:: wikimiki.org ::
| Alan Shepard |
Alan ShepardAlan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) (Rear Admiral, USN, Ret.) was the first U.S. astronaut in space, though his first flight was only sub-orbital.
He attended the East Derry primary and secondary schools in his birthplace of Derry, New Hampshire; received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1944, an Honorary Master of Arts degree from Dartmouth College in 1962, and Honorary Doctorate of Science from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) in 1971, and an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Franklin Pierce College in 1972. Graduated United States Naval Test Pilot School in 1951; Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island in 1957.
Naval career
Shepard began his naval career after graduation from Annapolis on the destroyer Cogswell, deployed in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. He subsequently entered flight training at Corpus Christi, Texas and Pensacola, Florida, and received his wings in 1947. His next assignment was with Fighter Squadron 42 at Norfolk, Virginia and Jacksonville, Florida. He served several tours aboard aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean while with this squadron.
In 1950, he attended the United States Navy Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland. After graduation, he participated in flight test work which included high-altitude tests to obtain data on light at different altitudes and on a variety of air masses over the American continent; and test and development experiments of the Navy's in-flight refueling system, carrier suitability trails of the F2H-3 Banshee, and Navy trials of the first angled carrier deck. He was subsequently assigned to Fighter Squadron 193 at Moffett Field, California, a night fighter unit flying Banshee jets. As operations officer of this squadron, he made two tours to the Western pacific on board the carrier USS Oriskany.
He returned to Patuxent for a second tour of duty and engaged in flight testing the F3H Demon, F8U Crusader, F4D Skyray, and F11F Tigercat. He was also project test pilot on the F5D Skylancer, and his last five months at Patuxent were spent as an instructor in the Test Pilot School. He later attended the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, and upon graduating in 1957 was subsequently assigned to the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet, as aircraft readiness officer.
He logged more than 8,000 hours flying time—3,700 hours in jet aircraft.
F5D Skylancer
Astronaut career
Shepard was one of the Mercury astronauts named by NASA in April 1959 to Project Mercury, and he holds the distinction of being the first American to journey into space, as well as the only Mercury astronaut to walk on the Moon. On May 5, 1961, in the Freedom 7 spacecraft, he was launched by a Redstone rocket on a ballistic trajectory suborbital flight—a flight which carried him to an altitude of 116 statute miles and to a landing point 302 statute miles down the Atlantic Missile Range. He was scheduled to pilot the Mercury-Atlas 10 Freedom 7-II, three day extended duration mission in October 1963. The MA-10 mission was cancelled on June 13, 1963.
:Dear Lord, please don't let me fuck up.
::—Alan Shepard, shortly before launch on Mercury 3/Freedom 7
After the Mercury-Atlas 10 mission was cancelled in June 1963, Shepard was designated as the command pilot of the first manned Gemini mission. Thomas Stafford was picked as his co-pilot. But in early 1964, Shepard was diagnosed with Meniere's disease, a condition in which fluid pressure builds up in the inner ear. This syndrome causes the semicircular canals and motion detectors to become extremely sensitive, resulting in disorientation, dizziness, and nausea. This condition caused him to be removed from flight status for most of the 1960s (Virgil Grissom and John Young were assigned to Gemini 3 instead).
Also in 1963, he was designated Chief of the Astronaut Office with responsibility for monitoring the coordination, scheduling, and control of all activities involving NASA astronauts. This included monitoring the development and implementation of effective training programs to assure the flight readiness of available pilot/non-pilot personnel for assignment to crew positions on manned space flights; furnishing pilot evaluations applicable to the design, construction, and operations of spacecraft systems and related equipment; and providing qualitative scientific and engineering observations to facilitate overall mission planning, formulation of feasible operational procedures, and selection and conduct of specific experiments for each flight.
He was restored to full flight status in May 1969, following corrective surgery (using a newly developed method) for Meniere's disease. He was originally assigned to command Apollo 13, but as it was felt he needed more time to train, he and his crewmates (lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell and command module pilot Stuart Roosa) swapped missions with the then crew of Apollo 14 (James Lovell, Ken Mattingly (who was himself replaced by Jack Swigert shortly before the mission), and Fred Haise).
At age 47, and the oldest astronaut in the program, Shepard made his second space flight as commander of Apollo 14, January 31–February 9, 1971, man's third successful lunar landing mission.
Shepard was a Rear Admiral when he retired from the Navy and the Astronaut Corps in 1974.
Awards and honors
During his life he was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor; two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, Naval Astronaut Wings, the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, and the Distinguished Flying Cross; recipient of the Langley Award (highest award of the Smithsonian Institution) on May 5, 1964, the Lambert Trophy, the Iven C. Kincheloe Award, the Cabot Award, the Collier Trophy, the City of New York Gold Medal (1971), Achievement Award for 1971.
Shepard was appointed by the President in July 1971 as a delegate to the 26th United Nations General Assembly and served through the entire assembly which lasted from September to December 1971.
Shepard is also remembered for being the only person to play golf on the Moon (using a converted soil sampler as his club).
Later years
Alan Shepard was always a shrewd businessman, and was the only astronaut to become a millionaire while still in the program. After he left the program, he was on the boards of many corporations under the auspices of his Seven-Fourteen Enterprises (named for his two flights, Freedom 7 and Apollo 14).
In 1988, he teamed up with fellow Mercury Seven astronaut Deke Slayton to write Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon. It was turned into a TV miniseries in 1994.
Shepard died of leukemia near his home in Pebble Beach, California on July 21, 1998, at age 74, two years after being diagnosed with that disease. His wife of 53 years, the former Louise Brewer, died five weeks afterward. They had two daughters, Laura (born in 1947) and Juliana (born in 1951), and had also raised a niece, Alice.
Media
- 1983 film The Right Stuff - played by Scott Glenn
- 1998 HBO TV series From The Earth To The Moon - played by Ted Levine
- 2005 BBC TV series Space Race - played by Todd Boyce
External link
- [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/shepard-alan.html NASA-Biography]
Shepard, Alan
Shepard, Alan
Shepard, Alan
Shepard, Alan
Shepard, Alan
Shepard, Alan
Shepard, Alan
Shepard, Alan
Shepard, Alan
Shepard, Alan
Shepard, Alan
ja:アラン・シェパード
November 18 November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years), with 43 remaining.
Events
- 326 - The old St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated.
- 1095 - The Council of Clermont, called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land, begins.
- 1302 - Pope Boniface VIII issues the Papal bull Unam sanctam ("The One Holy").
- 1307 - According to legend, William Tell shoots an apple off his son's head.
- 1421 - A seawall at the Zuider Zee dike breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands.
- 1477 - William Caxton produces Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres, the first book printed on a printing press in England.
- 1493 - Christopher Columbus first sights what is now Puerto Rico.
- 1626 - St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated.
- 1686 - Charles Francois Felix operates on King Louis XIV's anal fistula after practicing the surgery on several peasants.
- 1865 - Mark Twain's story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is published in the New York Saturday Press.
- 1883 - American and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
- 1903 - The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the Americans exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
- 1904 - General Esteban Huertas steps down after the government of Panama fears he wants to stage a coup.
- 1905 - Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.
- 1909 - Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) are executed by order of José Santos Zelaya.
- 1916 - World War I: First Battle of the Somme ends - In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.
- 1918 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
- 1926 - George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."
- 1928 - Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the second appearances of cartoon stars Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
- 1929 - 1929 Grand Banks earthquake: Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake, centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula area.
- 1938 - Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
- 1940 - World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.
- 1943 - World War II: 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF lost nine aircraft and 53 air crew.
- 1959 - William Wyler's film Ben-Hur premieres at Loew's Theater in New York City.
- 1970 - US President Richard Nixon asks the U.S. Congress for US$155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government.
- 1970 - Singer Jerry Lee Lewis divorces his third wife, Myra Gail, after 12 years.
- 1978 - Jonestown mass suicide: In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones leads his People's Temple in a mass murder-suicide; 913 die, including 276 children.
- 1982 - Duk Koo Kim dies unexpectedly from injuries sustained during a 14-round match against Ray Mancini in Las Vegas, prompting reforms in the sport of boxing.
- 1985 - Calvin and Hobbes, a comic strip by Bill Watterson, is first published.
- 1985 - Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theisman breaks his leg, ending his career.
- 1987 - Iran-Contra scandal: The U.S. Congress issues its final report on the Iran-Contra affair.
- 1987 - King's Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station at King's Cross St Pancras.
- 1988 - War on Drugs: US President Ronald Reagan signs a bill into law providing the death penalty for murderous drug traffickers.
- 1990 - Boxing: Chris Eubank defeats Nigel Benn in their WBO world middleweight championship bout.
- 1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland free.
- 1991 - After the 3-month siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar is invaded by Serbians
- 1993 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.
- 1996 - A fire occurs in the Channel Tunnel soon after it opens.
- 1997 - Gary Glitter is arrested in the United Kingdom on child pornography charges.
- 1998 - Alice McDermott wins the National Book Award with her novel Charming Billy.
- 1999 - In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 28 injured at Texas A&M University when a huge bonfire under construction collapses.
- 1999 - In Jasper, Texas, 24-year old Shawn Allen Berry is sentenced to life in prison, becoming the third person convicted in the racially-motivated death of James Byrd, Jr..
- 2001 - The Nintendo GameCube is released in North America
- 2002 - Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.
- 2003 - In the UK the Local Government Act 2003, repealing the controversial anti-gay amendment Section 28, becomes effective.
- 2003 - The congress of the Communist Party of Indian Union (Marxist-Leninist) decides to merge the party into Kanu Sanyal's CPI(ML).
- 2004 - Russia officially ratifies the Kyoto Protocol.
- 2005 - The film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is released.
- 2005 - Two policewomen in Bradford, UK are shot, one fatally, causing gridlock in and out of the city
Births
- 1522 - Lamoral, Count of Egmont, Flemish general and statesman (d. 1568)
- 1647 - Pierre Bayle, French philosopher (d. 1706)
- 1785 - David Wilkie, British artist (d. 1841)
- 1786 - Carl Maria von Weber, German composer (d. 1826)
- 1787 - Louis-Jacques Daguerre, French inventor and photographer (d. 1851)
- 1804 - Alfonso Ferrero la Marmora, Italian general and statesman (d. 1878)
- 1832 - Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Swedish explorer (d. 1901)
- 1836 - Sir William S. Gilbert, British dramatist (d. 1911)
- 1836 - Cesare Lombroso, Italian psychiatrist and founder of criminology (d. 1909)
- 1839 - August Kundt, German physicist (d. 1894)
- 1856 - Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia (d. 1929)
- 1861 - Dorothea Dix, American activist (d. 1887)
- 1870 - Dorothy Dix, pseudonym of US journalist, Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer (d. 1951)
- 1874 - Clarence Day, American author (d. 1935)
- 1882 - Jacques Maritain, French philosopher (d. 1973)
- 1883 - Carl Vinson, U.S. Congressman (d. 1981)
- 1897 - Patrick Blackett, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
- 1898 - Joris Ivens, Dutch filmmaker (d. 1989)
- 1899 - Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian-born conductor (d. 1985)
- 1901 - George Gallup, American statistician and opinion pollster (d. 1984)
- 1906 - Klaus Mann, German writer (d. 1949)
- 1906 - George Wald, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)
- 1907 - Compay Segundo, Cuban musician (Buena Vista Social Club) (d. 2003)
- 1908 - Imogene Coca, American actress and comedienne (d. 2001)
- 1909 - Johnny Mercer, American lyricist (d. 1976)
- 1916 - Amelita Galli-Curci, Italian soprano (d. 1963)
- 1919 - Jocelyn Brando, American actress (d. 2005)
- 1922 - Luis Somoza Debayle, Nicaraguan president (d. 1967)
- 1923 - Alan Shepard, American astronaut (d. 1998)
- 1925 - Gene Mauch, American baseball manager (d. 2005)
- 1927 - Hank Ballard, American musician (d. 2003)
- 1935 - Rudolf Bahro, German dissident (d. 1997)
- 1939 - Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer
- 1939 - Brenda Vaccaro, American actress
- 1940 - Qaboos ibn Sa’id, Sultan of Oman
- 1941 - David Hemmings, British actor (d. 2003)
- 1942 - Linda Evans, American actress
- 1944 - Susan Sullivan, American actress
- 1946 - Alan Dean Foster, American author
- 1947 - Jameson Parker, American actor
- 1948 - Andrea Marcovicci, American singer and actress
- 1948 - Jack Tatum, American football player
- 1950 - Eric Pierpoint, American actor
- 1953 - Alan Moore, British comic book writer and novelist
- 1954 - John Parr, British pop singer
- 1956 - Warren Moon, American football player
- 1957 - Seán Mac Falls, Irish-born poet
- 1958 - Laura Miller, Mayor of Dallas, Texas
- 1960 - Kim Wilde, British singer
- 1962 - Kirk Hammett, American guitarist (Metallica)
- 1963 - Dante Bichette, baseball player
- 1963 - Peter Schmeichel, Danish footballer
- 1966 - Jorge Camacho, Spanish poet
- 1968 - Owen Wilson, American actor
- 1969 - Sam Cassell, American basketball player
- 1970 - Peta Wilson, Australian actress
- 1975 - David Ortiz, Dominican Major League Baseball player
- 1978 - Damien Johnson, Northern Irish footballer
- 1983 - Jon Johansen, Norwegian software developer
Deaths
- 1154 - Adélaide de Maurienne, queen of Louis VI of France (b. 1092)
- 1305 - John II, Duke of Brittany (b. 1239)
- 1559 - Cuthbert Tunstall, English churchman (b. 1474)
- 1590 - George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, English statesman (b. 1528)
- 1724 - Bartolomeu de Gusmão, Portuguese naturalist (b. 1685)
- 1785 - Louis Philip I, Duke of Orléans, French soldier and writer (b. 1725)
- 1797 - Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat, French shipbuilder and merchant (b. 1719)
- 1814 - William Jessop, British civil engineer (b. 1745)
- 1886 - Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States (b. 1829)
- 1889 - William Allingham, Irish author
- 1922 - Marcel Proust, French novelist (b. 1871)
- 1941 - Walther Nernst, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
- 1941 - Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1867)
- 1952 - Paul Eluard, French poet (b. 1895)
- 1953 - Frank Olson, American scientist (suicide)
- 1962 - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)
- 1965 - Henry A. Wallace, Vice President of the United States (b. 1888)
- 1967 - Luis Somoza Debayle, Nicaraguan president (b. 1922)
- 1969 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., American politician (b. 1888)
- 1976 - Man Ray, American artist (b. 1890)
- 1978 - Jim Jones, American cult leader (suicide) (b. 1931)
- 1978 - Leo Ryan, U.S. Congressman (b. 1905)
- 1982 - Duk Koo Kim, Korean boxer (b. 1959)
- 1986 - Gia Carangi, American model (AIDS) (b. 1960)
- 1987 - Jacques Anquetil, French cyclist (cancer) (b. 1934)
- 1991 - Gustáv Husák, President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1913)
- 1994 - Cab Calloway, American bandleader (b. 1907)
- 1999 - Paul Bowles, American novelist (b. 1910)
- 2002 - James Coburn, American actor (b. 1928)
- 2003 - Michael Kamen, American composer (b. 1948)
Holidays and observances
- Roman festivals - day 1 Dios dedicated to the sun god by emperor Licinius
- R.C. Saints - Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul ; Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne ; also St Mawes, St Odo of Cluny, St Romanus of Antioch
- Also see November 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Latvia - Independence Day (1918)
- Oman - National Holiday
- Venezuela - Feast of the Virgen de Chiquinquirá, also known as la Chinita, in the western state of Zulia
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/18 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20051118.html The New York Times: On This Day]
----
November 17 - November 19 - October 18 - December 18 -- listing of all days
ko:11월 18일
ms:18 November
ja:11月18日
simple:November 18
th:18 พฤศจิกายน
July 21July 21 is the 202nd day (203rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 163 days remaining.
Events
- 1298 - Battle of Falkirk (1298): King Edward I of England defeats Scottish rebels led by William Wallace.
- 1403 - Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England
- 1568 - Battle of Jemmingen: Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeats Louis of Nassau
- 1579 - Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, was discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan.
- 1718 - Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice is signed.
- 1774 - Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji ending the Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774.
- 1831 - Inauguration of Léopold I of Belgium, first king of the Belgians.
- 1861 - American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run - At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins (Confederate victory).
- 1865 - In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots Dave Tutt dead in what is regarded as the first true western showdown.
- 1873 - At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American West.
- 1877 - After rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of 9 rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh stage a sympathy strike that is met with an assault by the state militia.
- 1925 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.
- 1931 - CBS's New York City station begins broadcasting the first regular seven days a week television schedule in the U. S.
- 1944 - World War II: Battle of Guam - American troops land on Guam starting the battle (ends on August 10).
- 1954 - First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
- 1961 - Mercury program: Gus Grissom piloting the Mercury 4 capsule "Liberty Bell 7" becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).
- 1963 - Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini is elected Pope Paul VI by the College of Cardinals.
- 1970 - After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.
- 1972 - Bloody Friday bombing by the Provisional Irish Republican Army, (PIRA) around Belfast, Northern Ireland, 22 bomb explosions, 9 people were killed,130 seriously injured.
- 1973 - In the Lillehammer affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in 1972's Munich Olympics Massacre.
- 1976 - Christopher Ewart-Biggs British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland is assassinated by the Provisional IRA
- 1978 - Big-bust model Francine Dee is born.
- 1984 - In Jackson, Michigan, a factory robot crushes a worker against a safety bar in apparently the first robot-related death in the United States.
- 1994 - Tony Blair is declared the winner of the leadership election of the British Labour Party, paving the way to him becoming Prime Minister in 1997.
- 1995 - Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army begins firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
- 1997 - The fully restored USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.
- 2002 - Telecom giant WorldCom files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the largest such filing in United States history.
- 2003 - The last Volkswagen old-style Beetle rolls off the assembly line at Puebla, Mexico.
- 2004 - The United Kingdom government publishes Delivering Security in a Changing World, a paper detailing wide-ranging reform of the country's armed forces.
- 2005 - Clarence Richard Silva ordained to the episcopate as bishop of Honolulu.
- 2005 - Four terrorist bombings, occurring exactly two weeks after the similar July 7 bombings, target London's public transportation system. All four bombs fail to detonate and all four suspected suicide bombers escape.
Births
- 1414 - Pope Sixtus IV (d. 1484)
- 1515 - Philip Neri, Italian churchman (d. 1595)
- 1620 - Jean Picard, French astronomer (d. 1682)
- 1664 - Matthew Prior, English poet and diplomat (d. 1721)
- 1693 - Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, English statesman (d. 1768)
- 1710 - Paul Möhring, German physician and scientist (d. 1792)
- 1810 - Henri Victor Regnault, French chemist and physicist (d. 1878)
- 1858 - Lovis Corinth, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1925)
- 1870 - Emil Orlik, Czech painter and graphic artist (d. 1932)
- 1893 - Hans Fallada, German writer (d. 1947)
- 1899 - Hart Crane, American poet (d. 1932)
- 1899 - Ernest Hemingway, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
- 1903 - Roy Neuberger, American financier and art collector
- 1911 - Marshall McLuhan, Canadian author (d. 1980)
- 1920 - Isaac Stern, Ukrainian-born violinist (d. 2001)
- 1923 - Rudolph A. Marcus, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1922 - Kay Starr, American singer
- 1924 - Don Knotts, American actor
- 1925 - Anne Meacham, American actress
- 1926 - Norman Jewison, Canadian film director
- 1932 - Ernie Warlick, American football player
- 1933 - John Gardner, American author (d. 1982)
- 1935 - Norbert Blüm, German politician
- 1938 - Janet Reno, United States Attorney General
- 1939 - John Negroponte, U.S. Director of National Intelligence
- 1943 - Edward Herrmann, American actor
- 1944 - Tony Scott, British film director
- 1944 - Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator from Minnesota (d. 2002)
- 1946 - Kenneth Starr, American lawyer and judge
- 1948 - Ed Hinton, American sportswriter
- 1948 - Cat Stevens, English singer
- 1948 - Garry Trudeau, American cartoonist
- 1950 - Ubaldo Fillol, Argentinian footballer
- 1951 - Robin Williams, American comedian
- 1953 - Brian Talbot, English football player and manager
- 1957 - Jon Lovitz, American comedian
- 1960 - Lance Guest, American actor
- 1964 - Jens Weißflog, German ski jumper
- 1968 - Brandi Chastain, American soccer player
- 1968 - Lyle Odelein, Canadian hockey player
- 1978 - Josh Hartnett, American actor
- 1979 - David Carr, American football player
- 1983 - Eivør Pálsdóttir, Faroese singer and composer
- 1983 - Kellen Winslow Jr., American football player
- 1984 - Liam Ridgewell, English footbller
Deaths
- 1403 - Henry Percy, English soldier (killed in battle)
- 1425 - Manuel II Palaeologus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1350)
- 1688 - James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, English statesman and soldier (b. 1610)
- 1796 - Robert Burns, Scottish poet (b. 1759)
- 1798 - François Sebastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt, Austrian field marshal (b. 1733)
- 1870 - Josef Strauss, Austrian composer (b. 1827)
- 1899 - Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician and military officer (b. 1833)
- 1937 - Louis Vierne, French composer (b. 1870)
- 1938 - Owen Wister, American author (b. 1860)
- 1943 - Charlie Paddock, American athlete (b. 1900)
- 1944 - Claus von Stauffenberg, German army colonel who tried to assassinate Hitler (b. 1907)
- 1948 - David Wark Griffith, American film director (b. 1875)
- 1967 - Jimmie Foxx, baseball player (b. 1907)
- 1967 - Albert Lutuli, South African politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1967 - Basil Rathbone, English actor (b. 1892)
- 1968 - Ruth St. Denis, dancer and choreographer (b. 1878)
- 1970 - Bob Kalsu, American football player (b. 1945)
- 1972 - Ralph Craig, American athlete (b. 1889)
- 1982 - Dave Garroway, American television host (b. 1913)
- 1998 - Alan Shepard, astronaut (b. 1923)
- 1998 - Robert Young, American actor (b. 1907)
- 2001 - Steve Barton, American actor (b. 1954)
- 2003 - John Davies, New Zealand Olympic Committee president (b. 1938)
- 2003 - Walter M. "Matt" Jefferies, American film art director (b. 1921)
- 2004 - Jerry Goldsmith, American composer (b. 1929)
- 2004 - Edward B. Lewis, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1918)
- 2005 - Andrzej Grubba, Polish table tennis player (b. 1958)
- 2005 - Long John Baldry, British blues musician (b. 1941)
Holidays and observances
- Belgium: National holiday (1831 - inauguration of Léopold I, first king of the Belgians)
- Bolivia: Martyrs' Day
- Guam: Liberation Day (1944)
- Singapore: Racial Harmony Day
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050721.html The New York Times: On This Day]
----
July 20 - July 22 - June 21 - August 21 -- listing of all days
ko:7월 21일
ms:21 Julai
ja:7月21日
simple:July 21
th:21 กรกฎาคม
1998
1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean.
Events
January
- January 1998 - A massive ice storm, caused by El Niño, strikes New England, southern Ontario and Quebec, resulting in widespread power failures, severe damage to forests, and a number of deaths.
- January 1 - Smoking is banned in all California bars and restaurants.
- January 2 - Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.
- January 2 - Gunman shoots Antario Teodoro Filho, Brazilian politician and radio presenter, in a middle of his broadcast.
- January 4 - Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 4 January 1998 in Algeria; over 170 killed in three remote villages.
- January 6 - The Lunar Prospector spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon and later found evidence for frozen water in soil in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon's poles.
- January 8 - Ramzi Yousef is sentenced to life in prison for planning the World Trade Center bombing.
- January 8 - Cosmologists announce that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.
- January 11 - Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria; over 100 people killed.
- January 12 - 19 European nations agree to forbid human cloning.
- January 13 - A tourist visiting the White House sprays paint on to marble busts of Giuseppe Ceracchi
- January 14 - Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an enzyme that slows aging and cell death (apoptosis).
- January 15 - The stalker of Howard Stern, Lance Carvin, is sentenced to 2 1/2 years for threatening to kill Stern and his family.
- January 16 - NASA announces that John Glenn will return to space when Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off in October 1998.
- January 17 - Paula Jones accuses President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
- January 20 - Nepalese police intercepts a shipment of 272 human skulls in Kathmandu
- January 22 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty and accepts a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
- January 26 - Lewinsky scandal: On American television, Bill Clinton denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
- January 26 - Compaq buys Digital Equipment Corporation.
- January 26 - Monkeys attack people in Ito, Japan
- January 27 - American First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton appears on the Today show calling the attacks against her husband part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."
- January 28 - Ford Motor Company announces the buyout of Volvo Cars for $6.45 billion.
- January 28 - Gunmen hold at least 400 children and teachers hostage for several hours at an elementary school in Manila, Philippines.
- January 29 - In Birmingham, Alabama a bomb explodes at an abortion clinic killing one and severely wounding another. Serial bomber Eric Rudolph is suspected as the culprit.
February
- February - Iraq disarmament crisis: The United States Senate passes resolution 71, which urged President Bill Clinton to "take all necessary and appropriate actions to respond to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."
- February 3 - Cavalese cable-car disaster: a United States Military pilot causes the death of 20 people near Trento, Italy when his low-flying plane severs the cable of a cable-car.
- February 3 - Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.
- February 4 - An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000.
- February 6 - Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
- February 6 - The French prefect Claude Erignac is assassinated in the streets of Ajaccio (Corse) by a commando of Corsican insurgents, among them Yvan Colonna (trial june 2).
- February 7 - Roger Nicholas Angleton committed suicide in a prison cell in Houston, Texas by cutting himself with razor blades. He admitted to murdering socialite Doris Angleton in her River Oaks home in his suicide note.
- February 10 - A college dropout becomes the first person to be convicted of a hate crime committed in cyberspace.
- February 10 - Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997 becoming the first U.S. state to abandon such a law.
- February 12 - The presidential line-item veto is declared unconstitutional by a United States federal judge.
- February 14 - Authorities in the United States announce that Eric Rudolph is a suspect in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing.
- February 15 - Dale Earnhardt wins the Daytona 500 in his 20th try after many unsucsessful attempts.
- February 16 - China Airlines Flight 676 crashed into a residential area near by Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, killing 202 people, included all 196 on board and six on the ground.
- February 18 - Two white separatists were arrested in Nevada and accused of plotting a biological attack on New York City subways.
- February 19 - 66-day blackout begins in Auckland, New Zealand.
- February 19 - Larry Wayne Harris of the Aryan Nations and William Leavitt are arrested in Henderson, New York for possession of military grade anthrax
- February 20 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein negotiates a deal with U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, allowing weapons inspectors to return to Baghdad, preventing military action by the U.S. and Britain.
- February 22 - Collapse of one third of the Tower block "Palace II" in Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- February 23 - Tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42 (see Florida El Niño Outbreak).
- February 23 - Osama bin Laden publishes fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
- February 24 - Hustler publisher Larry Flynt is acquitted of charges of defamation of Jerry Falwell.
- February 24 - A man tries to hijack Turkish Airlines passenger plane claiming that he has a bomb in his teddy bear. Passengers disapprove and apprehend him
- February 28 - Serbian police begin to wipe out so-called "terrorist gangs" in Kosovo.
March
- March 1 - Attack Submarine USS Sea Devil (now ex-Sea Devil (SSN-664)) starts to be deactivated
- March 2 - Data sent from the Galileo probe indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice
- March 4 - Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
- March 5 - NASA announced that the Clementine probe orbiting the Moon had found enough water in polar craters to support a human colony and rocket fueling station
- March 5 - NASA announces the choice of United States Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins as commander of a future Space Shuttle Columbia mission to launch an X-ray telescope making Collins the first woman commander of a space shuttle mission.
- March 6 - Closure of the South Crofty tin mine
- March 6 - The Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan is fined for burning a cross in his garden and infringing air regulations in California
- March 10 - American troops stationed in the Persian Gulf begin to receive the first vaccinations against anthrax.
- March 11 - Danish parliamentary election held, unexpectedly returning Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen to power.
- March 14 - An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale hits southeastern Iran
- March 23 - At the Academy Awards ceremony Titanic wins 11 Oscars
- March 24 - In Jonesboro, Arkansas, two young boys (aged 11 and 13 years) fire upon students at Westside Middle School while hidden in woodlands near the school. Four students and one teacher are killed and 10 injured
- March 26 - Oued Bouaicha massacre in Algeria; 52 people killed with axes and knives, 32 of them babies under the age of 2.
- March 27 - The FDA approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, becoming the first pill to be approved to treat this condition in the United States.
April
- April 1 - Ukrainian serial killer Anatoly Onoprienko is sentenced to death for 52 murders
- April 5 - In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshu and costing cost about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
- April 6 - Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of hitting India
- April 7 - Citicorp and Travelers Group announce plans to merge creating the largest financial-services conglomerate in the world, Citigroup
- April 8 - Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM reports to the UN Security Council that Iraq's declaration on its biological weapons program is incomplete and inadequate.
- April 10 - Good Friday: 18 hours after the end of talks deadline the Belfast Agreement is signed between the Irish and British governments and most Northern Ireland political parties, with the notable exception of the Democratic Unionist Party.
- April 16 - A massive tornado occurred in Nashville, Tennessee. It is the first tornado in 11 years to make a direct hit on a major city. (see Nashville Tornado of 1998)
- April 25 - A waste reservoir at Los Frailes mine in Andalusia, Spain, ruptures, discharging heavy metal waste into the Guadiamar River. The pollution threatens the sensitive ecosystem and endangered species of Doñana National Park, Spain's largest nature reserve, but is diverted into the Guadalquivir River. Up to 100 km² of farmland are ruined by the spill. [http://edition.cnn.com/EARTH/9804/25/spain.disaster.reut/]
May
- May 2 - Japanese rock star hide (Hideto Matsumoto) mysteriously dies of asphyxiation.
- May 7 - Apple Computer unveils the iMac.
- May 9 - Dana International, a transexual singer from Israel, wins the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham,UK.
- May 11 - Nuclear testing: In the Rajasthan Desert, India conducts its second series of underground nuclear tests (the first were in 1974) and inflaming its rival neighbor Pakistan (who already has nuclear weapons).
- May 13 - Following India's second round of nuclear tests the United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on the nation.
- May 15 - Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM learns that an Iraqi delegation has travelled to Bucharest to meet with scientists who can provide the country with missile guidance systems.
- May 18 - United States v. Microsoft: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states file an antitrust case against Microsoft
- May 21 - School shooting: At Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Kipland Kinkel (who was suspended for bringing a gun to school) shoots a semi-automatic rifle into a room filled with students killing 2 wounding 25 others after killing his parents at home
- May 21 - Reproductive rights: In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker
- May 21 - Suharto resigns, after 32 years as Indonesian President and 7th consecutive re-election by the Indonesian Parliament (MPR). Suharto's hand-picked Vice President, B. J. Habibie, became Indonesia's third president.
- May 21 to September 30 - Expo '98 is held in Lisbon, Portugal, with the title "Oceans, an Heritage for the Future". UNESCO had previously declared 1998 to be the International Year of the Oceans due to the Expo. 12 million people attend the world fair
- May 22 - Lewinsky scandal: A federal judge rules that United States Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the scandal
- May 27 - Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
- May 28 - Nuclear testing: In response to a series of Indian nuclear tests, Pakistan explodes six nuclear devices of its own in the Chaghai hills of Baluchistan, prompting the United States, Japan and other nations to impose economic sanctions.
- May 28 - Wife of US comedian Phil Hartman kills him and commits suicide afterwards
- May 30 - Nuclear testing: Pakistan conducts two more nuclear explosions following its first test.
- May 30 - A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hits northern Afghanistan killing up to 5,000.
- May 31 - Geri Halliwell, better known as "Ginger Spice", announced her departure from the biggest selling girl group of all time, the Spice Girls
June
- June 2 - The CIH virus is discovered in Taiwan.
- June 2 - Voters in California approved California Proposition 227, abolishing that state's bilingual education program.
- June 3 - Eschede train disaster: an ICE high speed train derails, causing 101 deaths.
- June 4 - Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing
- July 5 - Japan launches a probe to Mars, and thus joins the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation
- June 5 - A strike begins at the General Motors parts factory in Flint, Michigan that quickly spreads to five other assembly plants (the strike lasted seven weeks)
- June 8 - Charlton Heston assumes the presidency of the National Rifle Association.
- June 8 - President Sani Abacha of Nigeria dies of apparent heart failure
- June 12 - A jury in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, convicts 17-year-old Luke Woodham of killing two students and wounding seven others at Pearl High School [http://www.cnn.com/US/9806/12/school.shooting.verdict/]
- June 12 - 13-year old Christina Marie Williams was kidnapped in Seaside, California while taking her dog for a walk.
- June 14 - The Chicago Bulls win their sixth NBA title in 8 years when they beat the Utah Jazz, 87-86 in Game Six. This is also Michael Jordan's last game as a Bull.
- June 16 - The Detroit Red Wings sweep the Washington Capitals in 4 games in the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals.
- June 25 - In Clinton v. City of New York, the United States Supreme Court decides that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 is unconstitutional.
July
- July 6 - The new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok opens.
- July 10 - The DNA-identified remains of United States Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie arrive home to his family in St. Louis, Missouri after being in the Tomb of the Unknowns since 1984
- July 10 - Catholic priests' sex abuse scandal: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by former priest Rudolph Kos
- July 12 - France defeats Brazil 3-0 to win the Football World Cup 1998
- July 17 - In St. Petersburg, Nicholas II of Russia and his family are buried in St. Catherine Chapel 80 years after he and his family were killed by Bolsheviks
- July 17 - A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea killing an estimated 1,500, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless
- July 17 - Biologists report in the journal Science how they sequenced the genome of the bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum
- July 24 - Russel Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire killing two police officers. He is later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial
- July 25 - The United States Navy commissions the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and puts her into service
- July 25 - Wakayama Arsenic poison case - 63 poisoned and 4 dead by arsenic in a festival in the town in Wakayama Prefecture in Japan - Masumi Hayashi is arrested for murder
- July 28 - Monica Lewinsky scandal: Ex-White House intern, Monica Lewinsky receives transactional immunity in exchange for her grand jury testimony concerning her relationship with US President Bill Clinton.
- July 31 - UK import ban on landmines
August
landmines
- August 7 - Yangtze River Floods: In China the Yangtze River breaks through the main bank, before this from August 1-5 periphery levees collapsed consecutively in Jiayu County Baizhou Bay. The death toll was more than 12,000 injuring many thousands more.
- August 5 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq officially suspends all cooperation with UNSCOM teams
- August 7 - 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: Bombing of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya kills 224 people and injures over 4,500. The bombings were linked to Osama Bin Laden.
- August 15 - The Real IRA detonate a car bomb in Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland, killing 29 and injuring over 200 - the greatest loss of life in a single incident of The Troubles.
- August 16 - Silk-Miller police murders: Australian police officers murdered in Moorabbin, Victoria.
- August 17
- Monica Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admits before the nation that he "misled people" about his relationship
- Russian financial crisis: Devaluation of the rouble. The ruble lost 70% of its value against US dollar in 6 months following August 1998. Several largest Russians banks collapsed, and millions of people lost their savings.
- August 20 - The Supreme Court of Canada states Quebec can not legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval
- August 20 - 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The United States military launches cruise missile attacks against alleged Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum is destroyed in the attack
- August 26 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Scott Ritter resigns from UNSCOM, sharply criticized the Clinton administration and the U.N. Security Council for not being vigorous enough about insisting that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction be destroyed. Ritter told reporters that "Iraq is not disarming," "Iraq retains the capability to launch a chemical strike."
- August 31 - North Korea reportedly launches Kwangmyongsong, their first satellite. Although North Korea reports that it reached stable orbit, NORAD was never able to confirm this assertion
September
- September 2 - In Canada, pilots for Air Canada launch the first strike in company's history
- September 2 - A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 airliner carrying Swissair flight 111 crashes near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia after taking off from New York City en-route to Geneva. All 229 people on board are killed
- September 2 - A United Nations court finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide, marking the first time that the 1948 law banning genocide is enforced
- September 3 - In Somalia, the southern port of Kismayo is declared the capital of independent Jubaland under Muhamed Said Hersi
- September 7 - Google Inc. is founded.
- September 8 - St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire breaks baseball's single season homerun record, formerly held by Roger Maris. McGwire hits #62 at Busch Stadium in the fourth inning off of | | |
