On this day

1966: First US space probe lands on Moon
The United States has landed its first spacecraft on the Moon.
Scientists were surprised and delighted that Surveyor 1 - America's first attempt at a "soft" landing - succeeded.

They had expected it to take at least four tries.

The Soviet Union was the first to achieve the feat four months ago. It is believed to have sent four failed missions before landing the Luna 9 probe successfully.

Astonishing pictures

The Surveyor 1 craft landed at 0617 GMT in the Ocean of Storms, about 590 miles (950 km) from where Luna 9 came down.

Just over half an hour later, it began transmitting a series of astonishing photographs of the Moon's surface.

The American President, Lyndon B Johnson, used the occasion to emphasise the openness of America's space programme.

In a comment directed at the Soviet Union, which earlier this year delayed the release of photographs from Luna 9, he said Surveyor's "remarkable photographs" would be made available as soon as possible.

In fact, national television networks in America broadcast the first pictures taken by the 10ft (3m) high triangular-shaped spacecraft as they came in.

Smooth landing

Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California began counting down the spacecraft's descent from an altitude of about 60 miles (95 km) from the Moon's surface, when Surveyor was travelling at about 6,100 mph (9,800 km/h).

The altitude marking radar started the powerful main braking rocket. This burned out in about 40 seconds, about 25 miles (40 km) above the Moon's surface. The rocket's speed had been reduced to 250 mph (400 km/h).

By the time Surveyor was 13 feet (four metres) from its target it had been slowed to about eight mph (13 km/h).

"It settled on the surface in a fairly soft fashion, just a few degrees off the horizontal," said one of the scientists.

The first pictures showed a number of objects which appeared to be rocks about an inch (2.5cm) across, and pebbles strewn about the lunar surface.

Dr Leonard Jaffe, chief Surveyor project scientist, discounted previous theories about deep layers of soft dust, pointing at photographs taken after touchdown of the Surveyor's pad on one of the spacecraft's tripod legs.

Scientists believe that the success of the Surveyor 1 mission has put the lunar landing program about a year ahead of schedule.


E-mail this story to a friend





Surveyor was America's first attempt at a soft landing (picture courtesy NSSDC)





In Context
Surveyor 1 spent the lunar night on the Moon and was successfully reactivated the next lunar day, on 6 July. Contact was lost on 7 January 1967.
The United States sent another six Surveyor probes to the Moon over the following 18 months. Only two were failures.

Later Surveyor missions were able to take samples of the rocky surface of the Moon, discovering them to consist largely of basalt.

The Apollo 12 mission was planned to land close to where Surveyor 3 had touched down to demonstrate the accuracy of its navigation.

Astronaut Pete Conrad was able to retrieve the camera and scoop from the Surveyor's landing site and return them to Earth.

The information gathered from the Surveyor missions was essential for the success of the American Apollo manned expeditions which began the following year.

Budget constraints brought the first phase of American lunar exploration to an end in 1972.

Then, in January 2004, US President George Bush announced American astronauts would return to the Moon by 2020 as the launching point for missions further into space.



Stories From 2 Jun
1953: Queen Elizabeth takes coronation oath

1979: Millions cheer as the Pope comes home

1994: MI5 officers killed in helicopter crash

1985: Uefa bans English clubs from Europe

1966: First US space probe lands on Moon

1976: Piggott celebrates 7th Derby victory

1800 - John Adams, the 2nd president of the United States of America, became the first president to reside in Washington, D.C.

1937 - The Duke of Windsor, (the abdicated King Edward VIII), married American divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson, privately in a château near Tours, France.

1940 – World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk ends with a German victory and with Allied forces in full retreat.

1965 – Launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Crew-member Ed White performs the first American spacewalk.

1968 – Valerie Solanas, author of SCUM Manifesto, attempts to assassinate Andy Warhol by shooting him three times.

1978 - The Guiness Book of Records entered the record books as the most-stolen book from British libraries.

1989 - The Chinese government authorized its soldiers and tanks to reclaim Beijing's Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of protests for democratic reforms, killing 2000 protesters.

1992 – Aboriginal Land Rights are granted in Australia in Mabo v Queensland (1988), a case brought by Eddie Mabo.

(03-06-2011 10:57 )skully Wrote:  1965 – Launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Crew-member Ed White performs the first American spacewalk.

Edward Higgins White II was born in San Antonio. Texas, in 1930. After high school he attended West Point (the American equivalent of Sandhurst) and joined the USAF where he served in West Germany for nearly four years.

In 1962 he became one of NASA's nine "Group 2" astronauts and was allocated a place on Gemini 4, alongside Jim McDivitt. At 5ft 11 in, White was remarkably tall for an astronaut in those days. Although imagined as "Buck Rogers" type figures, most of the early astronauts were in the 5ft 5 to 5ft 8 range, a necessity due to the tiny amount of space available in the capsules. In 1964 White had risked his life to help his next door neighbour whose house had caught on fire. The neighbour was Neil Armstrong.

His spacewalk in June 1965 caused a sensation, and was front-page news around the free world (the Russian Alexei Leonov had beaten him to doing a spacewalk by 11 weeks but Soviet secrecy meant that little had been seen of the cosmonaut's achievement in the West).

White found the spacewalk an exhillerating experience and was reported to have said that getting back into Gemini 4 was the saddest moment of his life, but ground controller and CAPCOM Virgil "Gus" Grissom knew that White's life support system time was limited and padding had to be built in in case of problems and called him back in. It turned out to be a wise move, as White's spacesuit had expanded in the vacuum of space and McDivitt had considerable trouble reaching over to close the hatch on the capsule. White only had a couple of minutes oxygen left in his suit before he could be reconnected to the main Gemini system and had he stayed in space any longer it could have been disasterous.

White was regarded as a high-flyer and instead of taking the Gemini 10 mission he was fast-tracked and given the Command Pilot's spot on Apollo 1, alongside Grissom and the rookie Roger Chaffee.

On 27th January 1967 disaster struck the space programme as an electrical fault caused a flash-fire in the oxygen-rich Apollo 1 capsule. All three astronauts were killed.

White was buried not at Arlington but at his beloved West Point. Had he lived he would probably have been on the first moon-landing mission but would have been the command-module pilot, staying in orbit whilst Grissom and (probably) Aldrin would have been the first men on the moon.

White was a devout Christian, a devoted husband and family man, and father to two children. There was one final tragic twist to the tail. His wife, Pat, never got over his death and sixteen years later, in 1983, Pat White committed suicide.




Ed White

(photo is copyright NASA but may be freely used for non-commercial purposes under NASA's public domain policy if acklowledged)

1989: Massacre in Tiananmen Square
Several hundred civilians have been shot dead by the Chinese army during a bloody military operation to crush a democratic protest in Peking's (Beijing) Tiananmen Square.
Tanks rumbled through the capital's streets late on 3 June as the army moved into the square from several directions, randomly firing on unarmed protesters.

The injured were rushed to hospital on bicycle rickshaws by frantic residents shocked by the army's sudden and extreme response to the peaceful mass protest.

Demonstrators, mainly students, had occupied the square for seven weeks, refusing to move until their demands for democratic reform were met.

The protests began with a march by students in memory of former party leader Hu Yaobang, who had died a week before.

But as the days passed, millions of people from all walks of life joined in, angered by widespread corruption and calling for democracy.

Tonight's military offensive came after several failed attempts to persuade the protesters to leave.

Throughout the day the government warned it would do whatever it saw necessary to clamp down on what it described as "social chaos".

But even though violence was expected, the ferocity of the attack took many by surprise, bringing condemnation from around the world.

US President George Bush said he deeply deplored the use of force, and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said she was "shocked and appalled by the shootings".

Amid the panic and confusion students could be heard shouting "fascists stop killing," and "down with the government".

At a nearby children's hospital operating theatres were filled with casualties with gunshot wounds, many of them local residents who were not taking part in the protests.

Early this morning at least 30 more were killed in two volleys of gunfire, which came without warning. Terrified crowds fled, leaving bodies in the road.

Meanwhile reports have emerged of troops searching the main Peking university campus for ringleaders, beating and killing those they suspect of co-ordinating the protests.


E-mail this story to a friend




Watch/Listen

The army moved tanks into the square to clear the protesters



Kate Adie reports from the scene of the massacre





In Context
The demonstrations in Tiananmen Square have been described as the greatest challenge to the communist state in China since the 1949 revolution.
They were called to coincide with a visit to the capital by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, by students seeking democratic reform.

Troops were used to clear the square despite repeated assurances from Chinese politicians that there would be no violence.

It has been suggested that the Communist leader Deng Xiaoping personally ordered their deployment as a way of shoring up his leadership.

Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people were killed in the massacre, although it is unlikely a precise number will ever be known.

Peking has since become more widely known as Beijing.



Stories From 4 Jun
1940: Dunkirk rescue is over - Churchill defiant

1989: Massacre in Tiananmen Square

1977: Greece releases UK plane-spotters

1991: UK army spending to be cut

1968: Dover begins bird purge





Witness
Your reaction to reports of the Tiananmen Square massacre

1717 - The Freemasons were founded in London.

1783 – The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon).

1805 - The first official Trooping The Colour took place at Horse Guards Parade in London.

1896 – Henry Ford completes the Ford Quadricycle, his first gasoline-powered automobile, and gives it a successful test run.

1920 – Hungary loses 71% of its territory and 63% of its population when the Treaty of Trianon is signed in Paris.

1940 – World War II: The Dunkirk evacuation ends – British forces complete evacuation of 300,000 troops from Dunkirk in France. To rally the morale of the country, Winston Churchill delivers his famous "We shall fight on the beaches" speech.

1942 – World War II: The Battle of Midway begins. Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo orders a strike on Midway Island by much of the Imperial Japanese navy.

1961 – In the Vienna summit, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev sparks the Berlin Crisis by threatening to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany and ending American, British and French access to East Berlin.

1970 – Tonga gains independence from the United Kingdom.

1996 – The first flight of Ariane 5 explodes after roughly 20 seconds. It was a Cluster mission.

2001 – Gyanendra, the last King of Nepal, ascends to the throne after the massacre in the Royal Palace.

1883 – The first regularly scheduled Orient Express departs Paris.

1900 - Boer War: British troops captured and occupied Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal.

1917 - Around 10 million American men began registering for the draft in World War I.

1967 - The Six Day War began in Israel. Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, the Golan Heights of Syria, and the West Bank and Arab sector of East Jerusalem, both previously under Jordanian rule.

1975 - Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to international shipping, eight years after it was closed because of the 1967 war with Israel.

1981 – The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that five people in Los Angeles, California have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems, in what turns out to be the first recognized cases of AIDS.

1989 – The Unknown Rebel halts the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

1995 – The Bose-Einstein condensate is first created.

2001 – Tropical Storm Allison makes landfall on the upper-Texas coastline as a strong tropical storm and dumps large amounts of rain over Houston. The storm caused $5.5 billion in damages, making Allison the costliest tropical storm in U.S. history.

2003 - Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott flashed a V-sign at journalists as he went into a Cabinet meeting on the euro in Downing Street.

2003 – A severe heat wave across Pakistan and India reaches its peak, as temperatures exceed 50°C (122°F) in the region.

1968: Robert Kennedy injured in shooting
Senator Robert Kennedy has been shot and seriously wounded shortly after giving a victory speech to celebrate his win in the California Primary in a Los Angeles hotel.
Mr Kennedy has been taken to the Hospital of the Good Samaritan where he is undergoing emergency brain surgery.

The 42-year-old senator was greeting hotel workers while being escorted through the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel when a gunman, named as Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan, fired shots from a .22 calibre gun.

Pandemonium broke out

He was was reported to shout "I did it for my country" after carrying out the attack.

The 24-year-old was immediately set upon by Mr Kennedy's bodyguards and then arrested and taken away by police.

It is thought Mr Kennedy's well documented support for Israel led to the attack.

Five other people were also injured but not seriously.

Mr Kennedy was on his way to a press conference in the hotel.

A witness said "Pandemonium broke out because it was a really narrow passageway - probably only about four to five people abreast could get through. Everyone was trying to get in there. It seemed like an awful long time before the ambulances got here."

Mr Kennedy is favourite in the running to be named as the Democrat candidate in the next election.

Robert Kennedy is the younger brother of President John Kennedy who was assassinated in 1963 as he travelled in an open-top car in Dallas.


E-mail this story to a friend




Watch/Listen

Mr Kennedy had just given a victory speech



Images from before and after the shooting





In Context
Robert Kennedy's death was announced the following day. The surgery failed to save him but had he been saved, he would probably have suffered massive brain damage.
Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1969 following a four month trial.

The sentence was commuted to life in prison which he is still serving. Numerous applications for parole have been turned down.

There are many theories about the death of Robert Kenndy disputing the conviction of Sirhan Sirhan.

Conflicting reports of events, the trajectory of the bullets and the number of bullet holes found compared with the round of bullets in the fired gun have all led people to suggest possible conspiracy theories.



Stories From 5 Jun
1967: Israel launches attack on Egypt

1963: Profumo resigns over sex scandal

1944: Celebrations as Rome is liberated

1968: Robert Kennedy injured in shooting

1972: Duke of Windsor laid to rest

1989: Election boost for Solidarity

1992: Huge rise in water disconnections

1808 – Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte is crowned King of Spain.

1844 - The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was founded in London.

1921 – The Southwark Bridge in London, is opened for traffic by King George V and Queen Mary.

1933 - The first drive-in movie theater opened, in Camden, New Jersey.

1936 - Gatwick Airport opened in Surrey. Half a century later, it became Britain’s second biggest international airport, and one of the world’s busiest.

1944 – World War II: Battle of Normandy begins. D-Day, code named Operation Overlord, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.

1949 - Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell’s prophetic novel of a world ruled by Big Brother, was published.

1967 - President Gamal Abdel Nasser closed the Suez Canal, alleging that U.S. and British forces were aiding Israel.

1984 – The Indian Army attacks the Golden Temple in Amritsar following an order from Indira Gandhi. Official casualties are 576 combatants killed and 335 wounded; independent observers estimate that thousands of unarmed Sikh civilians are also killed in the crossfire. A total death count adds up to almost 6,000.

1984 – Tetris, one of the best-selling video games of all-time, is released.

1999 – In Australian Rules Football, Tony Lockett breaks the record for career goals, previously 1299 by Gordon Coventry and which had stood since 1937.

2002 – Eastern Mediterranean Event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at 10 metres diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The resulting explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.

(06-06-2011 11:18 )skully Wrote:  1944 – World War II: Battle of Normandy begins. D-Day, code named Operation Overlord, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.

The Normandy Landings commenced on the 6th June 1944.
As well as the Allied troops who landed there were 195,000 naval and Merchant Navy personal involved in over 5,000 vessels.

1329 - Robert I 'the Bruce', king of Scotland died. He earned a place in Scottish history for his legendary victory over the English at Bannockburn in 1314.

1494 - Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, agreeing to divide the New World between them.

1775 - The United Colonies changed their name to the United States.

1906 – Cunard Line's RMS Lusitania is launched at the John Brown Shipyard, Glasgow (Clydebank), Scotland.

1929 - The sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence.

1939 - King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, arrived at Niagara Falls, New York, from Canada, the first visit to the United States by a reigning British monarch.

1977 - More than one million people lined the streets of London to watch the Royal Family on their way to St. Paul's at the start of the Queen's silver jubilee celebrations.

1982 – Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public; the bathroom where Elvis Presley died five years earlier is kept off-limits.