Today in History: Oct. 24

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

The photo above was taken 65 miles above White Sands, New Mexico, 70 years ago today. It is the first photo of Earth taken from space.

After the Second World War, the United States took possession of the German missile program and had enough equipment to build about 80 V-2 missiles. V-2 No. 13 was launched with a 35-millimeter film camera on board and a timer set to take a picture every second and a half. It fell back to Earth after a brief straight-up-and-down flight and the film (protected in a steel canister) was safe.

Clyde Holliday, an engineer who designed the camera, wrote about the experiment in National Geographic in 1950: “Results of these tests now are pointing to a time when cameras may be mounted on guided missiles for scouting enemy territory in war, mapping inaccessible regions of the earth in peacetime, and even photographing cloud formations, storm fronts, and overcast areas over an entire continent in a few hours.”
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Today in History: Oct. 23

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Dumbo, the animated film about an elephant who could fly, premiered in American movie theaters 75 years ago today.

Only 64 minutes long, the film is the shortest of the Walt Disney Studios’ animated features. Dumbo was created in part to recoup financial losses incurred in producing Fantasia, which cost more than $2 million to produce and required Disney Studios to invest in sound equipment that it installed in the movie theaters that showed the film. Fantasia did not earn back its budget in its first release. Disney needed a hit, and a hit that did not cost too much to make.

Dumbo‘s animation is less complex than Fantasia‘s, and it is a much shorter movie. The film cost $950,000 to make and it earned almost double that on its first run release. Dumbo remains a beloved film.

“When I See an Elephant Fly” from Dumbo (after the jump):
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Just a Volunteer Here Myself

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

One can not, or one ought not, nickname oneself. This is not a hard-and-fast social rule, but it is similar to the unspoken rule about not declaring oneself humble. The person who volunteers that he or she is humble often is not at all humble. An exception comes when the humble person is speaking self-deprecatingly.

Every once in a while, I have desired a cool nickname, a moniker that precedes me wherever I roam. “Lefty” is a great nickname—Steve Carlton and Phil Mickelson both carry that name with distinction, but I am right-handed. No one goes by the name “Righty.” “Write-y”? No. No one needs a nickname that is a pun, a rhyme no less, and would always need a follow-up explanation: “‘Cause he calls himself a writer, get it?”

“No. No, I don’t.”
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