Luna 5 Spacecraft Launched
Timeline: May 13, 1965. The Luna 5 spacecraft was launched by the U.S.S.R. with the purpose of exploring the possibility of landing safely on the Moon.
Luna 5 (E-6 series) was a space mission of the Luna program, referred to as “Lunik 5″. It was designed to continue investigations of a lunar soft landing. The retrorocket system malfunctioned and crashed on the lunar surface at the Sea of Clouds. It was unmanned.
Source: Wikimedia
Share this article
Spanish Explorer Amerigo Vespucci
Famous Explorer Vespucci
The continent of America was named after Amerigo Vespucci.
Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), was the Spanish explorer after whom the continent of America was named. His name has been Latinized as “Americus.” Vespucci was born on March 9, 1454, in Florence, Italy. He was a contractor in Seville from 1495 to 1498, and provisioned one or two of the expeditions of Christopher Columbus, the navigator, explorer and colonizer from Genoa, Italy.
He was not a navigator himself but promoted an expedition to the New World commanded by Alonso de Hojeda and sailed there in his own ship, in which he explored the coast of Venezuela. He was naturalized in Spain in 1508, he was appointed pilot-major of Spain.
Christopher Columbus may have received credit for the discovery of the Americas, but it was Amerigo Vespucci who corrected Columbus’s mistaken belief that his discoveries were part of Asia. It was also Vespucci who stated that the Americas were a “New World.”
Trivia:
Other great thinkers born today:
- Bobby Fischer, chess grandmaster, arguably the greatest chess player.
- Yury Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut, who became the first man to travel in space
- Howard Aiken, American mathematician who invented the forerunner of electronic digital computer, Howard Mark I.
Share this article
David Livingstone – Explorer and Missionary
Great Explorer Datebook: March 19
Dr. David Livingstone
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Scottish explorer and missionary David Livingstone
David Livingstone, (1813-1873), Scottish missionary and explorer in Africa, is born on March 19, 1813, in Blantyre, Lanarkshire. He is considered one of the world’s greatest explorers.
He worked in a cotton factory in his hometown until he was 24. It was a pamphlet by a German missionary that inspired him to become a missionary. After studying medicine in London he was attracted to Africa by Robert Moffat who eventually became his father-in-law. He married Mary, Moffat’s daughter, in 1844.
Dr David Livingstone first entered Africa as a missionary in 1841. He discovered the Zambezi River in 1851 and attempted to end the slave trade by introducing Christian ways. He crossed from the east to west of African coasts. Later, he was commissioned to explore the Zambesi (discovered Victoria Falls in 1855) and then the Upper Nile. There was much speculation on his health that Henry Morton Stanley was sent to find him. They eventually met in 1871 at a place called Lake Tanganyika.Dr David Livingstone could not be dissuaded in anyway to leave. He was able to publish various accounts of his travels.
He died in Africa. His remains were buried in Westminster Abbey.
Suggested website to visit:
RECENT COMMENTS