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>
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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>
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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>
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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>