The Apollo 15 postal covers incident was a scandal involving the crew of NASA's Apollo 15 lunar landing mission, who in 1971 carried about 400 unauthorized postal covers (example pictured) to the Moon's surface. American astronauts David Scott, Alfred Worden and James Irwin agreed to receive about $7,000 each for carrying the covers into space. These covers were inside the lunar lander Falcon as Scott and Irwin walked on the Moon, and were postmarked both prior to liftoff from Kennedy Space Center and after splashdown. Though the astronauts returned the money, they were reprimanded by NASA for poor judgment and were called before a closed session of a Senate committee. They were removed as the backup crew for Apollo 17 and never flew in space again; by 1977 all had left NASA. In 1983, Worden sued for the return of those covers that had been impounded in 1972, and the three men received them in an out-of-court settlement. One of the covers that had been provided to West German stamp dealer Hermann Sieger sold for over $50,000 in 2014.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_15_postal_covers_incident

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1781:

Astronomer and composer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus while in the garden of his house in Bath, England, thinking it was a comet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus

1920:

The Kapp Putsch briefly ousted the Weimar Republic government from Berlin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapp_Putsch

1962:

Lyman Lemnitzer, the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented to the Secretary of Defense a false flag conspiracy plan, Operation Northwoods, intended to create public support for a war against Fidel Castro and Cuba. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods

1985:

One of England's worst incidents of football hooliganism occurred when supporters of Luton Town and Millwall rioted before a match at Kenilworth Road stadium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Kenilworth_Road_riot

_____________________________ 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:

It may, perhaps, be true, though we cannot distinctly see it to be so, that as all finite things require a cause, infinites admit of none. It is evident, that nothing can begin to be without a cause; but it by no means follows from thence, that that must have had a cause which had no beginning. But whatever there may be in this conjecture, we are constrained, in pursuing the train of causes and effects, to stop at last at something uncaused.   --Joseph Priestley https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Priestley