February 20 is Cherry Pie Day.
For many people, nothing is quite so delicious as a hunk of cherry pie. A flaky crust filled plump cherries, tart and sweet all at the same time, today is the day to indulge in this American favorite.
According to the American Pie Council, the pie came to America with the first English settlers. Now, that really isn’t that remarkable, except it does point out the fact there is such a thing as the American Pie Council. I am not sure what a person has to do to be a member of the council, but this sounds like a fantastic job.
Today in history: February 20, 1962: John Glenn Orbits the Earth.
Aboard the space capsule dubbed “Friendship 7”, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on this date 55 years ago.
In late November of 1961, NASA launched Enos, a chimpanzee, into orbit. This chimp was supposed to complete 3 orbits of the Earth, but aborted after the second due to a minor malfunction. Enos returned safely. A press conference was held in early December. NASA announced John H. Glenn was selected as prime pilot for the Mercury 6 mission with M. Scott Carpenter as his backup, and that he would be the first American to orbit the Earth.
It had initially been scheduled for late January, but problems with the fuel tanks of the Atlas rocket and some foul weather had caused the mission to be delayed. It was scheduled again for February 14, but again weather caused the mission to be scrubbed. The weather cleared on the 19th, and at 2:47 PM, the Atlas rocket fired and carried Glenn into orbit.
3 hours and 56 minutes later the capsule splashed down safely in the North Atlantic Ocean approximately 40 miles short of its intended landing zone. Glenn was retrieved after bobbing in the sea for 17 minutes by the USS Noa, a destroyer cruising nearby. The mission was a complete success.
The original Mercury 7 space capsule is on display in the Smithsonian Air and Space museum.
Weird History: Halley Hysteria
In the early 1900s newspaper-fueled hysteria was fairly common. One good example was the “Great Comet Scare of 1910”.
In 1910 Halley’s Comet was making its routine pass by the Earth as it does every 76 years. The 1910 pass was particularly spectacular, as the comet flew by about 13.9 million miles from Earth, which is about one-fifteenth the distance between Earth and the sun. Technological advances in scientific equipment enabled astronomers to study the comet and its tail more intimately than ever before. Observations revealed that the comet’s tail consisted of a highly poisonous gas called cyanogen. They determined that the Earth would briefly pass through the comet’s 24 million mile long tail on May 19th, but quickly concluded that this would be harmless. They claimed that the only noticeable effect that this would have on Earth would be more vivid sunsets for a while.
The newspapers jumped on the poisonous gas angle and played up it’s potential devastating effect on the Earth. Hysteria followed, and con men quickly set up show, making a killing in a short period of time selling gas masks, anti-comet pills, even comet shielding umbrellas.
As the time came as the Earth passed through the comet’s tail, people barricaded their homes and filled in cracks in the walls with anything that they could find to prevent air getting in from outside. The Earth passed harmlessly through the tail in about 6 hours time, and humanity did indeed survive.
