Today was the launch date in 1972 of Apollo 16, a mission that tried to pay tribute to that year's Summer Games with a "lunar Olympics"... only the astronauts almost had a disaster on their lunar-suited hands.
Scientists and technicians are trying to figure out the logistics of off-Earth human bases. If that happens, there's some research that suggests the communities could end up developing their own accents.
Today in 1972 Apollo 17 returned from the moon. One of the lunar samples was sliced up and shared with every American state and hundreds of countries... except that we aren't quite sure where some of those rocks are now.
In the 12th and 13th Centuries, monks were tracking the looks of the moon, including lunar eclipses. Modern-day researchers took another look to see if some of those eclipses were actually volcanic eruptions.
Today in 1972, astronauts John Young and Charles Duke stepped on the Moon during the Apollo 16 mission. Along the way, one of the moonwalkers revealed to the world, without meaning to, that orange juice had made him gassy.
Apollo 14 may be best known today for the moment when astronaut Alan Shepard hit golf balls on the surface of the moon, but the mission also gave us the “moon trees.”
Today in 1923, the birthday of Alan Shepard. He was the first American in space, and the first person to ever play golf on the Moon.
Today is International Chess Day, so here are a few of the stories about how which pieces were on the board changed over the centuries.
50 years ago today, a man named Donald Gorske ate a McDonald’s Big Mac. It was the first of over 30,000, and yes, he holds the world record for most Big Macs eaten by a single person.
Today in 1837, the birthday of Mary Patten. She became a celebrity when she came along on a shipping trip led by her husband and ended up in charge of the ship. Plus: photographer Andrew McCarthy has put together a timelapse of the moon’s phases that shows its lunar libration, or sway, in all its glory.
