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Jacques Piccard

Jacques Piccard

Jacques Piccard (born July 28, 1922) is an explorer and engineer, known for having developed underwater vehicles for studying ocean currents. He is the only person (as of 2005), along with Lt. Don Walsh, to have reached the deepest point on the earth's surface, the Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench. Jacques Piccard was born in Brussels, Belgium to Auguste Piccard, who was himself an adventurer and engineer. On January 23, 1960, Jaques Piccard and Don Walsh, reached the ocean floor in the Challenger Deep with his submarine Trieste. The depth of the descent was measured at 10,916 meters (35,813 feet), later more accurate measurements in 1995 have found the Challenger Deep to be less deep at 10,911 m (35,797 ft). The descent took almost five hours and the two men spent barely twenty minutes on the ocean floor before undertaking the 3 hour 15 minute ascent. Jacques Piccard constructed four submarines:
- The Auguste Piccard, the world's first passenger submarine.
- The Ben Franklin
- The F.-A. Forel
- The PX-44 Jacques Piccard is the founder of the Foundation for the Study and Protection of Seas and Lakes, based in Cully, Switzerland.

Family

The Piccard family is noted for undertaking challenges. Jacques' father Auguste Piccard twice beat the record for reaching the highest altitude in a balloon, in 1931-32. Jacques' son Bertrand Piccard was the first person to fly around the world nonstop with the balloon "Orbiter 3" in March 1999. In fiction, Star Trek's Jean-Luc Picard is arguably descended from the Piccard Family.

Piccard Family

- Auguste Piccard (physicist, aeronaut, ballonist, hydronaut)
- Jacques Piccard (hydronaut)
- Bertrand Piccard (aeronaut, ballonist)
- Jean-Felix Piccard (organic chemist, aeronaut, and ballonist)
- Jeannette Piccard (wife of) (aeronaut and ballonist)
- Don Piccard (ballonist)

External links

- [http://www.bertrandpiccard.com/eng/family3.php Page from Jacques' son Bertrand Piccard's website] Piccard, Jacques Piccard, Jacques

July 28

July 28 is the 209th day (210th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 156 days remaining.

Events

- 1493 - Great fire in Moscow
- 1540 - Thomas Cromwell, is executed on order from Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
- 1794 - Maximilien Robespierre is guillotined in front of a cheering crowd, for sending thousands of others to a similar fate during the French Revolution.
- 1821 - Peru declares independence from Spain.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church begins - Confederate troops make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces from Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1866 - The Metric Act of 1866 becomes law and legalizes the standardization of weights and measures in the United States.
- 1868 - The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is adopted guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.
- 1873 - The Japanese government implements land and tax reform as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms.
- 1878 - Great Britain's William Gowland becomes the first non-Japanese to reach Yarigatake peak (3,180 meters), and he names the mountain the Japanese Alps, a name that is eventually used to refer to the entire mountain range.
- 1914 - World War I begins: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia after it failed to meet the conditions of an ultimatum it set on July 23 following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serbian assassin. This event leads to the outbreak of war.
- 1932 - US President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, DC.
- 1942 - World War II: USSR leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227 in response to alarming German advances into Russia. Under the order all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so will be immediately killed.
- 1943 - World War II: Operation Gomorrah - The British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.
- 1945 - A US Army bomber accidentally crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 injuring 26.
- 1965 - Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
- 1973 - Watkins Glen, New York concert attended by 600,000 to see The Band, The Allman Brothers Band, and the Grateful Dead.
- 1976 - The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitude flattens Tangshan, China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.
- 1990 - Alberto Fujimori becomes president of Peru
- 1992 - Mary J. Blige releases her album What's the 411?. It is considered the album that started the new subgenre, hip-hop soul (also see 1992 in music).
- 1995 - Network Solutions announces a new policy to help companies protect their trademarks on the Internet.
- 1996 - Kennewick Man, the remains of a prehistoric man, was discovered near Kennewick, Washington.
- 1997 - Guatemala becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
- 1998 - 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.
- 2002 - Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset, Pennsylvania, were rescued after 77 hours underground.
- 2003 - NPR broadcasts the first episode of Day to Day, a one-hour radio newsmagazine
- 2005 - Larry Brown is introduced as the head coach of the New York Knicks NBA franchise, at a press conference in Madison Square Garden.

Births

- 1659 - Charles Ancillon, French Huguenot pastor (d. 1715)
- 1804 - Ludwig Feuerbach, German philosopher (d. 1872)
- 1844 - Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (d. 1889)
- 1866 - Beatrix Potter, English author (d. 1943)
- 1867 - Charles Dillon Perrine, American-born astronomer (d. 1951)
- 1872 - Albert Sarraut, French politician (d. 1962)
- 1874 - Ernst Cassirer, German philosopher (d. 1945)
- 1887 - Marcel Duchamp, French painter (d. 1968)
- 1896 - Barbara La Marr, American actress (d. 1926)
- 1901 - Rudy Vallee, American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer (d. 1986)
- 1902 - Karl Popper, Austrian-born philosopher of science (d. 1994)
- 1904 - Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
- 1907 - Earl Tupper, American inventor (d. 1983)
- 1909 - Malcolm Lowry, English novelist (d. 1957)
- 1914 - Carmen Dragon, composer (d. 1984)
- 1915 - Charles Townes, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1915 - Frankie Yankovic, American musician (d. 1998)
- 1916 - David Brown, American film producer
- 1922 - Jacques Piccard, Belgian-born undersea explorer
- 1925 - Baruch S. Blumberg, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1927 - John Ashbery, American poet
- 1929 - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States (d. 1994)
- 1934 - Jacques d'Amboise, American dancer and choreographer
- 1935 - Simon Dee, British television broadcaster
- 1936 - Garfield Sobers, West Indian cricketer
- 1938 - Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru
- 1940 - Philip Proctor, American comedian
- 1941 - Riccardo Muti, Italian conductor
- 1943 - Bill Bradley, basketball player and U.S. Senator
- 1945 - Jim Davis, American cartoonist
- 1945 - Richard Wright English keyboard player (Pink Floyd)
- 1948 - Sally Struthers, American actress
- 1949 - Steve Peregrin Took, English singer and songwriter (d. 1980)
- 1951 - Santiago Calatrava, Spanish architect
- 1952 - Yoshitaka Amano, Japanese artist
- 1952 - Vajiralongkorn, Crown Prince of Thailand
- 1954 - Steve Morse, American guitarist
- 1954 - Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela
- 1958 - Terry Fox, Canadian athlete and cancer activist (d. 1981)
- 1962 - Rachel Sweet, American singer
- 1965 - Lori Loughlin, American actress
- 1972 - Elizabeth Berkley, American actress
- 1976 - Jacoby Shaddix, American singer (Papa Roach)
- 1977 - Tiago Andres Vaz, Brazilian composer
- 1977 - Emanuel Ginóbili, Argentine basketball player
- 1979 - Birgitta Haukdal, Icelandic singer

Deaths

- 450 - Theodosius II, Roman Emperor (b. 401)
- 1057 - Pope Victor II
- 1128 - William Clito, Count of Flanders (b. 1102)
- 1230 - Duke Leopold VI of Austria (b. 1176)
- 1527 - Rodrigo de Bastidas, Spanish conquistador
- 1540 - Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, English statesman
- 1631 - Guillén de Castro y Bellvis, Spanish dramatist (b. 1569)
- 1655 - Cyrano de Bergerac, French poet (b. 1619)
- 1667 - Abraham Cowley, English poet (b. 1618)
- 1675 - Bulstrode Whitelocke, English lawyer (b. 1605)
- 1685 - Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, English statesman (b. 1618)
- 1718 - Etienne Baluze, French scholar (b. 1630)
- 1741 - Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (b. 1678)
- 1750 - Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (b. 1685)
- 1762 - George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe, English politician (b. 1691)
- 1794 - Maximilien Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1758)
- 1794 - Louis de Saint-Just, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1767)
- 1835 - Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, French marshal (b. 1768)
- 1842 - Clemens Brentano, German poet (b. 1778)
- 1844 - Joseph Bonaparte, older brother of Napoleon I and King of Naples and Spain (b. 1768)
- 1849 - King Charles Albert of Sardinia (b. 1798)
- 1869 - Jan Evangelista Purkyně, Czech anatomist (b. 1787)
- 1930 - Allvar Gullstrand, Swedish ophthalmologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1862)
- 1934 - Marie Dressler, Canadian actress (b. 1868)
- 1942 - William Matthew Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (b. 1853)
- 1957 - Edith Abbott, American social worker, educator, and author (b. 1876)
- 1965 - Edogawa Ranpo, Japanese author (b. 1894)
- 1968 - Otto Hahn, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
- 1971 - Myril Hoag, baseball player (b. 1908)
- 1972 - Helen Traubel, American soprano (b. 1903)
- 1982 - Keith Green, American gospel singer, songwriter, and pianist (b. 1953)
- 1996 - Marguerite "Marge" Ganser, American singer (Shangri-Las) (b. 1948)
- 1999 - Trygve Haavelmo, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- 2002 - Archer John Porter Martin, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- 2003 - Lady Valerie Goulding, Irish Senator and campaigner for the disabled (b. 1918)
- 2004 - Francis Crick, English molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1916)
- 2004 - Sam Edwards, American actor (b. 1915)
- 2004 - Tiziano Terzani, Italian journalist (b. 1938)

Holidays and observances

- Canada - Commemoration of the deportation of the Acadians
- Faroe Islands - Ólavsøka Eve
- Peru - Independence Day
- San Marino - Fall of the Fascist Government

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/28 BBC: On This Day] ---- July 27 - July 29 - June 28 - August 28 -- listing of all days ko:7월 28일 ms:28 Julai ja:7月28日 simple:July 28 th:28 กรกฎาคม

Don Walsh

Don Walsh was a lieutenant in the United States Navy. He and Jacques Piccard were aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste when it made a record-breaking descent into the Challenger Deep. The depth was measured at 35,813 ft (10,916 m), but later and more accurate measurements have put it at 35,798 ft (10,911 m).

Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench (or Marianas Trench) is the deepest known submarine trench, and the deepest location in the Earth's crust itself. It is located in the floor of the western North Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands at , which is near Guam. The trench is the boundary where two tectonic plates meet, a subduction zone where the Pacific Plate is being subducted under the Philippine Plate. The bottom of the trench is further below sea level than Mount Everest is above sea level. The trench has a maximum depth of 10,911 m (35,798 feet) below sea level. Taking into account its latitude and the Earth's equatorial bulge, this puts it at 6,366.4 km from the centre of the Earth. The Arctic Ocean, on the other hand, is 4-4.5 km deep, which would put its floor at ~6,352.8 km from the Earth's centre, 13.6 km closer. It was first surveyed in 1951 by the British navy vessel, Challenger II, which gave its name to the deepest part of the trench, the Challenger Deep. Using echo sounding, the Challenger II measured a depth of 5,960 fathoms (10,900 m) at . This sounding was repeatedly made using earphones to hear the return of the signal as the stylus passed across the graduated depth scale, whilst the timing of the speed of the echo-sounding machine, a necessary part of the process, was made with a hand held stopwatch. For these reasons it was considered prudent to subtract one scale division (of 20 fm) when officially reporting a new greatest depth of 5,940 fm (10,863 m). In 1957, the Russian vessel Vityaz reported a depth of 11,034 m (36,201 ft), dubbed the Mariana Hollow; this measurement has never been replicated and is not considered accurate. In 1962 the M.V. Spencer F. Baird recorded a greatest depth of 10,915 m (35,810 ft). In 1984 the Japanese sent the Takuyo, a highly specialized survey vessel out to the Mariana Trench and collected data using a narrow, multi-beam echo sounder; they reported a maximum depth of 11,040.4 k[http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/OTHERS/CSMS/OCHAL/deep.htm 1] (this is also reported as 10,920±10 m [http://www1.kaiho.mlit.go.jp/GIJUTSUKOKUSAI/ICO/nl45.html 2]). The most accurate measurement on record was taken by another Japanese probe, Kaiko, on March 24, 1995: 10,911 m (35,798 ft) [http://web-japan.org/atlas/technology/tec03.html 3]. 1995 In an unprecedented dive, the U.S. Navy bathyscaphe Trieste reached the bottom at 1:06 pm on January 23, 1960 with U.S. Navy Lt. Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard. Iron shot was used for ballast, with gasoline for buoyancy. The onboard systems indicated a depth of 37,800 ft (11,521 m), but this was later revised to 35,813 ft (10,916 m). At the bottom Walsh and Piccard were surprised to discover soles or flounder about one foot (30 cm) long, as well as shrimp. According to Piccard, "The bottom appeared light and clear, a waste of firm diatomaceous ooze". At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, water exerts a pressure of 1086 bar (108.6 MPa or 15,751 psi).

Brussels, Belgium

Brussels (Dutch: Brussel, French: Bruxelles, German: Brüssel) is the capital of Belgium, the French community of Belgium, the Flemish community and of the European Union. Brussels is, first of all, a city located in the centre of Belgium and its capital, but it sometimes also refers to the largest municipality of the Brussels-Capital Region. This municipality inside Brussels is correctly named The City of Brussels (French: Bruxelles-Ville or Ville de Bruxelles, Dutch: Stad Brussel), which is one of 19 municipalities that make up the Brussels-Capital Region (see also: Municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region). The municipality has a population of about 140,000 while the Brussels-Capital Region has more than a million inhabitants. . [http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/cntry_files.html] The Brussels-Capital Region is a region of Belgium in its own right, alongside the Flemish Region and Wallonia. Geographically, it is an enclave in the Flemish Region. Regions are one component of Belgium's complex institutions, the three communities being "the" other component: the Brussels inhabitants must deal with either the Flemish Community or the French (speaking) community for matters such as culture and education. Brussels is also the capital of Flanders and of the French Community of Belgium (Communauté française Wallonie-Bruxelles in French) ; all Flemish capital institutions are established here: Flemish Parliament, Flemish government and its administration. Two of the three main institutions of the European Union - the European Commission and the Council of the European Union - have their headquarters in Brussels: the Commission in the Berlaymont building and the Council in the Justus Lipsius building facing it. The third main institution of the European Union, the European Parliament, also has a parliamentary chamber in Brussels in which its committee meet and some of its plenary sessions are held (the other plenary sessions are held in Strasbourg, and its administrative headquarters are in Luxembourg). Brussels is also the political seat of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the Western European Union (WEU) and EUROCONTROL, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation. The "language frontier" divides Belgium into a northern, Dutch-speaking, region and a southern, French-speaking, region. Although the real language frontier and the official one are largely identical, there are bilingual pockets on both sides with, in certain cases, no specific linguistic rights for the population speaking the other language. The Brussels-Capital Region is officially bilingual, while the majority of its residents speaks French (see the linguistic history of Brussels in this article's linguistic situation section). The highest building in Brussels is the South Tower (150 m); the most famous probably the Atomium, which is a remnant from the Expo '58.

Etymology

The name Brussels comes from the old Dutch Bruocsella, Brucsella or Broekzele, which means "marsh (bruoc, bruc or broek) home (sella or zele)" or "home in the marsh". "Broekzele" was spelt "Bruxelles" in French. In Belgian French pronunciation as well as in Dutch, the "k" eventually disappeared and "z" became "s", as reflected in the current Dutch spelling. The names of all other municipalities in the Brussels-Capital Region are also of Dutch origin, except for Evere, which is of Celtic origin.

History

Celtic Celtic Celtic Celtic In 977, the German emperor Otto II gave Lower Lorraine, the empire's western frontier to Charles, the banished son of King Louis IV of France. Mention was already made of Brussels at the time. However, the founding of Brussels is usually known to happen when a small castle was built by Charles around 979 on an island (called Saint-Gery island) encompassed by the Senne river. At the end of the tenth century, with the death of Charles, Lower Lorraine was taken over by Lambert I of Leuven. Under Lambert II of Leuven, a new castrum and the first city walls were built. The small town became in the 12th century an important stop on the commercial road from Bruges to Cologne; the Counts of Leuven changed their name to Dukes of Brabant at about this time also. From 1357 to 1379, a new city enclosure was constructed as the former one was already proving to be too small: it is now known as the inner ring or pentagon. In the 15th century, by means of the wedding of heiress Margaret III of Flanders with Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a new Duke of Brabant emerged from the House of Valois (namely Antoine, their son), with another line of descent from the Habsburgs (Maximilian of Austria, later Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, was Philip's father). In 1695 Brussels was attacked by King Louis XIV of France: the battle was responsible for the flattening of the city's heart, the Grand Place, and the razing of what was left: more than 4000 houses, including the buildings of the Grand Place, were all destroyed, except for the famous city hall, the Hôtel de Ville, which miraculously survived). In 1830, the Belgian revolution took place in Brussels after a presentation of Auber's opera La Muette de Portici at La Monnaie theatre. On July 21, 1831, Léopold I, the first King of the Belgians, ascended the throne, undertaking the destruction of the city walls and the construction of many buildings. Under Léopold II, the city underwent many more changes: the Senne was culverted (as it brought diseases), theNorth-South Junction was built, and the Tervuren Avenue was laid out. From May 10, 1940, Brussels was bombed by the German army. A lot of damage was done with bombs mainly in 1943-1944. The Heysel Stadium disaster took place in Brussels on May 29, 1985. The Brussels Capital Region was founded on June 18, 1989.

Linguistic situation

The original languages of the Brussels area are Brabantic dialects of Dutch. A curiosity is "Marollien", a Brussels dialect heavily influenced by Walloon which was spoken in a central section of the city. Both Dutch and French have been in use for most of the city's history as official languages and were used by the upper classes. During the 19th and the 20th century, as literacy progressed, dialects started to lose ground to standardized languages. In Brussels, most of the population adopted French rather than Dutch as its language of culture, since at the time, it was more prestigious and consequently considered more useful. Today, the Brussels dialects are on the verge of extinction, although some try to revive them (see links). Nowadays, the Brussels Capital Region is officially bilingual French-Dutch. There are no official statistics on the first language of its population. However, according to a 2001 study by Rudi Janssens, a sociolinguist at the VUB, 8,5% of the Brussels population are native Dutch-speakers and 10,20% speak both Dutch and French at home. The rest of the population are French-speaking; allophones overwhelmingly use French when communicating with people who do not belong to their own language group. It should be noted that the Brussels periphery, which is officially part of Dutch-speaking Flanders, has an important French-speaking population. In most of the municipalities immediately bordering the Brussels Capital Region, French-speakers form a large majority. Their linguistic rights and/or the expansion of the Brussels Capital Region are the subject of much heated debate.

Universities

Brussels has several universities, the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), the Facultés Universitaires Saint Louis (FUSL) and the Katholieke Universiteit Brussel (KUB). A satellite campus of the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) is also located in Brussels: it is called "Louvain-en-Woluwe" or "UCL-Brussels", and hosts the faculty of Medicine of the university.

Transport

Université catholique de Louvain Université catholique de Louvain Brussels is served by Brussels National Airport, located in the municipality of Zaventem, and by Brussels South Airport, located near Charleroi, some 80km from Brussels. Brussels' major train stations link the city to the United Kingdom by Eurostar, and to major European cities by high speed rail links (such as the Thalys). The Brussels metro dates back to 1976 (but underground lines known as premetro have been serviced by tramways since 1968). A comprehensive bus and tram network also covers the city. Brussels also has its own port on the Willebroek canal located in the city's northwest. There are four companies managing public transport inside Brussels:
- STIB/MIVB (metro, bus, tram)
- SNCB/NMBS (train)
- De Lijn (buses based in Flanders)
- TEC (buses based in Wallonia) An interticketing system means that a STIB/MIVB ticket holder can use the train or long-distance buses inside the city. The commuter services operated by De Lijn, TEC and SNCB/NMBS will in the next few years be augmented by an RER rail network around Brussels.

Railway stations

The major stations in Brussels are on the North-South Junction:
- Brussels North (Dutch: Brussel-Noord, French: Gare du Nord)
- Brussels Central (Dutch: Brussel-Centraal, French: Gare Centrale)
- Brussels South (Dutch: Brussel-Zuid, French: Gare du Midi or Bruxelles-Midi) (the Eurostar, Thalys, TGV and ICE international terminal) Two more stations serve the EU district in Brussels. Trains towards Namur and Luxembourg call at:
- Brussels Luxembourg
- Brussels Schuman The last two stations located in the municipality of Brussels (they also are on the North-South Junction and operate only in rush hours) are:
- Brussels Congress (French: Bruxelles-Congrès, Dutch:Brussel-Congres)
- Brussels Chapel (French: Bruxelles-Chapelle, Dutch: Brussel-Kapellekerk) Other railway stations in other Brussels municipalities include :
- Schaarbeek (French: Schaerbeek)
- Etterbeek
- Uccle Stalle (Dutch: Ukkel Stalle)
- Uccle Calevoet (Dutch: Ukkel Kalevoet)
- Jette
- Merode
- Delta
- Sint-Job (French: Saint-Job)
- Vorst Oost (French: Forest Est)
- Vorst Zuid (French: Forest Midi)
- Sint-Agatha-Berchem (French: Berchem Sainte-Agathe)
- Saint-Gilles (Dutch: Sint-Gillis)
- Watermaal (French: Watermael)
- Bosvoorde (French: Boitsfort)
- Boondael (Dutch: Boondaal)
- Meiser

Road network

Brussels has an orbital motorway, numbered R0 (R-zero) and commonly referred to as the "ring" (French : ring Dutch: grote ring). It is pear-shaped as the southern side was never built as originally conceived, owing to residents' objections. The city centre, sometimes known as "the pentagon", is surrounded by the "small ring" (Dutch: kleine ring, French: petite ceinture), a sequence of boulevards formally numbered R20. These were built upon the site of the second set of city walls following their demolition. Metro line 2 runs under much of these. On the eastern side of the city, the R21 (French: grande ceinture, no particular name in Dutch) is formed by a string of boulevards that curves round from Laeken to Uccle. Some premetro stations (see Brussels metro) were built on that route. A little further out, a stretch numbered R22 leads from Zaventem to St-Job.

Conferences and world fairs

Brussels hosted the third Congrès international d'architecture moderne in 1930. Two world fairs took place in Brussels, the Exposition universelle et internationale (1935) and the Expo '58 in 1958. The Atomium, a 103 metre representation of an iron crystal was built for the Expo '58, and is still there. Throughout 2003, Brussels celebrated native son Jacques Brel on the 25th anniversary of his death.

Auguste Piccard

Auguste Antoine Piccard (January 28, 1884 – March 24, 1962) was a Swiss inventor. inventor.]] Piccard and his twin brother Jean-Felix were born in Basel, Switzerland. Showing an intense interest in science as a child, he attended the Federal Polytechnic School of Switzerland, and became a professor of physics in Brussels at the Free University of Brussels in 1922, the same year his son Jacques Piccard was born. He was a member of the Solvay Congress of 1927. In 1930, an interest in ballooning, and a curiosity about the upper atmosphere led him to design a spherical, pressurized aluminum gondola which would allow ascent to great altitude without requiring a pressure suit. Supported by the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) Piccard constructed his gondola. On May 27, 1931, Auguste and Paul Kipfer took off from Augsburg, Germany, and reached a record altitude of 15,785 m (51,775 ft). During this flight, Piccard was able to gather substantial data on the upper atmosphere, as well as measure cosmic rays. On August 18, 1932, launched from Zürich, Switzerland, Piccard and Max Cosyns made a second record-breaking ascent to 16,200 m (53,152 ft). He ultimately made a total of twenty-seven balloon flights setting a final record of 23,000 m (72,177 ft). In the mid-1930s, Piccard's interests shifted when he realized that a modification of some of his atmospheric balloon concepts would allow descent into the deep ocean. By 1937, he had designed a small steel gondola to withstand great external pressure. Construction began, but was interrupted by the outbreak of war. Resuming work in 1945, he completed the steel gondola for personnel and a large float was attached for buoyancy, using gasoline as the medium. To make the now floating craft sink, tons of iron were attached to the float with a release mechanism. This craft was named FNRS-2 and made a number of unmanned dives in 1948 before being gifted to the French navy in 1950. There, it was redesigned, and in 1954, it took a man safely down 4,176 m (13,700 ft). 1954] With the experience of FNRS-2 Piccard and his son Jacques built the improved Bathyscaphe Trieste. Jacques Piccard made many dives, mainly off Italy, from 1954 on, before selling her to the U.S. Navy in 1957 for $250,000. On her 65th dive, the younger Piccard and Lt. Don Walsh of the U.S. Navy reached a depth 35,800 ft in the Mariana Trench, a few hundred miles from Guam, setting a new record. Jacques' book Seven Miles Down tells the full story of the FNRS-2 and Trieste. Auguste Piccard died 1962 in Lausanne, Switzerland. His grandson Bertrand Piccard also became a balloonist, taking part in the first world circumnavigation. Auguste Piccard is supposed to have been the inspiration for Professor Cuthbert Calculus (French: Professeur Tryphon Tournesol, German: Professor Bienlein) in Tintin. Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek fame is also named after him, and in the fictionalized Star Trek universe is a direct descendant.

Piccard Family

External links

- [http://www.balloonlife.com/9707/piccard.htm Don Piccard - 50 Years of Ballooning Memories] Piccard, Auguste Piccard, Auguste Piccard, Auguste

January 23

January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 342 days remaining, 343 in leap years.

Events

- 1510 - Henry VIII of England, 18, appears incognito in the lists at Richmond, and is applauded for his jousting before he reveals himself.
- 1533 - Anne Boleyn, mistress of Henry VIII of England, discovers herself pregnant.
- 1546 - Having published nothing for 11 years, Francois Rabelais brings out his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel: the Tiers Libre.
- 1556 - The Shaanxi earthquake, the deadliest earthquake in history, occurs with its epicenter in Shaanxi province, China. 830,000 people may have been killed.
- 1570 - The assassination of regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray throws Scotland into civil war.
- 1571 - The Royal Exchange opens in London.
- 1579 - The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands.
- 1719 - The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1789 - Georgetown College becomes the first Catholic college in the United States (Washington, DC).
- 1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her MD by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor.
- 1855 - The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
- 1870 - Marias Massacre
- 1904 - Ålesund Fire: Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless. German Kaiser Wilhelm helps rebuild the town in Jugendstil architecture.
- 1907 - Charles Curtis from Kansas, becomes the first Native American US Senator.
- 1912 - The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.
- 1920 - The Netherlands refuses to surrender ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.
- 1937 - In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
- 1941 - Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
- 1943 - World War II: British forces capture Tripoli from the Nazis.
- 1943 - World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.
- 1943 - Duke Ellington plays at New York City's Carnegie Hall for the first time.
- 1950 - The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
- 1960 - The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record when by descending to the deepest point in the Pacific Ocean. (The depth was measured to be 35,813 ft (10,916 m) but later measurements show it to be 35,798 ft (10,911 m))
- 1964 - The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
- 1968 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated their territorial waters while spying.
- 1973 - President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.
- 1975 - Barney Miller debuts on ABC.
- 1977 - The first segment of the Roots mini-series airs on ABC.
- 1978 - Sweden becomes the first nation to ban aerosol sprays that are thought to damage earth's protective ozone layer.
- 1983 - The A-Team debuts.
- 1984 - Hulk Hogan wins the World Wrestling Federation Championship from the Iron Sheik, in New York's Madison Square Garden. Hulkamania is born.
- 1985 - O. J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame.
- 1986 - The first induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley)
- 1997 - Mir Aimal Kasi receives the death sentence for a 1993 assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters that killed two and wounded three others.
- 1997 - Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.
- 1999 - Australian Christian missionary Graham Stewart Stains and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in eastern India.
- 2002 - "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returns to the United States under FBI custody.
- 2002 - Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and subsequently murdered in Karachi, Pakistan.
- 2005 - Viktor Yushchenko sworn in as the third President of Ukraine in Kiev, Ukraine.
- Actor Kiefer Sutherland became the first guest on "Inside the Actors Studio" to be the child of a former guest; his father, Donald, appeared on the show in 1998.
- 2006 - A Canadian federal election is planned after the falling of Paul Martin's minority Liberal government.

Births

- 1350 - Vincent Ferrer, Spanish missionary and saint (d. 1419)
- 1719 - John Landen, English mathematician (d. 1790)
- 1745 - William Jessop, English canal engineer (d. 1814)
- 1752 - Muzio Clementi, Italian composer (d. 1832)
- 1783 - Stendhal, French writer (d. 1842)
- 1813 - Camilla Collett, Norwegian writer and feminist (d. 1895)
- 1786 - Auguste de Montferrand, French architect (d. 1858)
- 1832 - Edouard Manet, French artist (d. 1883)
- 1840 - Ernst Abbe, German physicist (d. 1905)
- 1857 - Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian seismologist (d. 1936)
- 1862 - David Hilbert, German mathematician (d. 1943)
- 1872 - Goce Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1903)
- 1872 - Joze Plečnik, Slovenian architect (d. 1957)
- 1876 - Otto Diels, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
- 1884 - Ralph DePalma, Italian-born race car driver (d. 1956)
- 1896 - Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (d. 1985)
- 1897 - Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian independence fighter (d. 1945)
- 1897 - Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect (d. 2000)
- 1898 - Sergei Eisenstein, Russian film director (d. 1948)
- 1898 - Randolph Scott, American actor (d. 1987)
- 1903 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (d. 1948)
- 1907 - Dan Duryea, American actor (d. 1968)
- 1907 - Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
- 1910 - Django Reinhardt, Belgian guitarist (d. 1953)
- 1915 - Arthur Lewis, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
- 1915 - Potter Stewart, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1985)
- 1918 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1999)
- 1919 - Hans Hass, Austrian zoologist and underwater scientist
- 1919 - Ernie Kovacs, American comedian (d. 1962)
- 1923 - Walter M. Miller Jr., American writer (d. 1996)
- 1928 - Chico Carrasquel, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
- 1928 - Jeanne Moreau, French actress
- 1929 - John Charles Polanyi, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1930 - Derek Walcott, West Indian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1933 - Chita Rivera, Puerto Rican actress and dancer
- 1936 - Jerry Kramer, American football player
- 1938 - Shohei Baba, Japanese professional wrestler (d. 1999)
- 1938 - Georg Baselitz, German painter and sculptor
- 1943 - Gil Gerard, American actor
- 1944 - Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
- 1947 - Thomas R. Carper, U.S. Senator from Delaware.
- 1947 - Megawati Sukarnoputri, President of Indonesia
- 1948 - Anita Pointer, American singer
- 1950 - Richard Dean Anderson, American actor
- 1950 - Danny Federici, American musician (Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band)
- 1954 - Franco De Vita, Venezuelan singer and songwriter
- 1957 - Princess Caroline of Monaco
- 1963 - Gail O'Grady, American actress
- 1964 - Mariska Hargitay, American actress
- 1969 - Andrei Kanchelskis, Ukrainian-Russian footballer
- 1967 - Naim Suleymanoglu, Bulgarian-born weightlifter
- 1972 - Marcel Wouda, Dutch swimmer
- 1974 - Tiffani Thiessen, American actress
- 1984 - Arjen Robben, Dutch footballer

Deaths

- 1002 - Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 980)
- 1199 - Yaqub, Almohad Caliph
- 1548 - Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer (b. 1490)
- 1549 - Johannes Honter, Transylvanian Saxon humanist and theologian

1960

1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-February

- January - State of emergency is lifted in Kenya - Mau Mau Rebellion is officially over
- January 1 - Independence of Cameroon
- January 9-11 - Aswan High Dam construction begins in Egypt
- January 14 - Reserve bank and Commonwealth Bank are created
- January 21 - Mine collapses at Coalbrook, South Africa - 437 dead
- January 22 - In France, president Charles de Gaulle fires Jacques Massun, commander-in-chief for the French troops in Algeria
- January 22-23 - Jacques Piccard and Donald Walsh descend into the Marianas Trench in the bathyscape Trieste, reaching the depth of 10.916 meters
- January 23 - Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh in the bathyscaphe USS Trieste break a depth record when they descend to the bottom of Challenger Deep 35,820 feet (10,750 meters) below sea level in the Pacific Ocean
- January 24 - A major insurrection in Algiers against French colonial policy
- January 25 - The National Association of Broadcasters reacts to the Payola scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys who accepted money for playing particular records
- February 1 - In Greensboro, N.C., four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the South, and six months later the original four protesters are served lunch at the same counter.
- February 5 - Particle accelerator of CERN inaugurated in Geneve, Switzerland
- February 8-February 9 - Adolph Coors II killed during an attempt to kidnap him in Colorado. Joseph Corbett Jr is arrested next October
- February 9 - Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
- February 9 - Adolph Coors III, chairman of the board of the Coors Brewing Company, is kidnapped and captors demand $500,000. Coors is later found dead and Joseph Corbett Jr is indicted.
- February 10 - In Brussels, conference about Congo independence begins
- February 11 - 12 Indian soldiers die in clashes with Chinese troops at the border
- February 11 - The airship ZPG-3W is destroyed in a storm in Massachusetts
- February 13 - Nuclear testing: France tests its first atomic bomb in Sahara
- February 18 - 1960 Winter Olympics open in Squaw Valley, California.
- February 29-March 1 night - Earthquake totally destroys Agadir, Morocco.

March-April

Morocco
- March 6 - Vietnam War: The United States announces that 3,500 American soldiers are going to be sent to Vietnam
- March 6 - Canton of Geneve in Switzerland gives women the right to vote
- March 21 - Apartheid: Massacre in Sharpeville, South Africa: Afrikaner police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.
- March 22 - Arthur Leonard Schawlow & Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser.
- April 1 - Tuanku Abdul Rahman ibni Almarhum Tuanku Muhammad, 1st Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia dies in office. He is replaced by Hisamuddin Alam Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Alaeddin Sulaiman Shah, Sultan of Selangor.
- April 1 - The United States launches the first weather satellite, TIROS-1
- April 4 - First three female priests ordained in Sweden
- April 9 - Gunman attacks South African Prime Minister Verwoerd in Johannesburg and wounds him seriously
- April 12 - Eric Peugeot, youngest son of founder of Peugeot is kidnapped in Paris. Kidnappers release him April 15 in exchange for $300,000 ransom
- April 13 - USA launches navigation satellite Transat I-b
- April 21 - In Brazil, The Country's capital (Federal District) is shifted from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília. The Estado da Guanabara (State of Guanabara) is founded to succeed Rio de Janeiro as the Brazilian Federal District.
- April 27 - Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship

May

- May 1 - Soviet missile shoots down the US U2 spy plane; the pilot Gary Powers is captured
- May 4 - West German refugee minister Theodor Oberländer is fired because of his nazi past
- May 9 - Reproductive rights: The Food and Drug Administration approves sale of the birth control pill
- May 10 - The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus completes the first under water circumnavigation of the Earth
- May 11 - In Buenos Aires four Mossad agents abduct fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann who was using the assumed name "Ricardo Klement"
- May 13 - First ascent of Dhaulagiri, world's 7th highest mountain
- May 14 - Kenyan African National Congress party is founded in Kenya when three political parties join forces
- May 15 - Sputnik 4 is launched into Earth orbit
- May 16 - Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris
- May 16 - Theodore Maiman operates the first laser.
- May 20 - In Japan, police carries away socialist members of the diet. Parliament then approves a security treaty with the USA
- May 22 - Great Chilean Earthquake: Chile's subduction fault ruptures from Talcahuano to Península de Taitao, loosing a tsunami and one of the greatest earthquakes on record
- May 23 - Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion announces that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann has been captured
- May 27 - In Turkey, a bloodless military coup d'état removes President Celal Bayar and the government and invites General Cemal Gürsel as the head of state.

June-July

- June 4 - Lake Bodom murders in Finland.
- June 9 - Typhoon Mary kills 1600 in Fukien province of China
- June 15 - Violent demonstrations in Tokyo University - police arrests 182, 589 are injured
- June 15 - BC Ferries, the second largest ferry operator in the world starts service between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay.
- June 20 - Independence of Mali and Senegal
- June 22 - Erin Brockovich is born.
- June 23 - Japanese prime minister Kishi announces his resignation
- June 24 - Joseph Kasavubu elected the first president of independent Congo
- June 24 - Avro 748 first flight at Woodford, UK
- June 26 - British Somaliland gains independence from UK - 5 days later it united with the former Italian Somaliland to create modern Somali Republic
- June 30 - Belgian Congo gains independence from Belgium - civil war follows
- June 30 - The Mali Federation between Senegal and Sudanese Republic (modern-day Mali) gains independence from France
- July 1 - A Soviet MiG fighter north of Murmansk in the Barents Sea shot down a six-man RB-47. Two United States Air Force officers survived and were imprisoned in Moscow's dreaded Lubyanka prison. (see RB-47H shot down)
- July 4 - Following the admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state the previous year, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- July 10 - The Soviet Union beat Yugoslavia 2-1 to win the first European Football Championship
- July 11 - Moise Tshombe declares the Congolese province of Katanga independent; he receives Belgian help
- July 12 - Orlyonok, the main Young Pioneer camp of the Russian SFSR, is founded
- July 14 - United Nations decides to send troops to Katanga to oversee Belgian troops withdrawal
- July 20 - Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first female head of government.
- July 21 - Francis Chichester, English navigator and yachtsman, arrives in New York aboard Gypsy Moth II - he has made a record solo Atlantic crossing in 40 days
- July 27 - OECD founded

August

- August - Stanley Clifford Weyman, US impostor, is killed when he tries to prevent a robbery
- August 5 - Burkina Faso declares independence from France
- August 6 - Cuban Revolution: In response to a United States embargo, Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
- August 6 - In Congo, Albert Kalonji declares independence of Autonomous State of South Kasai
- August 7 - Côte d'Ivoire becomes independent.
- August 11 - Chad becomes independent.
- August 16 - Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,333 m). He sets unbeaten (as of 2005) world records for: high-altitude jump; free-fall by falling 16 miles (25.7 km) before opening his parachute; and fastest speed by a human without motorized assistance, 982 km/h (614 mi/h).
- August 16 - Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom
- August 17 - Gabon gains independence from France
- August 17 - Trial of U-2 pilot Gary Powers begins in Moscow
- August 18 - Enovid, the first commercially produced oral contraceptive, is launched in Skokie, Illinois
- August 19 - Cold War: In Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espio

Jacques Piccard

Family

Piccard Family

External links

July 28

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links

Don Walsh

Mariana Trench

See also

Brussels, Belgium

Etymology

History

Linguistic situation

Universities

Transport

Railway stations

Road network

Conferences and world fairs

See also

Places of interest

Notable parks

Notable people from Brussels

Sports clubs

Concert halls

Museums

Other

External links

Auguste Piccard

Piccard Family

External links

January 23

Events

Births

Deaths

1960

Events

January-February

March-April

May

June-July

August