The space shuttle Columbia is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, becoming the first reusable manned spacecraft to travel into space. Piloted by astronauts Robert L. Crippen and John W. Young, the Columbia undertook a hour space flight of 36 orbits before successfully The bloodiest four years in American history begin when Confederate shore batteries under General P. During the next 34 hours, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched more than 4, rounds Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox.
In Cambodia, the U. Navy conducts its evacuation effort, Operation Eagle. On April 3, , as the communist Khmer Rouge forces closed in for the final assault on the capital city, U. Truman in charge of a country still fighting the Second World War and in possession of a weapon of unprecedented and terrifying power. Galileo was ordered to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin trial for holding the belief that the On April 12, , the British government moves to mollify outraged colonists by repealing most of the clauses of the hated Townshend Act.
Initially passed on June 29, , the Townshend Act constituted an attempt by the British government to consolidate fiscal and political Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. When Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth on April 12, , the plan had never been for him to land inside his Vostok spacecraft. Soviet engineers had not yet perfected a braking system that would slow the craft sufficiently for a human to survive impact.
They decided to eject the cosmonaut from his craft. Yuri Gagarin ejected at 20, feet and landed safely on Earth. Soviet engineers had not discussed this shortcoming with Soviet delegates to the FAI prior to his flight. They prepared their documents for the FAI omitting this fact.
This led everyone to believe that Gagarin had landed inside his spacecraft. It was not until four months later, when German Titov became the second human to orbit the Earth and the first person to spend a full day in space, when the controversy began to brew.
Titov owned up to ejecting himself. The conclusion of the delegates was to rework the parameters of human spaceflight to recognize that the great technological accomplishment of spaceflight was the launch, orbiting and safe return of the human, not the manner in which he or she landed. Even after Soviet-made models of the Vostok spacecraft made it clear that the craft had no braking capability, the FAI created the Gagarin Medal that it awards annually to greatest aviation or space achievement of that year.
The underwater dolphin kick in freestyle swimming and the introduction of the clap skate in speed skating both caused initial international flaps. But there is something we'll never know about Gagarin's flight, even in the age of Wikileaks: What did the farmer's son from Klushino, Russia, see from miles kilometers above Earth on April 12, ? More concerned about survival than documentary footage, Gagarin brought back sparse imagery of his monumental voyage—and obviously nothing in full-color HD.
Now Riley hopes to re-create this piece of history with the worldwide, online premiere of his new Gagarin movie, First Orbit. His video not only retraces Gagarin's view from orbit, it shows Earth bathed in sunlight at the same angle the cosmonaut would have seen during his flight. We chatted with Riley about his inspiration for the film, the challenges of shooting a movie vicariously from space, and the changes that have happened on Earth since the human race first put a man into orbit.
I hadn't been born when Gagarin went into space—I was minus six. But by the time I was born, people were regularly landing on the moon and sending spacecraft to Mars, so I grew up unable to not be excited about space flight. However, I was always somewhat disappointed that the first person in space [Gagarin] didn't film much.
Watch video from the dawn of the space race. Then in early they installed the cupola on the ISS, and it offered this amazing new perspective on Earth from space. Could we do it? Their first action was to put me in touch with one of their orbital mechanics gurus, who worked out whether the ISS covers the same ground as Vostok 1 [Gagarin's spaceship].
It turns out we would have a chance to film every six weeks, but Paolo flew up to the station at the end of November last year, and the crews on the station work very hard—they're always doing something, so it was a challenge fitting this into his schedule. We had one shot at this around Christmas last year for Paolo to film before the 50th anniversary. Not directly, but there is one scene when Paolo slightly appears in reflection in the window as he floats in to adjust the cameras—it's that Hitchcock moment!
So we had to use shots from an image-intensified camera that NASA flew for us to shoot over the Pacific, and we added a shot of the moon, because Yuri had looked for the moon, but he didn't get to see it. When Yuri flew 50 years ago, there was not much human impact you could see from miles up. Today we have double the population as in the s, and there is more of a visible impact. NASA astronaut John Young—who flew Gemini, Apollo, and space shuttle missions—has said that he's been going into orbit for about 30 years, and he's seen the way Earth has changed over that time, especially the atmosphere.
Cities today seem to have their own atmospheres due to pollution. Actual boundaries between countries are also very clear now.
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