On this Day: 9th October 1888, the Washington Monument is officially opened to the public

9th October 1888, the Washington Monument is officially opened to the public

The Washington Monument was officially opened on the 9th October 1888, over 56 years after plans were first drawn up and 40 years after work first commenced.

The Monument, stands due east of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first US president, George Washington. 

The monument, an obelisk made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss, is both the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing 555 feet 51⁄8 inches (169.294 m).

 Construction of the monument had began in 1848, but was halted from 1854 to 1877, due to political interference, a lack of funds and the onset of the US Civil War.

A difference in shading of the marble, visible approximately 150 feet (46 m) or 27% up, shows where construction was halted. Its original design was by Robert Mills, an architect of the 1840s, but his design was modified significantly when construction resumed. The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1848; the capstone was set on December 6, 1884, and the completed monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885.

Upon completion, it became the world's tallest structure, a title previously held by the Cologne Cathedral. The monument held this designation until 1889, when the Eiffel Tower was completed in Paris, France.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monument

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On this Day: 9th October 1888, the Washington Monument is officially opened to the public

On this Day: 8th October 1835, Charles Darwin lands on James Island in the Galapagos

The survey ship HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy, arrived in the Galápagos Islands on the 15^th September 1835 to survey approaches to harbours. The captain and others on board, including his companion, the young naturalist Charles Darwin, made observations on the geology and biology on Chatham, Charles, Albemarle Islands before arriving at James Island on the 8^th October 1835 where they remained until leaving on the 20th October to continue the rest of their round-the-world expedition.

Primarily a geologist at the time, Darwin was impressed by the quantity of volcanic craters they saw, later referring to the archipelago as "that land of craters." His study of several volcanic formations over the 5 weeks he stayed in the islands, led to several important geological discoveries, including the first, correct explanation for how volcanic tuff is formed] Darwin noticed the mockingbirds differed between islands, though he thought the birds now known as Darwin's finches were unrelated to each other, and did not bother labelling them by island.

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Research courtesy of Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galápagos_Islands#History

On this Day: 8th October 1835, Charles Darwin lands on James Island in the Galapagos

On this Day: 5th October 1936 The Jarrow Marchers begin their 22 day crusade to London

5^th October 1936 The Jarrow Marchers begin their 22 day crusade to London

On the 5th October 1936, a group of 207 coal and shipyard workers from Jarrow near Newcastle-upon-Tyne began the 300 mile march to London, to lobby parliament against unemployment in the region. They wanted to raise awareness of the troubles being felt in the north of England during the years of depression, where 70 per cent of working aged men were unemployed.

The march or ‘crusade’ as it was referred to took 22 days to arrive in London. The marchers carried with them a petition of 12,000 signatures they had  gathered en route which they hoped to present to the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. Baldwin however declined to see any of the marchers and despite becoming folk heroes, the marchers received little support amongst decision makers in London and were given £1 each for the train fare back.

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Research courtesy of Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarrow_March

On this Day: 5th October 1936 The Jarrow Marchers begin their 22 day crusade to London

On this Day: 4th October 1957, Sputnik launch starts the space race

Between 1957 and 1975, the Cold War rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union had a secondary ‘front’ focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national security and symbolic of technological and ideological superiority.

It effectively began with the Soviet launch of the Sputnik 1 artificial satellite on 4 October 1957, and concluded with the co-operative Apollo-Soyuz Test Project human spaceflight mission in July 1975.

Sputnik 1 (Russian: "Cпутник-1") was the first artificial Earth satellite, launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957, from Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR (now at the Baikonur Cosmodrome).

The satellite travelled at about 29,000 kilometers (18,000 mi) per hour, taking 96.2 minutes to complete each orbit. The signals continued for 22 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on 26 October 1957. Sputnik 1 burned up on 4 January 1958, as it fell from orbit, after travelling about 60 million km (37 million miles) and spending 3 months in orbit.

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Research courtesy of Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_race

On this Day: 4th October 1957, Sputnik launch starts the space race

On this Day: 3rd October 1990, East and West Germany are unified

At the end of World War II, the Potsdam Agreement divided pre-war Germany into four occupation zones, one controlled by each of the four  Allied powers: the USA, UK, France and Soviet Union.

Tensions between the western powers and Soviets remained high and on the 7th October 1949 the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was declared. The majority of those living in the new Eastern Bloc nations aspired to independence but by the early 1950s, the Soviet’s had instead begun to restrict national movement.

On the 13th August 1961, the border between East and West Berlin was closed and East German troops installed barbed wire fences along the 156 kilometres (97 mi); the precursor to The Berlin Wall.

The next 28 years saw a bitterly divided nation, at the forefront of the Cold War. In May 1989, the East German regime began to falter when the removal of Hungary's border fence opened a hole in the Iron Curtain.

Six months later, The Berlin Wall officially fell on the 9th November 1989 although in its entirety was not torn down immediately. What followed was the ‘Peaceful Revolution’ a series of protests by East Germans. This led to negotiations between the German Democratic Republic and Federal Republic of Germany that culminated in Unification Day on the 3rd October 1990 when five new Federal States were created, and East and West Berlin were unified as a single city-state.

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On this Day: 3rd October 1990, East and West Germany are unified

On this Day: 2nd October 1950, Charlie Brown makes his first appearance in Peanuts

The popular cartoon strip Peanuts, which was written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, was first published on the 2nd of October 1950.

Peanuts began as a daily strip, running in nine newspapers: The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Minneapolis Tribune, The Allentown Call-Chronicle, The Bethlehem Globe-Times, The Denver Post, The Seattle Times, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe.

The first strip was four panels long and featured Charlie Brown, Shermy and Patty. Snoopy was also amongst the early characters in the strip, first appearing in the third edition, which ran on October 4.

Peanuts is the most popular and influential in the history of the comic strips, with 17,897 strips published in all. At its peak, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of 355 million in 75 countries, and was translated into 21 languages.

It helped to cement the four-panel gag strip as the standard in the United States and together with its merchandise earned Schulz more than $1 billion. Peanuts ran until  February 13, 2000, although reprints of the strip are still syndicated and run in almost every U.S. newspaper.

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Research is courtesy of Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanuts

On this Day: 2nd October 1950, Charlie Brown makes his first appearance in Peanuts

On this Day: 1st October 1958, NASA launches

On the 1st October 1958 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) became operational replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).

U.S. space exploration efforts have since been led by NASA, including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. Today NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Commercial Crew vehicles, while focusing on manned missions to asteroids and Mars.

NASA's facilities are primarily research, construction and communication centers to help its missions and include the most famous, the John F. Kennedy Space Center. The Kennedy Space Centre has been the launch site for every US human space flight since 1968 and continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program from three pads at the adjoining Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The image above, shows the other major NASA facility, the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama at which the Saturn 5 rocket and Skylab were developed. At its founding, the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) inherited the Army's Jupiter and Redstone test stands, but much larger facilities were needed for the giant stages of the Saturn V. From 1960 to 1964, the existing stands were remodeled and a sizable new test area was developed.

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Research is courtesy of Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA

On this Day: 1st October 1958, NASA launches