#On This day

[autistook]

December 25th: The Fellowship leaves Rivendell

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

23rd December 2020: Monument for Stalin's Holodomor genocide of 1932-33. Dnipro, Ukraine.

[chic-a-gigot]

L'Art et la mode, no. 4, 22 décembre 1883, Paris. Dessin de Mlle M. de Solar. Bibliothèque nationale de France

[humanoidhistory]

On this day in 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon. Art by Robert McCall.

[museum-of-screens]

On this day, 10 years ago, was released

Hungry Knight! (2014) 

Creator(s): Team Cherry

Type: Flash

Language: [EN] 

Status: Available through emulation

[sacramentohistorymuseum]

On July 20, 1969, the spacecraft Apollo 11 commanded by Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon. Neil Armstrong became the first person to step onto the Moon's surface almost 7 hours after the landing.

This day will forever live on in history and our print shop contains a halftone to remember that historic event. In this video, Howard letterpress printed an image from a halftone depicting a commemorative tumbler (or small cup) for the Moon landing.

This cut was likely used to advertise the cup in a newspaper or magazine 55 years ago. The halftone process is a way to have photography in printing starting in the late 1880s. This was printed with purple oil base ink using our Washington hand press. At the end of the video, Jared shows how the tumbler looks thanks to one of our viewers who gifted us several of these tumblers.

[amnhnyc]

On this day in 1914, Martha, the last-known living Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) died at the Cincinnati Zoo. Her death at age 29 after a lifetime in captivity marked the disappearance of her once-abundant species from the world. And it made her name synonymous with species extinction at human hands. But what happened?

Before the second half of the nineteenth century, the Passenger Pigeon was the most common bird in the United States, with a population numbering in the billions. Flocks of pigeons flying overhead were so dense that they could darken the skies. But a combination of overhunting and habitat destruction sent this species into decline, and by the turn of the century, it was considered extinct in the wild.

Photo: Enno Meyer, CC0 1.0, Wikimedia Commons

[nasa]

Moonbound: One Year Since Artemis I

On this day last year, the Artemis I rocket and spacecraft lit up the sky and embarked on the revolutionary mission to the Moon and back. The first integrated flight test of the rocket and spacecraft continued for 25.5 days, validating NASA’s deep exploration systems and setting the stage for humanity’s return to the lunar surface.

On Nov. 16, 2022, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket met or exceeded all expectations during its debut launch on Artemis I. The twin solid rocket booster motors responsible for producing more than 7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff reached their performance target, helping SLS and the Orion spacecraft reach a speed of about 4,000 mph in just over two minutes before the boosters separated.

Quite a few payloads caught a ride aboard the Orion spacecraft on the Artemis I mission: In addition to a number of small scientific satellites called CubeSats, a manikin named Commander Moonikin Campos sat in the commander’s seat. A Snoopy doll served as a zero-gravity indicator — something that floats inside the spacecraft to demonstrate microgravity. 

During the mission, Orion performed two lunar flybys, coming within 80 miles of the lunar surface. At its farthest distance during the mission, Orion traveled nearly 270,000 miles from our home planet, more than 1,000 times farther than where the International Space Station orbits Earth. This surpassed the record for distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to carry humans, previously set during Apollo 13.

The Orion spacecraft arrived back home to planet Earth on Dec. 11, 2022. During re-entry, Orion endured temperatures about half as hot as the surface of the Sun at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Within about 20 minutes, Orion slowed from nearly 25,000 mph to about 20 mph for its parachute-assisted splashdown. 

Recovery teams successfully retrieved the spacecraft and delivered it back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for de-servicing operations, which included removing the payloads (like Snoopy and Commander Moonikin Campos) and analyzing the heat shield.  

With the Artemis I mission under our belt, we look ahead to Artemis II — our first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years. Four astronauts will fly around the Moon inside Orion, practicing piloting the spacecraft and validating the spacecraft’s life support systems. The Artemis II crew includes: NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen. 

As we look ahead to Artemis II, we build upon the incredible success of the Artemis I mission and recognize the hard work and achievements of the entire Artemis team. Go Artemis!

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[greendayauthority]

American Idiot turns 20 today: 21 September 2024.

[autistook]

ON THIS DAY | October 25th

The Council of Elrond

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

24th December 2013: Ukrainian man guarding the Cossack outpost of the Euromaidan Revolution in Kyiv.

[chic-a-gigot]

L'Art et la mode, no. 51, vol. 38, 22 décembre 1917, Paris. Costume en grosse soie "chaudron" matelassée, garni de loutre. Imp. Lafontaine, Paris. Bibliothèque nationale de France

[humanoidhistory]

Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered on this day in 1987.

[petaltexturedskies]

Virginia Woolf, in a letter to Vita Sackville-West dated 31st January 1927

[sacramentohistorymuseum]

On September 29, 2003, “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers was first released.

In honor of the song’s 21st anniversary, here’s some letterpress printing including typesetting and building the form. The font is 60 point Caslon to print “‘Cause I’m Mr. Brightside.” This was printed on red paper with opaque white rubber base ink using our Washington hand press.