 30 - A Joint Resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing "In God We Trust" as the U.S. national motto.
- July 31 - Jim Laker sets extraordinary record at Old Trafford in the fourth Test of taking nineteen wickets in a first class match (the previous best was seventeen).
- August 8 - Fire and explosion kills 263 miners at Marcinelle, Belgium.
- August 17 - West Germany bans communist party

September-October


- September 25 - Submarine telephone cable across the Atlantic opened
- October 10 - Finland joins UNESCO
- October 14 - Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Indian Untouchable leader, converts to Buddhism along with 385,000 followers. See Neo-Buddhism.
- October 15 - RAF retires its last Lancaster bomber
- October 15 - Fidel Castro and Che Guevara depart from Tuxpan, Mexico enroute to Santiago de Cuba aboard ship Granma with 82 men. After the ship passes a storm, it lands on Belici, Cuba, December 2
- October 23 - Hungarian revolution against the pro-Soviet government. Soviet Union intervenes. Hungary attempts to leave the Warsaw Pact.
- October 26 - Warsaw Pact troops invade Hungary.
- October 29 - Suez Crisis begins: Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.
- October 29 - Tangier Protocol signed: The international city Tangier is reintegrated into Morocco.
- October 31 - Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

November-December


- November 4 - 1956 Hungarian Revolution: Soviet troops invade Hungary to crush a revolt that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded and nearly a quarter million leave the country.
- November 6 - U.S. presidential election, 1956: Republican incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower is reelected by defeating Democrat challenger Adlai E. Stevenson in a rematch of their contest four years earlier.
- November 6 - Enoch A. Holtwick defeated as presidential candidate of Prohibition Party.
- November 7 - Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to withdraw their troops from Egypt immediately.
- November 14 - Fighting ends in Hungary.
- November 16 - Suez canal blocked.
- November 20 - In Yugoslavia, former prime minister Milovan Sjilas is arrested after he critisized Josip Broz Tito
- November 22 - Beginning of the Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia.
- November 23 - Suez Crisis causes petrol rationing in Britain.
- December 2 - Fidel Castro and his followers land on Cuba in the boat Granma.
- December 2 - A pipe bomb explodes at a movie theater in Brooklyn (work of George Metesky), injuring six people.
- December 5 - Rose Heilbron becomes Britain's first female judge
- December 12 - Japan becomes member of the United Nations.
- December 23 - British and French troops leave Suez Canal region

Unknown date


- Eindhoven University of Technology founded in Eindhoven, The Netherlands
- First hard disk (5MB) invented by IBM.
- Minamata disease discovered

Births

January-February


- January 3 - Mel Gibson, Australian actor and director
- January 4 - Bernard Sumner, British guitarist (Joy Division and New Order)
- January 5 - Chen Kenichi, Japanese chef
- January 7 - David Caruso, American actor
- January 10 - Shawn Colvin, American singer
-