Good morning! It's The Nerd's Almanac for Wednesday, August 31, 2011.
Today is the anniversary of Ferdinand von Zeppelin's patent of his eponymous navigable balloon in 1895. If you're interested in the technical details, let's just say it was held aloft by a Whole Lotta Gas.
This date marks the inaugural flight of the Super Guppy cargo plane in 1965. This type of aircraft was used by NASA or other aerospace companies to carry a Whole Lotta Stuff -- whatever giant stuff they needed moved from one place to another.
And four year later on this date in 1969, Led Zeppelin ended their summer tour with an appearance at the Texas International Pop Festival in Lewisville.
Today is the birthday of Sir Bernard Lovell, the English physicist and radio astronomer. During the Cold War, he was the attempted victim of assassination by lethal radiation -- a full written account of which will not be published until after Lovell's death.
Here is a quote for today...
"The simple belief in automatic material progress by means of scientific discovery is a tragic myth of our age."
-- Bernard Lovell
And that's the almanac for today. Nerds of the world, we salute you!
Sources:
Wikipedia: August 31
No comments:
Post a Comment