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On September 2nd, 1945, the Second World War ended with the signing of surrender documents by a Japanese government and military delegation on board the American battleship USS Missouri. Military representatives of every Allied power fighting in the Pacific were present, along with members of the press, who reported the sights and sounds of the ceremony to a world eager for peace. From beginning to end, the event lasted 23 minutes. And though most people alive at the time did not realize it, the ceremony also marked the beginning of one world and the end of another.
Although history rarely falls into the neat patterns of human expectation, there are dates which clearly mark the beginnings or ends of eras. September 2nd, 1945 marked the end of several eras---cultural, political, and military. It also marked the beginning of the world in which we now live, a world that would be fundamentally different had just a few small events turned out differently in 1945. While most people alive today had not yet been born when the Second World War ended, we live with the aftereffects of that conflagration every day.
As the victorious allied representatives stared at the Japanese delegation on the other side of the table holding the surrender documents, some of them had to wonder what they had won. The Soviet officers present were citizens of a nation that had suffered over 23 million military and civilian deaths, although the exact figure will never be known. That number represented 14% of the USSR's population. Only Poland, with nearly six million dead, had a greater percentage of its population killed by the war.
For Soviet leader Josef Stalin, the war was far from over. Eastern Europe and the area that would become East Germany were subject to communist reprisals for years after the war officially ended in Europe in May, 1945. Anyone living in an area under Soviet control that had fought with Germany or in any way opposed the Red Army was arrested and either sent to the infamous gulags of Siberia or summarily executed. German prisoners-of-war being held by the Soviets did not go home when the war ended; as many as a third of them died in captivity. Those who survived were put to work at various industrial sites inside the Soviet Union and were not repatriated until the mid-1950s. Most of these men were not guilty of war crimes and a majority weren't Nazis; they just had the misfortune of being on the losing side and surrendering to an enemy that did not recognize the Geneva Convention’s rules governing the treatment of prisoners-of-war.
Not that being on the winning side helped many Soviet soldiers held by the Germans when the war ended. Almost all of them were imprisoned upon returning to their home country under orders from Stalin, who probably saw them as an embarrassing reminder of how badly he had blundered during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941. Some of the Soviet POWs and others, including many Polish soldiers, had no desire to return to areas controlled by the communists because they knew what awaited them. What they did not know, and what the world would not know for another 50 years, was that their fates had already been decided by Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and US President Franklin Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference in February, 1945. One of Stalin’s demands was for the quick return of any Soviet or Eastern European citizen who had ended the war in territory not controlled by the Red Army. Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to this demand, even though they understood the implications. Apologists for both men claim they were ignorant of Stalin’s plans, but history recent to 1945 had shown the Soviet leader to be genocidal and paranoid. The two Western leaders were, by tacit approval, helping to send tens of thousands of men to certain imprisonment or death.
The Chinese delegation on board the Missouri that Sunday morning was comprised of representatives of the Republic of China, the legitimate Nationalist government of that nation as recognized by all the allies except the Soviet Union. China had been embroiled in a civil war since 1928, a struggle that was largely abandoned while the two sides, the Nationalists and the Communists, fought separately against the Japanese. At the same time the Japanese surrender ceremony commenced in Tokyo Harbor, the two Chinese belligerents were trying to hammer out some sort of agreement on their nation's future. But fighting continued, and by the middle of 1946 the two sides were again fully engaged in a death struggle. The Nationalists could claims superior numbers in terms of manpower, but the Communists controlled the countryside and were soon bolstered by farmers who were promised their own land in exchange for military service, a promise that quickly turned into a fantasy. By the end of the 1949, the war was over and the Communists were taking power in Beijing. The Nationalists escaped to Taiwan and set up a government-in-exile, but from the beginning it was obvious that they would never again control the mainland. They had not only been beaten by the Communists, but by years of struggle against the Japanese occupation.
China would undergo painful upheavals over the next 40 years, including the Great Leap Forward, a plan to make the nation into an industrial giant in the course of just a few years. As a result of mismanagement and the allocation of resources away from agriculture to manufacturing, the years 1958-1962 saw more than 16 million people (and possibly as many as 40 million) die of starvation. This failed movement led directly to the Cultural Revolution, the effects of which shaped Chinese society for a generation.
Also represented on the Missouri were the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands. All three had been colonial powers in the Pacific before the outbreak of hostilities, but most of their possessions had been occupied by Japanese forces and, with a few exceptions, would never be fully under their control again. France tried to quell the rising tide of anti-colonialism in French Indochina (Vietnam), but after a stunning military defeat at the hands of Viet Minh communists in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu, the government in Paris was done in mainland Asia. Vietnam was divided in two, but the partition solved nothing. In a little over 10 years, American, Australian and South Korean troops would be fighting communist insurgents and North Vietnamese Army regulars in the jungles of South Vietnam.
Of all the colonial powers, the British Empire paid the highest price for victory. The British people and the colonial citizens of the Empire, along with the Dominion nations, had stood alone against the Nazi war machine from the fall of France in May, 1940 until the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June, 1941. British, Australian, New Zealand, Indian, and dozens of other nations' soldiers, sailors, and airmen from across the Empire fought on almost every front during the war. Resources were always strained, even after the United States entered the war in December, 1941.
In 1922, four years after the end of the First World War, one in four human beings lived in lands controlled by the British Empire. It was truly worldwide in scope; when people said the sun never set on the British Empire, they meant it. But even then, cracks were starting to appear. Defending far-flung outposts required the world’s largest navy and a large standing army. The Royal Navy met the challenge, at least until the outbreak of the Second World War. But Britain could not maintain a large standing army as France did during most of the inter-war years. Nor could it fight a two-front war. The Empire had reached beyond its grasp; bravery and a stiff upper lip were no longer enough to win the day on their own. Such was the availability of the Royal Navy, for example, that when the British Pacific Fleet was formally organized in 1944 from smaller area commands, the entire formation was given a single task force number when operating with units of the US Pacific Fleet, itself part of a navy which had strength of more than 6,000 ships in 1945. The British Pacific Fleet contained fewer than 180 vessels during the same period.
The Empire’s largest colony, India, gained its independence in 1947. Within 20 years, almost all the colonial territories would be independent nations. By the time the generation who fought the war reached middle age, the term ‘British Empire’ was no longer in use. Economically devastated, it would not be until the beginning of the 1950’s that the UK’s economy would again show sustained growth.
Of all the allied powers, only the United States emerged stronger overall than when the war began. While the death of nearly 420,000 Americans was a grievous loss, it was actually a smaller death toll than had occurred during the US Civil War 80 years before. And it was a much smaller total than expected, since all but a handful of Americans assumed that victory in the Pacific would require an invasion of the Japanese home islands. While the morality of bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki is debated today, the average American of 1945 welcomed the news with relief.
While the economic might of the United States had been evident for decades, it emerged from the Second World War as a superpower in every quantifiable way. But that status came with great responsibilities. By 1947, the Cold War with the Soviet Union was underway. Historians will probably debate the true origins of this standoff for the next few centuries and we will not delve into the causes or merits of it here. The Soviet Union’s military might did not fade immediately after the war; conversely, the United States’ military draw-down was quick and, as later events would prove, excessive. The lessons learned from the Berlin Airlift in 1947-48 and the Korean War (1950-53) led to a situation unique in American history. Until the mid-20th century, the United States had an established tradition of allowing the American military to shrink to alarming levels during times of peace. When war loomed, citizen soldiers volunteered (or were drafted) to fill in the ranks, led by the small corps of professional officers and senior enlisted men. Arms manufacturers cranked up production and makers of other products began making the tools of combat.
So it had been from the War of Independence to the Second World War. But those days had passed. The Cold War required constant readiness, which required a relatively large military. The United States kept troops on permanent station in West Germany, South Korea, Japan, and dozens of other places around the world, armed and trained for the Third World War. This costly endeavor was maintained for 40 years, until the breakup of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991.
Such military strength required the creation of a permanent arms industry in the United States, Europe and Asia. The so-called military-industrial complex is still with us and probably always will be. America’s willingness to out-spend and out-research the Soviet Union in terms of military spending and procurement was one of the leading causes of the collapse of communism in Europe. The Cold War was won not with the force of arms, but by the constant threat of new and better ones.
It doesn’t take much examination to see how fundamentally our world changed because of the Second World War. That war brought an end to the vestiges of 19th century life, mainly colonialism and the idea that wars were only to be fought against a nation’s military, not its entire civilian population. It also created the specter of nuclear annihilation, a reality that probably kept the world out of another worldwide conflagration. But that’s another story.
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Sunday, September 25, 2011
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
New London Bridge Opened, August 1, 1831
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Today in 1831, the New London Bridge opened, spanning the River Thames in London, England. The granite structure, 928 feet in length, represents just one chapter in a history of structures collectively known as "London Bridge". As we begin it's important to note that London Bridge is not be confused with Tower Bridge, a bridge that was built downstream of London Bridge and completed in 1894. Many tourists see the more massive Tower Bridge and think it is the other.
The spot where London Bridge crosses the Thames has been home to one type of bridge or another for nearly two millennium. The original bridge was a wooden structure built during the first century AD by the Romans. It likely fell into disrepair after the Romans left the island several hundred years later, but at some point it was either renovated or replaced by one or multiple bridges. During the 11th century, the bridge was burned in an attempt to slow the advance of Danish invaders. According to legend, this incident was immortalized in the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down.
Two more wooden bridges were built on the same location during the 11th and 12th centuries, but both were destroyed by weather or fire. It was only then that the proposal was put forth to build a larger stone bridge across the river. This endeavor was undertaken during the reign of Henry II and took 33 years to complete. It opened in 1209.
King John, who was the ruling monarch at the time of the bridge's completion, proposed that houses be built on the structure. This was undertaken almost immediately and, before long, the span was covered with houses, stores and a chapel located on top of the center span. Although exact details have been lost to history, drawings of the time show buildings up to seven stories high covering the bridge. The population of the structure was so large that it was made a separate ward of London with its own representative on the city council.
London Bridge served its namesake for over 600 years. During that time, parts of the span collapsed and were rebuilt and various structures on top of it were purposely burned or accidentally set on fire. During Jack Cade's rebellion in 1450, a battle was actually fought on the bridge. The southern gate of the bridge became notorious for being the place where the severed heads of traitors were put on display. William Wallace was the first person to suffer such a fate; hundreds of others would follow over the next three and a half centuries, until King Charles II put a halt to the practice in 1660. In 1633, a fire destroyed the northern end of the bridge, which was not immediately rebuilt. Because of this delay, the bridge remained free of damage from the Great Fire of 1666.
By the dawning of the 19th century, it was clear that London Bridge was in need of replacement. Traffic was so bad that London's Mayor issued an edict in 1722 ordering all horses and carts to be driven on the left side of the road from the perspective of the rider. It is believed that this is where the British tradition of driving on the left began, although it is possible that right-handed people wanted to have their weapons close to oncoming traffic in case of an incident.
A competition was held in 1799 to determine the best design for a new bridge. The winner was John Rennie, whose design included five stone arches. It was built 100 feet upstream of the old bridge and took seven years to complete. After the New London Bridge opened in 1831, the old one was demolished.
The new bridge underwent various renovations over the next 130 years, including a widening in the first decade of the 20th century. The extra traffic brought on by automobiles caused the bridge to begin sinking into the riverbed until the east side of the bridge was four inches lower than the west side. Construction on the current London Bridge began in 1967 and the span was opened in 1973. Part of the cost of the construction was offset by the sale of the old bridge to Robert McCulloch, an American businessman. McCulloch had some of the bridge transported to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where the stones were used to cover a concrete framework. The finished product, opened in 1971, looks much like the original bridge, but much of the actual structure never left England.
Today in 1831, the New London Bridge opened, spanning the River Thames in London, England. The granite structure, 928 feet in length, represents just one chapter in a history of structures collectively known as "London Bridge". As we begin it's important to note that London Bridge is not be confused with Tower Bridge, a bridge that was built downstream of London Bridge and completed in 1894. Many tourists see the more massive Tower Bridge and think it is the other.
The spot where London Bridge crosses the Thames has been home to one type of bridge or another for nearly two millennium. The original bridge was a wooden structure built during the first century AD by the Romans. It likely fell into disrepair after the Romans left the island several hundred years later, but at some point it was either renovated or replaced by one or multiple bridges. During the 11th century, the bridge was burned in an attempt to slow the advance of Danish invaders. According to legend, this incident was immortalized in the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down.
Two more wooden bridges were built on the same location during the 11th and 12th centuries, but both were destroyed by weather or fire. It was only then that the proposal was put forth to build a larger stone bridge across the river. This endeavor was undertaken during the reign of Henry II and took 33 years to complete. It opened in 1209.
King John, who was the ruling monarch at the time of the bridge's completion, proposed that houses be built on the structure. This was undertaken almost immediately and, before long, the span was covered with houses, stores and a chapel located on top of the center span. Although exact details have been lost to history, drawings of the time show buildings up to seven stories high covering the bridge. The population of the structure was so large that it was made a separate ward of London with its own representative on the city council.
London Bridge served its namesake for over 600 years. During that time, parts of the span collapsed and were rebuilt and various structures on top of it were purposely burned or accidentally set on fire. During Jack Cade's rebellion in 1450, a battle was actually fought on the bridge. The southern gate of the bridge became notorious for being the place where the severed heads of traitors were put on display. William Wallace was the first person to suffer such a fate; hundreds of others would follow over the next three and a half centuries, until King Charles II put a halt to the practice in 1660. In 1633, a fire destroyed the northern end of the bridge, which was not immediately rebuilt. Because of this delay, the bridge remained free of damage from the Great Fire of 1666.
By the dawning of the 19th century, it was clear that London Bridge was in need of replacement. Traffic was so bad that London's Mayor issued an edict in 1722 ordering all horses and carts to be driven on the left side of the road from the perspective of the rider. It is believed that this is where the British tradition of driving on the left began, although it is possible that right-handed people wanted to have their weapons close to oncoming traffic in case of an incident.
A competition was held in 1799 to determine the best design for a new bridge. The winner was John Rennie, whose design included five stone arches. It was built 100 feet upstream of the old bridge and took seven years to complete. After the New London Bridge opened in 1831, the old one was demolished.
The new bridge underwent various renovations over the next 130 years, including a widening in the first decade of the 20th century. The extra traffic brought on by automobiles caused the bridge to begin sinking into the riverbed until the east side of the bridge was four inches lower than the west side. Construction on the current London Bridge began in 1967 and the span was opened in 1973. Part of the cost of the construction was offset by the sale of the old bridge to Robert McCulloch, an American businessman. McCulloch had some of the bridge transported to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where the stones were used to cover a concrete framework. The finished product, opened in 1971, looks much like the original bridge, but much of the actual structure never left England.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Constitution Sails Again, July 21, 1997
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Today in 1997, the United States Ship Constitution officially set sail for the first time in 116 years. She remains today the world’s oldest commissioned warship afloat, having been in service for almost 214 years as of this recording. Planned and built as one of six ships meant to serve as the core of a new navy, her travels, travails and near-abandonment have become an indelible part of the history of the nation she was commissioned to defend.
Officially, the United States Navy was born on October 13th, 1775 when three armed schooners were placed under the authority of the Continental Congress with the mission of intercepting any British supply ships in the waters off Massachusetts. However, the American naval effort during the Revolution was made mostly by the separate colonies’ own naval forces and by private individuals. The colonial fleet eventually grew, but during the course of the war lost 24 ships; when the war officially ended in 1783, there was only one warship left to follow Congress’ orders. While the men and officers of the Navy did not lack for bravery or skill, they lacked resources, especially when compared to the British Royal Navy, which was and would continue to be for more than a century the greatest naval force the world had6+ ever known. It was the French Navy that did the real heavy lifting for the American cause during the War for Independence.
After the war, Congress and the President began look to the interior of the North American continent and away from the sea. Navies are expensive and the young United States could not afford a fleet that had to be manned and ready to fight wars at sea. The last Continental Navy ship was sold in 1783, which left the defense of the American coastline to the Revenue Cutter Service, the forerunner of today’s Coast Guard. Opponents of a permanent navy believed that a large fleet would become a standing invitation to foreign entanglements, something the early Presidents were loathe to contemplate.
Other powers, however, used the new nation's lack of naval strength as an open door to take advantage of Americans who sailed the open seas. During the 1790s, US merchant ships were harassed by France and Britain. Both nations considered the open seaways as theirs to control and since there was nothing the United States could do, her civilian sailors paid the price.
The most notorious group which preyed on American merchantmen were the pirates from the Barbary Coast, an area that today is the coastal areas of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. Many European nations, including Britian and France, paid a yearly tribute, basically protection money, to the Dey of Algiers, the leader of the most active group of corsairs. The United States began paying the tribute as well, but that did not stop the capture of eleven American ships during the first few years of the 1790's. It was with this in mind that Congress passed what came to be known as the Naval Act of 1794, which provided for the construction of six ships, four carrying 44 guns and two carrying 36 guns apiece. They were to be considered heavy frigates, powerful enough to take on any ship in their class yet fast enough to avoid the first-rate ships of the line, some of which carried more than 100 guns.
Thus was the USS Constitution born. A peace accord was signed with Algiers in March, 1796, which caused construction of the ships to come to a halt per the wording of the Naval Act. After some goading by President Washington, Congress agreed to fund the completion of the three ships closest to completion. Those three ships became the USS United States, USS Constellation and the USS Constitution. The other three were completed a few years later. After some problems encountered during her initial launching ceremony, Constitution slid into Boston Harbor on October 21, 1797.
Constitution's launching and fitting out coincided with the beginning of what became to be known as the Quasi-War with France, a conflict which occurred almost entirely at sea. But that's for part two.
Today in 1997, the United States Ship Constitution officially set sail for the first time in 116 years. She remains today the world’s oldest commissioned warship afloat, having been in service for almost 214 years as of this recording. Planned and built as one of six ships meant to serve as the core of a new navy, her travels, travails and near-abandonment have become an indelible part of the history of the nation she was commissioned to defend.
Officially, the United States Navy was born on October 13th, 1775 when three armed schooners were placed under the authority of the Continental Congress with the mission of intercepting any British supply ships in the waters off Massachusetts. However, the American naval effort during the Revolution was made mostly by the separate colonies’ own naval forces and by private individuals. The colonial fleet eventually grew, but during the course of the war lost 24 ships; when the war officially ended in 1783, there was only one warship left to follow Congress’ orders. While the men and officers of the Navy did not lack for bravery or skill, they lacked resources, especially when compared to the British Royal Navy, which was and would continue to be for more than a century the greatest naval force the world had6+ ever known. It was the French Navy that did the real heavy lifting for the American cause during the War for Independence.
After the war, Congress and the President began look to the interior of the North American continent and away from the sea. Navies are expensive and the young United States could not afford a fleet that had to be manned and ready to fight wars at sea. The last Continental Navy ship was sold in 1783, which left the defense of the American coastline to the Revenue Cutter Service, the forerunner of today’s Coast Guard. Opponents of a permanent navy believed that a large fleet would become a standing invitation to foreign entanglements, something the early Presidents were loathe to contemplate.
Other powers, however, used the new nation's lack of naval strength as an open door to take advantage of Americans who sailed the open seas. During the 1790s, US merchant ships were harassed by France and Britain. Both nations considered the open seaways as theirs to control and since there was nothing the United States could do, her civilian sailors paid the price.
The most notorious group which preyed on American merchantmen were the pirates from the Barbary Coast, an area that today is the coastal areas of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. Many European nations, including Britian and France, paid a yearly tribute, basically protection money, to the Dey of Algiers, the leader of the most active group of corsairs. The United States began paying the tribute as well, but that did not stop the capture of eleven American ships during the first few years of the 1790's. It was with this in mind that Congress passed what came to be known as the Naval Act of 1794, which provided for the construction of six ships, four carrying 44 guns and two carrying 36 guns apiece. They were to be considered heavy frigates, powerful enough to take on any ship in their class yet fast enough to avoid the first-rate ships of the line, some of which carried more than 100 guns.
Thus was the USS Constitution born. A peace accord was signed with Algiers in March, 1796, which caused construction of the ships to come to a halt per the wording of the Naval Act. After some goading by President Washington, Congress agreed to fund the completion of the three ships closest to completion. Those three ships became the USS United States, USS Constellation and the USS Constitution. The other three were completed a few years later. After some problems encountered during her initial launching ceremony, Constitution slid into Boston Harbor on October 21, 1797.
Constitution's launching and fitting out coincided with the beginning of what became to be known as the Quasi-War with France, a conflict which occurred almost entirely at sea. But that's for part two.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Skylab Falls, July 11, 1979
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Today in 1979, Skylab fell back to Earth after six years in orbit. This space station was the first attempt by the United States to put a long-term platform in space for the purpose of scientific experimentation. It remains the only space station that was completely of American design and construction.
The idea for a US space station dates back to the 1950’s, when the concept of using the discarded upper stage of a large rocket was first put on paper. This idea was far-reaching, so much so that it was not pursued for another decade. In the meantime, the US Air Force made plans to build a smaller station, essentially a manned spy satellite, called the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, or MLO. It would carry two men and several powerful telescopes. When plans for the MLO became known to NASA administrators, the program was immediately seen as a threat to their funding. And so it came to be that, while racing to put a man on the moon before the Soviets, the minds at NASA also began drawing up ideas for a space station.
At first, NASA wanted a station large enough to hold a crew of 24. A design of this magnitude would require orbital construction and an entirely new generation of reusable supply vehicles to transport the tons of food, water and other supplies needed to keep two dozen astronauts alive and productive for months at a time. But with the likelihood of budget cuts looming on the horizon, plans for the giant station were put on hold in lieu of a smaller, more affordable orbital lab. As time went by, however, the giant station and her new resupply craft did not die; eventually, the space station design became Space Station Freedom, a 1980’s proposal that was eventually scaled down to become the International Space Station. The resupply vessel became the Space Shuttle.
By the mid-1960’s, the design had been more or less finalized. The station would be made from one stage of a Saturn rocket, the S-IVB stage. Originally, the stage would actually be filled with hydrogen fuel since the only available lifting rocket, the Saturn 1B, needed to use that stage’s thrust to achieve orbit. Once in a safe orbit, the stage’s fuel tank would be vented to space and everything would be moved in. This planned changed when NASA canceled Apollo missions 18 through 20, freeing up large Saturn V rockets that could achieve Earth orbit without the thrust developed by the S-IVB stage. Thus, the space station could be assembled on the ground and launched into space as a complete package.
Skylab included the Apollo Telescope Mount, the EREP (or Earth Resources Experiment Package), the Multiple Docking Adapter (with two docking ports), the airlock (with EVA hatches for spacewalks), and the Orbital Workshop in the main body of the station, which housed much of the supporting systems. Power came from a solar array as well as fuel cells in the docked Apollo Command Service Module. The rear of the station included a large waste tank, tanks for maneuvering jets, and a heat radiator.
Skylab, as the space station was dubbed, was launched on May 14, 1973. While everything about the launch was within specifications, the station was discovered to be seriously damaged during its trip to Earth orbit. One of the station’s main solar panels had broken off completely and the other one was pinned to the side of the station by the remains of the micrometeoroid shield, another victim of the launch. The first crew to visit the station on May 25, 1973 stayed for 28 days and spent a great portion of that time doing repair work. The second crew came aboard on July 28 of the same year and stayed for 59 days. The final crew arrived on November 16, 1973 and lived aboard Skylab for 84 days. Each crew of Skylab broke the previous record for the most time spent in space by human beings.
During their time aboard Skylab, the crews performed solar experiments that led to the discovery of the Sun’s coronal holes. They also did experiments that led to a greater understanding of the human body’s ability to adapt to low-gravity environments. The astronauts had little free time, but they had been provided with a dart board, playing cards, books, and tape players for their non-working hours. However, looking out the station's window that provided a view of the Earth became the most popular activity for all the crews.
After the third crew left, Skylab was placed in an orbit that was expected to deteriorate in 8 years. The Space Shuttle was supposed to lift the station to a higher orbit in 1979, but the first Shuttle mission did not fly until 1981. An unmanned mission was planned, but funding was denied. Even if Skylab had been saved, it would probably have never been used again. The launch damage was worse than what could be fixed by the first crew and any future crews would have had to replace many critical systems before the station could be used long-term. The decision was taken to let Skylab fall.
The station met the thick part of Earth’s atmosphere on July 11, 1979. Debris fell over a wide area of the Indian Ocean and Western Australia. No one was injured by falling parts, but the Shire of Esperance in Australia fined the United States $400 for littering, a debt which remained unpaid until April, 2009, when American radio show host Scott Barley raised money from the listeners to his morning show and paid the fine on behalf of NASA. As of this writing, Barley has yet to be compensated by the space agency.
A second Skylab had been built as a backup at the same time as the one that flew, but it was never used. It is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
Today in 1979, Skylab fell back to Earth after six years in orbit. This space station was the first attempt by the United States to put a long-term platform in space for the purpose of scientific experimentation. It remains the only space station that was completely of American design and construction.
The idea for a US space station dates back to the 1950’s, when the concept of using the discarded upper stage of a large rocket was first put on paper. This idea was far-reaching, so much so that it was not pursued for another decade. In the meantime, the US Air Force made plans to build a smaller station, essentially a manned spy satellite, called the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, or MLO. It would carry two men and several powerful telescopes. When plans for the MLO became known to NASA administrators, the program was immediately seen as a threat to their funding. And so it came to be that, while racing to put a man on the moon before the Soviets, the minds at NASA also began drawing up ideas for a space station.
At first, NASA wanted a station large enough to hold a crew of 24. A design of this magnitude would require orbital construction and an entirely new generation of reusable supply vehicles to transport the tons of food, water and other supplies needed to keep two dozen astronauts alive and productive for months at a time. But with the likelihood of budget cuts looming on the horizon, plans for the giant station were put on hold in lieu of a smaller, more affordable orbital lab. As time went by, however, the giant station and her new resupply craft did not die; eventually, the space station design became Space Station Freedom, a 1980’s proposal that was eventually scaled down to become the International Space Station. The resupply vessel became the Space Shuttle.
By the mid-1960’s, the design had been more or less finalized. The station would be made from one stage of a Saturn rocket, the S-IVB stage. Originally, the stage would actually be filled with hydrogen fuel since the only available lifting rocket, the Saturn 1B, needed to use that stage’s thrust to achieve orbit. Once in a safe orbit, the stage’s fuel tank would be vented to space and everything would be moved in. This planned changed when NASA canceled Apollo missions 18 through 20, freeing up large Saturn V rockets that could achieve Earth orbit without the thrust developed by the S-IVB stage. Thus, the space station could be assembled on the ground and launched into space as a complete package.
Skylab included the Apollo Telescope Mount, the EREP (or Earth Resources Experiment Package), the Multiple Docking Adapter (with two docking ports), the airlock (with EVA hatches for spacewalks), and the Orbital Workshop in the main body of the station, which housed much of the supporting systems. Power came from a solar array as well as fuel cells in the docked Apollo Command Service Module. The rear of the station included a large waste tank, tanks for maneuvering jets, and a heat radiator.
Skylab, as the space station was dubbed, was launched on May 14, 1973. While everything about the launch was within specifications, the station was discovered to be seriously damaged during its trip to Earth orbit. One of the station’s main solar panels had broken off completely and the other one was pinned to the side of the station by the remains of the micrometeoroid shield, another victim of the launch. The first crew to visit the station on May 25, 1973 stayed for 28 days and spent a great portion of that time doing repair work. The second crew came aboard on July 28 of the same year and stayed for 59 days. The final crew arrived on November 16, 1973 and lived aboard Skylab for 84 days. Each crew of Skylab broke the previous record for the most time spent in space by human beings.
During their time aboard Skylab, the crews performed solar experiments that led to the discovery of the Sun’s coronal holes. They also did experiments that led to a greater understanding of the human body’s ability to adapt to low-gravity environments. The astronauts had little free time, but they had been provided with a dart board, playing cards, books, and tape players for their non-working hours. However, looking out the station's window that provided a view of the Earth became the most popular activity for all the crews.
After the third crew left, Skylab was placed in an orbit that was expected to deteriorate in 8 years. The Space Shuttle was supposed to lift the station to a higher orbit in 1979, but the first Shuttle mission did not fly until 1981. An unmanned mission was planned, but funding was denied. Even if Skylab had been saved, it would probably have never been used again. The launch damage was worse than what could be fixed by the first crew and any future crews would have had to replace many critical systems before the station could be used long-term. The decision was taken to let Skylab fall.
The station met the thick part of Earth’s atmosphere on July 11, 1979. Debris fell over a wide area of the Indian Ocean and Western Australia. No one was injured by falling parts, but the Shire of Esperance in Australia fined the United States $400 for littering, a debt which remained unpaid until April, 2009, when American radio show host Scott Barley raised money from the listeners to his morning show and paid the fine on behalf of NASA. As of this writing, Barley has yet to be compensated by the space agency.
A second Skylab had been built as a backup at the same time as the one that flew, but it was never used. It is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
David Farragut Born, July 5, 1801
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Today in 1801, David Glasgow Farragut was born at Lowe's Ferry, Tennessee, a settlement on the Tennessee River not far from the city of Knoxville. A family tragedy would ultimately propel the young man into a career at sea, a life of service which culminated in his becoming the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy. He is most remembered today for one phrase he uttered in the heat of battle, a phrase that spoke to the man's courage and fortitude under the most dire of circumstances.
The child who would become Admiral Farragut was given the first name James upon his birth. When his mother died in 1808, James' father arranged for him to be adopted by David Porter, a naval officer with two sons who would both become admirals during the Civil War along with their adoptive brother, who took the first name David in 1812 to honor the man who agreed to raise him as his own. It almost seemed inevitable that David Farragut would serve his nation at sea.
Through David Porter's influence, Farragut was commissioned a midshipman in the United States Navy in 1810; he was nine years old. It was not unusual for boys of his age to go to sea on warships, and Farragut had the good fortune to serve aboard the USS Essex, a frigate commanded by his adoptive father, now a captain. There was no naval academy for American naval officers at that time, so young men and boys slated for leadership positions learned their trade on the job. It was a tough school, even under the best of circumstances.
Midshipman Farragut was 11 when the War of 1812 began. By the time of his twelfth birthday, he had held the position of prize master, the temporary captain of a captured ship. In March, 1814, however, he and the crew of the Essex saw the tables turned when they were captured by the British outside Valparaiso Bay, Chile. Farragut was wounded during the engagement, not for the last time during his career.
Promotions were unbelievably slow in the post-war navy and Farragut was not promoted to lieutenant until 1822. Senior officers, some of them so elderly they could no longer go to sea, were kept on the active duty list while younger officers were marooned in lower ranks. As a result of this practice, Farragut was not promoted to commander until 1844 and did not achieve the rank of captain until 1855. By this time, he was 54 years old and had been in the service for 45 years.
Despite the slow pace of promotion, those years were well-spent by Farragut, and his professional experience during that time was extensive and varied. In the early 1820's he helped hunt pirates in the West Indies. During the Mexican-American war, he commanded the sloop Saratoga. But probably his most important contribution to the navy during the years between the War of 1812 and the Civil War was his role as the founding commander of the Mare Island Naval Yard at Vallejo, California. Mare Island served for years as the only facility on the west coast of the United States that was capable of overhauling a warship.
Farragut married for the first time in the mid-1820's to Susan Marchant. She suffered years of bad health and ultimately died in December, 1840. The future admiral married Virginia Loyall in 1843; this marriage produced one child, a son named Loyall Farragut, in 1844.
When southern states began to secede from the Union in late 1860, Captain Farragut found himself stationed in Norfolk, Virginia. Although both he and his wife were born in states that would eventually try to secede, Farragut made it clear that he regarded secession as treason and those who aided the movement as traitors. Nonetheless, the navy was initially reluctant to give Farragut a sea-going command once the Civil War began in April, 1861. Assigned to the Naval Retirement Board, it looked as if the 60-year old captain would spend the war behind a desk.
But it was not to be. For the second time in his career, Farragut was helped along by the intervention of his adopted family. His brother David Porter was able to offer him a special assignment, an opportunity to command a squadron. While Farragut was eager for a more active role, he was afraid his assignment would be to retake the naval facilities at Norfolk, Virginia, a town where he had forged many personal relationships in the years preceding the war. But the mission targeted a much more important city: New Orleans. Farragut was to be the man who wrested the south's most important port from Confederate control. His command was the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, and his flagship was the USS Hartford.
Early in the war, Union leaders decided that in addition to using the army to defeat the Confederate Army in the field, the Union Navy would be used to keep foreign goods from entering southern ports. The blockade was called the Anaconda Plan. In addition to active interdiction of ships, the plan called for the seizure of port facilities and sea defense forts from Virginia to the mouth of the Mississippi and up that river all the way to St. Louis, Missouri. New Orleans was the western anchor of the operation and controlling it was crucial to Union success on the Mississippi River.
Beginning on April 18th, 1862, Farragut's squadron bombarded Forts Jackson and St. Philip, two forts downriver from New Orleans. By April 24th he had thirteen ships past the forts and on April 29th Farragut and 250 Marines removed the Louisiana state flag from city hall and raised the Stars and Stripes. Major General Benjamin Butler and his Union force occupied the city on May 1st.
The United States Congress honored Farragut (and eight other senior captains) by creating the rank of rear admiral and promoting them to the position. Before then, there had been no admirals in the United States Navy. When squadrons of ships were sent on a specific mission, the senior captain was referred to as commodore or more generically as a flag officer. This was in sharp relief to European navies, most of whom were heavy with admirals. But the Civil War showed how necessary a clearly-defined chain of command was if the Union Navy were to expand quickly and remain an effective fighting force while doing so.
Rear Admiral Farragut followed up his success at New Orleans by sailing up the Mississippi with a flotilla of 38 ships in an attempt to subdue the artillery batteries at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Some of his ships were able to run past the batteries, but it was a symbolic gesture more than anything else. The guns defending the city and a Confederate ironclad (an iron-plated warship, new to the world at the time of the Civil War) forced Farragut to withdraw his forces back down the river in July, 1862.
The naval bombardment at Port Hudson in March, 1863 also proved unsuccessful. In an attack uncoordinated with Union General Nathaniel Banks' Army of the Gulf, Farragut's force of seven warships was badly damaged after dueling with heavy Confederate artillery ashore. When the smoke cleared, only Farragut's flagship, USS Hartford, and USS Albatross, were able to pass upstream and begin blockading the mouth of the Red River. What the admiral pictured was a pounding from the Mississippi River that would result in the rebels abandoning Port Hudson. What occurred was an initial Union defeat resulting in the port being taken under siege until July 9, 1863. While the Confederate force was eventually badly beaten, it only surrendered after news arrived that Union forces were in control of the fortifications at Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was a painful lesson for both the Union Army and Navy, as the campaign had the highest casualty rate of the war.
By the summer of 1864, the Confederacy had one major port left on the Gulf of Mexico: Mobile, Alabama. The rebels knew this and Mobile Bay was heavily mined except for an unmarked channel used by blockade runners. In the mid-1800's, tethered naval mines were called torpedoes; the self-propelled devices fired by submarines and surface ships today did not yet exist. In his typical aggressive fashion, Farragut ordered his fleet of 18 ships (including four monitors, low-slung ironclad vessels named after the first ship of this type, the USS Monitor) into the lower bay. The wooden-hulled ships were lashed together in pairs and placed to the port side of the monitors. In that formation, they proceeded up the right side of the channel, almost directly under the guns of Fort Morgan. It was hoped the monitors would be able to absorb most of the shots from the fort while protecting the older wooden warships. When the Confederate ships inside the bay appeared, the combined firepower of the entire force would be unleashed on them.
Events proceeded more or less as planned until one of the monitors, the USS Tecumseh, strayed too far towards the center of the channel, struck a torpedo, and sank. The two columns of ships began to slow, now unsure if the assumption about Confederate torpedo placement was correct. Admiral Farragut, who had lashed himself to the rigging of his flagship, yelled at the bridge crew of the USS Brooklyn through his megaphone: “What's the trouble?”. “Torpedoes!” was the response to which an angry Farragut replied, “Damn the torpedoes! Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!”
While Farragut's order may seem reckless, the admiral believed that many of the torpedoes in Mobile Bay had been in service for years and were no longer capable of doing damage to an enemy ship due to saltwater corrosion. While we will never know if this calculation was correct, most of Farragut's fleet arrived in the lower part of the bay with little or no damage. The three forts guarding the bay were subdued and the only Confederate ironclad in the area was the ram Tennessee, whose captain tried to engage the entire Union fleet at one time. After a merciless pounding from the surviving Union monitors, the ship was surrendered.
In December, 1864, history was once again made when the rank of vice admiral was created and awarded to David Farragut by President Abraham Lincoln. He was the only officer in the navy to be placed at this rank, making him the highest ranking man in a naval uniform when the Civil War ended in April, 1865. In July, 1866, Congress created the rank of admiral and Farragut was appointed to that rank by President Andrew Johnson. The same bill cleared the way for David Dixon Porter, Farragut's adoptive brother, to be promoted to vice admiral. For the next four years, the brothers remained the two highest ranking officers in the post-Civil War navy.
Admiral Farragut's last active command was as the admiral in charge of the European Squadron, a position he held from 1867 to 1868. He retired that year but was placed on active duty for life, an honor granted to only six other naval officers in the country's history as of 2011.
David Farragut, the man who spent seven decades in the service of his nation, died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, of a heart attack on August 14, 1870. He was 69 years old. After his death, David Porter was promoted to admiral in his brother's place. After Porter and Vice Admiral Stephen Rowan died, no naval officer held the rank of admiral or vice admiral again until 1915, when Congress authorized one position of each rank for each of the navy's fleets.
Today in 1801, David Glasgow Farragut was born at Lowe's Ferry, Tennessee, a settlement on the Tennessee River not far from the city of Knoxville. A family tragedy would ultimately propel the young man into a career at sea, a life of service which culminated in his becoming the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy. He is most remembered today for one phrase he uttered in the heat of battle, a phrase that spoke to the man's courage and fortitude under the most dire of circumstances.
The child who would become Admiral Farragut was given the first name James upon his birth. When his mother died in 1808, James' father arranged for him to be adopted by David Porter, a naval officer with two sons who would both become admirals during the Civil War along with their adoptive brother, who took the first name David in 1812 to honor the man who agreed to raise him as his own. It almost seemed inevitable that David Farragut would serve his nation at sea.
Through David Porter's influence, Farragut was commissioned a midshipman in the United States Navy in 1810; he was nine years old. It was not unusual for boys of his age to go to sea on warships, and Farragut had the good fortune to serve aboard the USS Essex, a frigate commanded by his adoptive father, now a captain. There was no naval academy for American naval officers at that time, so young men and boys slated for leadership positions learned their trade on the job. It was a tough school, even under the best of circumstances.
Midshipman Farragut was 11 when the War of 1812 began. By the time of his twelfth birthday, he had held the position of prize master, the temporary captain of a captured ship. In March, 1814, however, he and the crew of the Essex saw the tables turned when they were captured by the British outside Valparaiso Bay, Chile. Farragut was wounded during the engagement, not for the last time during his career.
Promotions were unbelievably slow in the post-war navy and Farragut was not promoted to lieutenant until 1822. Senior officers, some of them so elderly they could no longer go to sea, were kept on the active duty list while younger officers were marooned in lower ranks. As a result of this practice, Farragut was not promoted to commander until 1844 and did not achieve the rank of captain until 1855. By this time, he was 54 years old and had been in the service for 45 years.
Despite the slow pace of promotion, those years were well-spent by Farragut, and his professional experience during that time was extensive and varied. In the early 1820's he helped hunt pirates in the West Indies. During the Mexican-American war, he commanded the sloop Saratoga. But probably his most important contribution to the navy during the years between the War of 1812 and the Civil War was his role as the founding commander of the Mare Island Naval Yard at Vallejo, California. Mare Island served for years as the only facility on the west coast of the United States that was capable of overhauling a warship.
Farragut married for the first time in the mid-1820's to Susan Marchant. She suffered years of bad health and ultimately died in December, 1840. The future admiral married Virginia Loyall in 1843; this marriage produced one child, a son named Loyall Farragut, in 1844.
When southern states began to secede from the Union in late 1860, Captain Farragut found himself stationed in Norfolk, Virginia. Although both he and his wife were born in states that would eventually try to secede, Farragut made it clear that he regarded secession as treason and those who aided the movement as traitors. Nonetheless, the navy was initially reluctant to give Farragut a sea-going command once the Civil War began in April, 1861. Assigned to the Naval Retirement Board, it looked as if the 60-year old captain would spend the war behind a desk.
But it was not to be. For the second time in his career, Farragut was helped along by the intervention of his adopted family. His brother David Porter was able to offer him a special assignment, an opportunity to command a squadron. While Farragut was eager for a more active role, he was afraid his assignment would be to retake the naval facilities at Norfolk, Virginia, a town where he had forged many personal relationships in the years preceding the war. But the mission targeted a much more important city: New Orleans. Farragut was to be the man who wrested the south's most important port from Confederate control. His command was the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, and his flagship was the USS Hartford.
Early in the war, Union leaders decided that in addition to using the army to defeat the Confederate Army in the field, the Union Navy would be used to keep foreign goods from entering southern ports. The blockade was called the Anaconda Plan. In addition to active interdiction of ships, the plan called for the seizure of port facilities and sea defense forts from Virginia to the mouth of the Mississippi and up that river all the way to St. Louis, Missouri. New Orleans was the western anchor of the operation and controlling it was crucial to Union success on the Mississippi River.
Beginning on April 18th, 1862, Farragut's squadron bombarded Forts Jackson and St. Philip, two forts downriver from New Orleans. By April 24th he had thirteen ships past the forts and on April 29th Farragut and 250 Marines removed the Louisiana state flag from city hall and raised the Stars and Stripes. Major General Benjamin Butler and his Union force occupied the city on May 1st.
The United States Congress honored Farragut (and eight other senior captains) by creating the rank of rear admiral and promoting them to the position. Before then, there had been no admirals in the United States Navy. When squadrons of ships were sent on a specific mission, the senior captain was referred to as commodore or more generically as a flag officer. This was in sharp relief to European navies, most of whom were heavy with admirals. But the Civil War showed how necessary a clearly-defined chain of command was if the Union Navy were to expand quickly and remain an effective fighting force while doing so.
Rear Admiral Farragut followed up his success at New Orleans by sailing up the Mississippi with a flotilla of 38 ships in an attempt to subdue the artillery batteries at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Some of his ships were able to run past the batteries, but it was a symbolic gesture more than anything else. The guns defending the city and a Confederate ironclad (an iron-plated warship, new to the world at the time of the Civil War) forced Farragut to withdraw his forces back down the river in July, 1862.
The naval bombardment at Port Hudson in March, 1863 also proved unsuccessful. In an attack uncoordinated with Union General Nathaniel Banks' Army of the Gulf, Farragut's force of seven warships was badly damaged after dueling with heavy Confederate artillery ashore. When the smoke cleared, only Farragut's flagship, USS Hartford, and USS Albatross, were able to pass upstream and begin blockading the mouth of the Red River. What the admiral pictured was a pounding from the Mississippi River that would result in the rebels abandoning Port Hudson. What occurred was an initial Union defeat resulting in the port being taken under siege until July 9, 1863. While the Confederate force was eventually badly beaten, it only surrendered after news arrived that Union forces were in control of the fortifications at Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was a painful lesson for both the Union Army and Navy, as the campaign had the highest casualty rate of the war.
By the summer of 1864, the Confederacy had one major port left on the Gulf of Mexico: Mobile, Alabama. The rebels knew this and Mobile Bay was heavily mined except for an unmarked channel used by blockade runners. In the mid-1800's, tethered naval mines were called torpedoes; the self-propelled devices fired by submarines and surface ships today did not yet exist. In his typical aggressive fashion, Farragut ordered his fleet of 18 ships (including four monitors, low-slung ironclad vessels named after the first ship of this type, the USS Monitor) into the lower bay. The wooden-hulled ships were lashed together in pairs and placed to the port side of the monitors. In that formation, they proceeded up the right side of the channel, almost directly under the guns of Fort Morgan. It was hoped the monitors would be able to absorb most of the shots from the fort while protecting the older wooden warships. When the Confederate ships inside the bay appeared, the combined firepower of the entire force would be unleashed on them.
Events proceeded more or less as planned until one of the monitors, the USS Tecumseh, strayed too far towards the center of the channel, struck a torpedo, and sank. The two columns of ships began to slow, now unsure if the assumption about Confederate torpedo placement was correct. Admiral Farragut, who had lashed himself to the rigging of his flagship, yelled at the bridge crew of the USS Brooklyn through his megaphone: “What's the trouble?”. “Torpedoes!” was the response to which an angry Farragut replied, “Damn the torpedoes! Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!”
While Farragut's order may seem reckless, the admiral believed that many of the torpedoes in Mobile Bay had been in service for years and were no longer capable of doing damage to an enemy ship due to saltwater corrosion. While we will never know if this calculation was correct, most of Farragut's fleet arrived in the lower part of the bay with little or no damage. The three forts guarding the bay were subdued and the only Confederate ironclad in the area was the ram Tennessee, whose captain tried to engage the entire Union fleet at one time. After a merciless pounding from the surviving Union monitors, the ship was surrendered.
In December, 1864, history was once again made when the rank of vice admiral was created and awarded to David Farragut by President Abraham Lincoln. He was the only officer in the navy to be placed at this rank, making him the highest ranking man in a naval uniform when the Civil War ended in April, 1865. In July, 1866, Congress created the rank of admiral and Farragut was appointed to that rank by President Andrew Johnson. The same bill cleared the way for David Dixon Porter, Farragut's adoptive brother, to be promoted to vice admiral. For the next four years, the brothers remained the two highest ranking officers in the post-Civil War navy.
Admiral Farragut's last active command was as the admiral in charge of the European Squadron, a position he held from 1867 to 1868. He retired that year but was placed on active duty for life, an honor granted to only six other naval officers in the country's history as of 2011.
David Farragut, the man who spent seven decades in the service of his nation, died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, of a heart attack on August 14, 1870. He was 69 years old. After his death, David Porter was promoted to admiral in his brother's place. After Porter and Vice Admiral Stephen Rowan died, no naval officer held the rank of admiral or vice admiral again until 1915, when Congress authorized one position of each rank for each of the navy's fleets.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
The Tunguska Event, June 30, 1908
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Today in 1908, an enormous explosion occurred near the Tunguska River in Siberia. The blast had the equivalent energy of between 10 and 15 million tons of TNT, but while the available evidence points to a likely cause of the event, no conclusive proof has ever been made public. More than a century after it took place, the Tunguska event remains one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century.
Central Siberia was, and remains today, a remote wilderness. Even so, there were witnesses to the event. Near Lake Baikal, villagers saw a bluish light move across the sky at 7:15AM; they described it as being brighter than the sun. 10 minutes later, there was a bright flash and a sharp noise that sounded like artillery fire. When the shock wave arrived, it knocked people off their feet and broke windows. It was so strong that people felt its force hundreds of miles away. In England, barographs, used to measure atmospheric pressure, showed fluctuations from the explosion. That night, and for weeks thereafter, night skies in the northern hemisphere contained a strange glow so bright it allowed people to read outside. In the United States, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Mount Wilson Observatory observed a decrease in atmospheric transparency that lasted for several months, believed to have been caused by dust suspended high in the atmosphere.
The remoteness of the Tunguska area coupled with the chaos present in Europe during World War One, the Russian revolution of 1917 and the subsequent civil war meant that a scientific expedition did not study the explosion site until 1921. What the researchers found was astonishing. At what should have been the impact point for whatever fell out of the sky, a stand of trees stood with their branches and bark stripped. Outward from there, for a distance of nearly 40 miles, every tree was laid flat. Aerial photos made of the area in 1938 showed that the trees were knocked down in a sort of butterfly-shaped pattern. Still, there was no crater to be seen. Whatever came to earth that day seemed to have exploded in mid-air.
Further expeditions to the site found tiny glass spheres embedded in the soil. The spheres were found to contain iridium and nickel in close proportion to the concentrations found in some meteorites. These findings led scientists to conclude that the most likely cause of the explosion was a meteoroid which exploded several miles above the Earth’s surface. This would explain the lack of a crater and the upright trees found at ground zero. Model testing concluded that the butterfly-shaped damage pattern could have been caused by an object approaching the Earth at a 30 degree angle.
Of course, not all researchers agree on what happened at Tunguska. One competing theory states that the object was a comet. Comets are composed mainly of dust and ice, so one exploding high in the atmosphere would leave no trace and would help explain the bright night sky observed after the explosion. Geologists have discovered that the region in question was once very volcanic. Therefore, a theory has been put forward stating that nothing fell from the sky, but rather a large pocket of methane from the Earth exploded. This type of explosion has happened on a smaller scale at other locations around the globe, so it is not implausible.
From there, the hypotheses grow more and more incredible. Two researchers put forth a theory in 1973 that a small black hole passed through the Earth and caused the damage. If true, then there would have to be an “exit wound” on the other side of the Earth; none has been found. Three scientists hypothesized in 1965 that the explosion was caused by a chunk of anti-matter. What the scientists failed to explain was how the anti-matter got so close to the Earth without being annihilated by regular matter higher in the atmosphere. Ufologists have long theorized that an alien spacecraft could have caused the incident.
The fact that Tunguska is located in an area that was once part of the Soviet Union made study of the region even more difficult after the Second World War as mistrust of Western researchers grew. Some of the photographic evidence collected by Soviet scientists in the late 1930's was destroyed 40 years later, possibly because of professional rivalries inside the Communist state. By the time the USSR collapsed at the end of 1991, the Tunguska event had become a dim memory among scientists and even those interested in the mystery found the prospect of traveling to central Siberia daunting.
But research has continued. In 2007, scientists from the University of Bologna identified Lake Checko, a small body of water in the Tunguska region about five miles from the center of the event, as a possible impact crater from the event. They do not dispute that the Tunguska object exploded in midair but believe that a one-meter fragment survived the explosion and impacted with the ground. This hypothesis has been disputed by other impact crater specialists for 50 years. A 1961 investigation dismissed the theory, saying that the presence of deep silt deposits on the lake bed suggest an age of at least 5,000 years, but recent research concluded that only a few feet of the sediment layer on the lake bed is "normal”, a depth indicating a lake of possibly only 100 years in age. Soundings revealed a conical shape for the lake bed, which is consistent with an impact crater. Magnetic readings show a possible meter-sized chunk of rock below the lake's deepest point that may be a fragment of the object. Finally, the lake's long axis points to the center of the Tunguska explosion. After two years of research, the University published the scientists' findings, concluding that the lake was created by a meter-long chunk of rock that had to have come from whatever exploded over the Tunguska region in 1908. As of this writing, no sample of that rock has been retrieved.
Eugene Shoemaker of Shoemaker-Levy fame estimated that explosions like that which took place over Tunguska occur every 300 years. If this is accurate, then it is important to understand exactly what happened that morning over a century ago because it will happen again, be it tomorrow or centuries from now.
Today in 1908, an enormous explosion occurred near the Tunguska River in Siberia. The blast had the equivalent energy of between 10 and 15 million tons of TNT, but while the available evidence points to a likely cause of the event, no conclusive proof has ever been made public. More than a century after it took place, the Tunguska event remains one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century.
Central Siberia was, and remains today, a remote wilderness. Even so, there were witnesses to the event. Near Lake Baikal, villagers saw a bluish light move across the sky at 7:15AM; they described it as being brighter than the sun. 10 minutes later, there was a bright flash and a sharp noise that sounded like artillery fire. When the shock wave arrived, it knocked people off their feet and broke windows. It was so strong that people felt its force hundreds of miles away. In England, barographs, used to measure atmospheric pressure, showed fluctuations from the explosion. That night, and for weeks thereafter, night skies in the northern hemisphere contained a strange glow so bright it allowed people to read outside. In the United States, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Mount Wilson Observatory observed a decrease in atmospheric transparency that lasted for several months, believed to have been caused by dust suspended high in the atmosphere.
The remoteness of the Tunguska area coupled with the chaos present in Europe during World War One, the Russian revolution of 1917 and the subsequent civil war meant that a scientific expedition did not study the explosion site until 1921. What the researchers found was astonishing. At what should have been the impact point for whatever fell out of the sky, a stand of trees stood with their branches and bark stripped. Outward from there, for a distance of nearly 40 miles, every tree was laid flat. Aerial photos made of the area in 1938 showed that the trees were knocked down in a sort of butterfly-shaped pattern. Still, there was no crater to be seen. Whatever came to earth that day seemed to have exploded in mid-air.
Further expeditions to the site found tiny glass spheres embedded in the soil. The spheres were found to contain iridium and nickel in close proportion to the concentrations found in some meteorites. These findings led scientists to conclude that the most likely cause of the explosion was a meteoroid which exploded several miles above the Earth’s surface. This would explain the lack of a crater and the upright trees found at ground zero. Model testing concluded that the butterfly-shaped damage pattern could have been caused by an object approaching the Earth at a 30 degree angle.
Of course, not all researchers agree on what happened at Tunguska. One competing theory states that the object was a comet. Comets are composed mainly of dust and ice, so one exploding high in the atmosphere would leave no trace and would help explain the bright night sky observed after the explosion. Geologists have discovered that the region in question was once very volcanic. Therefore, a theory has been put forward stating that nothing fell from the sky, but rather a large pocket of methane from the Earth exploded. This type of explosion has happened on a smaller scale at other locations around the globe, so it is not implausible.
From there, the hypotheses grow more and more incredible. Two researchers put forth a theory in 1973 that a small black hole passed through the Earth and caused the damage. If true, then there would have to be an “exit wound” on the other side of the Earth; none has been found. Three scientists hypothesized in 1965 that the explosion was caused by a chunk of anti-matter. What the scientists failed to explain was how the anti-matter got so close to the Earth without being annihilated by regular matter higher in the atmosphere. Ufologists have long theorized that an alien spacecraft could have caused the incident.
The fact that Tunguska is located in an area that was once part of the Soviet Union made study of the region even more difficult after the Second World War as mistrust of Western researchers grew. Some of the photographic evidence collected by Soviet scientists in the late 1930's was destroyed 40 years later, possibly because of professional rivalries inside the Communist state. By the time the USSR collapsed at the end of 1991, the Tunguska event had become a dim memory among scientists and even those interested in the mystery found the prospect of traveling to central Siberia daunting.
But research has continued. In 2007, scientists from the University of Bologna identified Lake Checko, a small body of water in the Tunguska region about five miles from the center of the event, as a possible impact crater from the event. They do not dispute that the Tunguska object exploded in midair but believe that a one-meter fragment survived the explosion and impacted with the ground. This hypothesis has been disputed by other impact crater specialists for 50 years. A 1961 investigation dismissed the theory, saying that the presence of deep silt deposits on the lake bed suggest an age of at least 5,000 years, but recent research concluded that only a few feet of the sediment layer on the lake bed is "normal”, a depth indicating a lake of possibly only 100 years in age. Soundings revealed a conical shape for the lake bed, which is consistent with an impact crater. Magnetic readings show a possible meter-sized chunk of rock below the lake's deepest point that may be a fragment of the object. Finally, the lake's long axis points to the center of the Tunguska explosion. After two years of research, the University published the scientists' findings, concluding that the lake was created by a meter-long chunk of rock that had to have come from whatever exploded over the Tunguska region in 1908. As of this writing, no sample of that rock has been retrieved.
Eugene Shoemaker of Shoemaker-Levy fame estimated that explosions like that which took place over Tunguska occur every 300 years. If this is accurate, then it is important to understand exactly what happened that morning over a century ago because it will happen again, be it tomorrow or centuries from now.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Washington-Moscow Hotline Established, June 20, 1963
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Today in 1963, representatives of the United States and the Soviet Union signed the “Memorandum of Understanding Regarding the Establishment of a Direct Communications Line” in Geneva, Switzerland. The technical details of this agreement were physically manifested several months later when the Moscow-Washington hotline was completed, allowing direct communication between the leaders of the world's two superpowers for the first time. Known as the Hot Line or the Red Phone in popular culture, the system has become part of the mythology of the Cold War.
In the decade following the end of the Second World War in 1945, both the Soviet Union and the United States created enormous stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Bombers armed with freefall nuclear weapons were kept in a constant state of readiness by both sides; later, these bombers would be supplemented by thousands of intercontinental ballistic missiles buried deep in silos or carried aboard submarines. At any given moment, the world could be as little as 30 minutes away from nuclear annihilation.
By 1954, leaders in Washington and Moscow realized that a direct, secure line of communications was needed between their two nations. The Soviets floated the idea publicly for the first time that year, and in 1958 the United States proposed that both nations take part in the Conference of Experts on Surprise Attack in Geneva, Switzerland. No agreement was reached during the conference, but the seeds of an understanding had been sown. Things moved slowly in Cold War diplomatic circles, and the next four years saw almost no concrete progress towards establishing any type of communications system meant to act as a safeguard.
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October, 1962, changed that. For two weeks that month, the world stood on the brink of an all-out war, a conflagration that would have undoubtedly included the use of nuclear weapons against the United States, the Soviet Union and most of Europe. The standoff demonstrated how difficult it was for the two nations' leaders to communicate directly. For example, it took the U.S. nearly 12 hours to receive and decode Nikita Khrushchev's 3,000 word initial settlement message. By the time a reply had been written and edited by the White House, Moscow had sent another, tougher message. A faster, more direct means of contact was a necessity if the world was to avoid a third world war.
The Moscow-Washington hotline began operation in August, 1963. When most people think of the hotline, they imagine a serious-looking red phone sitting on the President's desk in the Oval Office and its twin sitting on the desk of the Soviet Premier in the Kremlin. In fact, while voice communications are believed to be technically possible over the line, the device used to send messages when the system became operational was the teletype machine. The use of text removed some of the human traits that can show up during a voice conversation. It is reasonable to assume that a nation's leader could be tired, angry, frustrated, or confused while speaking with his opposite number thousand of miles and eight time zones away. Text would reduce the chance of poor translation, give each side time to consider the others message before replying, and prevent a leader’s tone of voice from being misinterpreted. The telegraph circuit was routed Washington-London-Copenhagen-Stockholm-Helsinki-Moscow, and a radio link was routed Washington-Tangier-Moscow as a back up.
The establishment of a direct link between Washington and Moscow caused some diplomatic upheaval in western nations, specifically the United Kingdom. Since the physical line between the two capitals ran through London, the British proposed that they be allowed access to any conversation taking place on it. They could then consult with Washington, instead of being informed of disagreements after they had been settled. While this would have gone a long way towards strengthening the special relationship that exists between London and Washington, the administration of President Kennedy believed that a three-way conversation in times of crisis might be counter-productive. It was also obvious that if London were given access to the hotline, other NATO member nations would want the same thing. The tension that arose was abated, however, when both the Soviets and the Americans made it clear that the line was only to be used in the event of an emergency where the failure to communicate directly might lead to an all-out war. It would not be used for situations that called for regular diplomatic channels.
The hotline was first used during the Six Day War between Egypt and Israel in June, 1967. The Soviet Black Sea Fleet and the US 6th Fleet were both operating in the Mediterranean at that time and both fleets had elements located close to the war zone. To avoid any confusion about intentions, Moscow and Washington kept each other informed of their fleets’ operations until the war was over.
The 1970’s saw relatively heavy use of the hotline, much of it outside the agreed-upon parameters put in place when the system was established. It was used during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and in 1979 when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. None of these events rose to the level of a nuclear standoff between the two superpowers, but the use of the line allowed leaders to discuss events in real time, something that would have been difficult using normal diplomatic procedures.
The hotline was used several times during the 1980’s, but less frequently than during the previous decade. The line had gone through a rolling upgrade between 1971 and 1978, a process that included the addition of fax machines on each end so documents and photographs could be exchanged. It was during this time that the backup radio link was discarded in favor of two geosynchronous satellites, one Soviet and one American. Another upgrade in 1986 saw the use of newer satellites and faster transmission capabilities.
There have doubtless been upgrades to the hotline in the past 25 years, but technical details have yet to be made public. The system is still active and in use, despite the fact that one of the original agreement's signatories, the Soviet Union, no longer exists. Today, the hotline links the governments of the United States and Russia, who between them own the vast majority of the nuclear weapons on the planet. Other hotlines now connect various seats of power around the world, the latest being a direct connection between India and Pakistan, in use since June, 2004.
So did the hotline between Washington and Moscow prevent the Cold War from becoming hot? We may never know for sure. While some of the incidents in which the system was used have been publicized, it is probable that many have not and may never be. What is certain is that the Red Phone, as the Soviets liked to call the hotline, made a nuclear exchange less likely due simply to its existence.
Today in 1963, representatives of the United States and the Soviet Union signed the “Memorandum of Understanding Regarding the Establishment of a Direct Communications Line” in Geneva, Switzerland. The technical details of this agreement were physically manifested several months later when the Moscow-Washington hotline was completed, allowing direct communication between the leaders of the world's two superpowers for the first time. Known as the Hot Line or the Red Phone in popular culture, the system has become part of the mythology of the Cold War.
In the decade following the end of the Second World War in 1945, both the Soviet Union and the United States created enormous stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Bombers armed with freefall nuclear weapons were kept in a constant state of readiness by both sides; later, these bombers would be supplemented by thousands of intercontinental ballistic missiles buried deep in silos or carried aboard submarines. At any given moment, the world could be as little as 30 minutes away from nuclear annihilation.
By 1954, leaders in Washington and Moscow realized that a direct, secure line of communications was needed between their two nations. The Soviets floated the idea publicly for the first time that year, and in 1958 the United States proposed that both nations take part in the Conference of Experts on Surprise Attack in Geneva, Switzerland. No agreement was reached during the conference, but the seeds of an understanding had been sown. Things moved slowly in Cold War diplomatic circles, and the next four years saw almost no concrete progress towards establishing any type of communications system meant to act as a safeguard.
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October, 1962, changed that. For two weeks that month, the world stood on the brink of an all-out war, a conflagration that would have undoubtedly included the use of nuclear weapons against the United States, the Soviet Union and most of Europe. The standoff demonstrated how difficult it was for the two nations' leaders to communicate directly. For example, it took the U.S. nearly 12 hours to receive and decode Nikita Khrushchev's 3,000 word initial settlement message. By the time a reply had been written and edited by the White House, Moscow had sent another, tougher message. A faster, more direct means of contact was a necessity if the world was to avoid a third world war.
The Moscow-Washington hotline began operation in August, 1963. When most people think of the hotline, they imagine a serious-looking red phone sitting on the President's desk in the Oval Office and its twin sitting on the desk of the Soviet Premier in the Kremlin. In fact, while voice communications are believed to be technically possible over the line, the device used to send messages when the system became operational was the teletype machine. The use of text removed some of the human traits that can show up during a voice conversation. It is reasonable to assume that a nation's leader could be tired, angry, frustrated, or confused while speaking with his opposite number thousand of miles and eight time zones away. Text would reduce the chance of poor translation, give each side time to consider the others message before replying, and prevent a leader’s tone of voice from being misinterpreted. The telegraph circuit was routed Washington-London-Copenhagen-Stockholm-Helsinki-Moscow, and a radio link was routed Washington-Tangier-Moscow as a back up.
The establishment of a direct link between Washington and Moscow caused some diplomatic upheaval in western nations, specifically the United Kingdom. Since the physical line between the two capitals ran through London, the British proposed that they be allowed access to any conversation taking place on it. They could then consult with Washington, instead of being informed of disagreements after they had been settled. While this would have gone a long way towards strengthening the special relationship that exists between London and Washington, the administration of President Kennedy believed that a three-way conversation in times of crisis might be counter-productive. It was also obvious that if London were given access to the hotline, other NATO member nations would want the same thing. The tension that arose was abated, however, when both the Soviets and the Americans made it clear that the line was only to be used in the event of an emergency where the failure to communicate directly might lead to an all-out war. It would not be used for situations that called for regular diplomatic channels.
The hotline was first used during the Six Day War between Egypt and Israel in June, 1967. The Soviet Black Sea Fleet and the US 6th Fleet were both operating in the Mediterranean at that time and both fleets had elements located close to the war zone. To avoid any confusion about intentions, Moscow and Washington kept each other informed of their fleets’ operations until the war was over.
The 1970’s saw relatively heavy use of the hotline, much of it outside the agreed-upon parameters put in place when the system was established. It was used during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and in 1979 when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. None of these events rose to the level of a nuclear standoff between the two superpowers, but the use of the line allowed leaders to discuss events in real time, something that would have been difficult using normal diplomatic procedures.
The hotline was used several times during the 1980’s, but less frequently than during the previous decade. The line had gone through a rolling upgrade between 1971 and 1978, a process that included the addition of fax machines on each end so documents and photographs could be exchanged. It was during this time that the backup radio link was discarded in favor of two geosynchronous satellites, one Soviet and one American. Another upgrade in 1986 saw the use of newer satellites and faster transmission capabilities.
There have doubtless been upgrades to the hotline in the past 25 years, but technical details have yet to be made public. The system is still active and in use, despite the fact that one of the original agreement's signatories, the Soviet Union, no longer exists. Today, the hotline links the governments of the United States and Russia, who between them own the vast majority of the nuclear weapons on the planet. Other hotlines now connect various seats of power around the world, the latest being a direct connection between India and Pakistan, in use since June, 2004.
So did the hotline between Washington and Moscow prevent the Cold War from becoming hot? We may never know for sure. While some of the incidents in which the system was used have been publicized, it is probable that many have not and may never be. What is certain is that the Red Phone, as the Soviets liked to call the hotline, made a nuclear exchange less likely due simply to its existence.
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