Apollo 9 (March 3–13, 1969) was the third crewed mission in the United States Apollo program. Launched by a Saturn V rocket and flown in Low Earth Orbit, the mission flight-qualified the Lunar Module, showing that its crew could fly it independently, then rendezvous and dock, as would be required for Apollo 11, the first crewed lunar landing. Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart tested systems and procedures critical to landing on the Moon. A spacewalk tested the extravehicular life support backpack. McDivitt and Schweickart, entering the lunar module through the docking tunnel, became the first humans to pass between spacecraft without going outside them, two months after Soviet cosmonauts spacewalked to transfer between Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5. Apollo 9, a complete success, was followed by Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for Apollo 11.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_9
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1639:
Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was named after its first principal donor, clergyman John Harvard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Harvard_University
1920:
The Kapp Putsch (participants pictured), an attempted coup aiming to undo the German Revolution of 1918–1919, briefly ousted the government of the Weimar Republic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapp_Putsch
1954:
Việt Minh forces under General Võ Nguyên Giáp began a massive artillery bombardment on the French military, beginning the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the climactic battle of the First Indochina War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dien_Bien_Phu
1996:
A gunman killed sixteen children and a teacher at a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland, before committing suicide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunblane_massacre
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
ledger: 1. A book for keeping notes, especially one for keeping accounting records; a record book, a register. 2. A large, flat stone, especially one laid over a tomb. 3. (accounting) A collection of accounting entries consisting of credits and debits. 4. (construction) A board attached to a wall to provide support for attaching other structural elements (such as deck joists or roof rafters) to a building. 5. (fishing) Short for ledger bait (“fishing bait attached to a floating line fastened to the bank of a pond, stream, etc.”) or ledger line (“fishing line used with ledger bait for bottom fishing; ligger”). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ledger
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and a thousand other things well. --Hugh Walpole https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hugh_Walpole