Scott Allsop's Blog, page 35

2nd July 1900: LZ 1, the first rigid Zeppelin airship, makes its maiden flight over Lake Constance in Germany

The LZ 1 featured a rigid aluminium frame covered with a fabric skin, within which was a series of 17 individual gas cells made from rubberized ...

1st July 1863: The Battle of Gettysburg begins, resulting in a decisive Union victory

Approximately 23,000 Union soldiers and 28,000 Confederates were killed, wounded, or captured in just three ...

30th June 1859: Charles Blondin became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope

With the aid of a 26 foot long balancing pole, he crossed the gorge in a stunt taking just 23 ...

29th June 1971: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 11 disaster, resulting in its cosmonauts becoming the only humans to ever die in space

Subsequent investigations revealed that a cabin vent valve had accidentally opened and depressurised the capsule when the service module was jettisoned at an altitude of 168 km, causing the crew to fall unconscious and suffer cardiac arrest in less than a ...

28th June 1969: The Stonewall Riots begin when New York City police raid the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village

Rioting continued for another five nights and acted as a catalyst for LGBT political ...

27th June 1898: Joshua Slocum completes the first solo circumnavigation of the globe

Slocum completed the first solo circumnavigation on June 27, 1898, after covering approximately 46,000 miles in an old Massachusetts oyster boat named ...

25th June 1950: Korean War begins when North Korean forces cross the 38th parallel, invading South Korea

North Korean troops launched a surprise and quickly advanced southward to capture Seoul, the capital of South Korea, within ...

24th June 1947: The first widely-reported UFO sighting was made by private pilot Kenneth Arnold

In what Kenneth Arnold later complained was an ‘historic misquote’, the press coined the now-ubiquitous phrase ‘flying saucers’ to describe the ...

23rd June 1960: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Enovid as the first combined oral contraceptive pill in the world

400,000 women saw their doctors to obtain Enovid contraceptive prescriptions in the first ...

22nd June 1940: France signs the Second Armistice of Compiègne with Nazi Germany which signals the Fall of France

Adolf Hitler seized the opportunity to inflict a symbolic humiliation on the French by signing the armistice in the same location, and in the same railway carriage, as the armistice of the First World ...