May 25, 1953: The first atomic artillery shell in history is fired from the Army’s new 280mm artillery gun at the Nevada Proving Grounds at Frenchman’s Flat, Nevada. It was witnessed by hundreds of high ranking Armed Forces personnel and over a hundred members of Congress. Codenamed “Grable”, the shot was the 10th of 11 for Operation Upshot-Knothole.
(Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)
May 25, 1979: American Airlines DC-10 Flight 191 crashes shortly after takeoff from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. All 258 passengers and 13 crew members were killed. It remains the deadliest aviation accident to occur on U.S. soil.
Photo: Michael Laughlin/Chicago Tribune
May 24, 1976: Air France and British Airways simultaneously begin service of their supersonic Concorde airliners to Dulles International Airport.
Photo: During the Royal Air Force’s festivities to celebrate England’s battle at Biggin Hill, near London, the Concorde performs a flight show over the crowd. Sept. 1972 (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty)
May 23, 1969: The Who release their fourth album Tommy.
A double album telling a loose story about a “deaf, dumb and blind kid”, Tommy was the first musical work to be billed overtly as a rock opera. Released in 1969, the album was mostly composed by Pete Townshend. In 1998, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for “historical, artistic and significant value”. It has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_(album)
Photo: The Who (left to right) John Entwistle, Keith Moon, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey in May 1969 (Monitor Picture Library/Photoshot/Getty)
May 22, 1967: A fire at the L’Innovation department store in Brussels, Belgium, kills 322 people. The second largest department store in Brussels, there were approximately 2,500 shopping in the store when a fire broke out in the furniture department on the fourth floor. There were no alarms to alert people, nor sprinklers to help extinguish the fire. Many suffered trampling injuries after panic set in, while looters added to the chaos. Many people made it to the roof seeking an escape route; at least three died jumping from the building. One firefighter, Jacques Mesmans, jumped from the second floor with a woman whom he was trying to save and broke both of his legs. Most of the 322 fatalities were from smoke inhalation.
Photo: A man slides down a rope and a woman is carried from the scene (Bettmann/Corbis)
May 21, 1927: Charles Lindbergh lands in Paris
Pilot Charles A. Lindbergh lands at Le Bourget Field in Paris, successfully completing the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight and the first ever nonstop flight between New York to Paris. His single-engine monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis, had lifted off from Roosevelt Field in New York 33 1/2 hours before. (history.com)
Photo: The plane SPIRIT OF SAINT LOUIS, piloted by the American aviator Charles Lindbergh lands at the airport of Le Bourget. (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone)
May 20, 1927: At 7:52 a.m., American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, on the world’s first solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean and the first ever nonstop flight between New York to Paris.
Photo: The ‘Spirit of St. Louis’ Ryan monoplane with Charles Lindbergh at the controls during an early test flight over San Diego, California. May, 1927 (Hulton Archive/Stringer)
May 19, 1910: Halley’s Comet Returns
The 1910 approach was notable for several reasons: it was the first approach of which photographs exist, and the first for which spectroscopic data were obtained. Furthermore, the comet made a relatively close approach of 0.15AU, making it a spectacular sight. Indeed, on 19 May, the Earth actually passed through the tail of the comet. One of the substances discovered in the tail by spectroscopic analysis was the toxic gas cyanogen, which led astronomer Camille Flammarion to claim that, when Earth passed through the tail, the gas “would impregnate the atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet.” His pronouncement led to panicked buying of gas masks and quack “anti-comet pills” and “anti-comet umbrellas” by the public. In reality, as other astronomers were quick to point out, the gas is so diffuse that the world suffered no ill effects from the passage through the tail. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halley’s_Comet
(1910) Photo: Lambert/Getty
Donna Summer in London, May 17, 1975
Photo: Anwar Hussein
May 17, 1934: 20,000+ supporters attend a pro Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden organized by “The Friends of the New Germany”, whose stated purpose was that of opposing “the unconstitutional Jewish boycott” of Germany.
Photo: Hank Olen/NY Daily News
