In 1979 The Unabomber’s third explosive device forced American Airlines Flight 444 to land
On the 15th of November 1979 American Airlines Flight 444 was forced to land before reaching its destination of Washington DC (from Chicago) when smoke emanating from the cargo hold began to fill up the passenger cabin. After the pilot landed 12 passengers were treated for smoke inhalation and the cargo hold was searched. The source of the smoke was from a third device which failed to explode due to a faulty triggering mechanism. Had the device worked it contained enough explosive to destroy the Boeing 747 over the skies of the United States.
In 1738 William Herschel was born in Hanover, Germany
William Herschel was born in Hanover, Germany on the 15th of November 1738. He moved to England at the age of nineteen with his brothers after serving in the German army. He became an accomplished composer and could play many instruments. His love of music led him to maths, then into the construction of telescopes (building over 400) and inevitably he became interested in astronomy. On a Newtonian telescope he began studying twin stars and catalogued many new discoveries. One object he studied, believing it to be a star, seemed to move in planetary orbit and once this was confirmed that is was a planet just out from Saturn, Herschel named it ‘Georgium Sidus’ or Georgian Star after King George III of Britain. The Name was not accepted by many, particularly the French who named the Planet ‘Herschel’ and later German Astronomer Johan Bode suggested the name ‘Uranus’, following the tradition of mythical gods. Herschel also discovered two of Uranus’s moons, Titania and Oberon, on 11th of January 1787 as well as two of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus and Mimas on the 28th of August 1789 and 17th of September 1789 respectively. He also calculated that the Milky Way was disc shaped and made many more discoveries.
In 1577 Sir Francis Drake first set off on his around the world voyage from Plymouth
The first expedition around the world was undertaken by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (the Magellanic penguin and a group of neighbouring galaxies, the Magellanic cloud, were named after him) in the name of the Spanish. They set sail from Seville on the 10th of August 1519 and travelled south west towards South America following the shoreline and around to the pacific. When they encountered the Philippine islands the Battle of Mactan took place with the locals and Magellan was killed with a wooden spear. Spanish explorer Juan Sebastian Elcano completes the expedition by sailing back to Spain via Southern Africa.
Sir Francis drake had been sailing from a young age and made his first trip to America at the age of 23. In 1572 he set sail with a plan to attack Spanish out post which was part of the land route used to transport gold from Peru to the Caribbean. He and his crew successfully stole too much to carry and so buried it to take later. His success in sailing led to Queen Elizabeth I of England to request he set sail on his own voyage to circumnavigate the Earth. He set sail initially on the 15th of November 1577 from Plymouth but was forced back to England shortly after when weather damaged the ship. He attempted a second time on the 13th of December 1577 and set off south west towards South America. He had great success returning home to Plymouth on the 26th of September 1580 not only the first captain to successfully circumnavigate the globe but with huge amounts of Spanish treasure he had captured from Spanish Galleon on the way.
