san francisco bay
Throwback Thursday: Naval Aviation First 1910
One hundred, nine years ago, today, aviator Eugene Ely made naval aviation history, taking off from a wooden platform secured to the bow of the light cruiser USS Birmingham. Captain Washington Chambers, USN, was tasked by the Secretary of the Navy George von Lengerke Meyer to investigate uses for aviation in the Navy. Ely successfully took off in a Curtiss Pusher from the Birmingham, barely. The airplane rolled off the platform, plunged downward, skipping the water, which damaged the propeller but, he managed to stay airborne, landing two and a half miles away on Willoughby Spit. Two months later, on January 18, 1911, Ely landed his Curtiss Pusher airplane on a platform on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay.
Ely communicated with the United States Navy requesting employment but, United States naval aviation was not yet organized. Ely continued flying in exhibitions while Captain Chambers promised to “keep him in mind” if Navy flying stations were created.
On October 19, 1911, while flying at an exhibition in Macon, Georgia, his plane was late pulling out of a dive and crashed. Ely jumped clear of the wrecked aircraft but, his neck was broken and he died a few minutes later.
On February 16, 1933, Congress awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross posthumously to Ely, “for extraordinary achievement as a pioneer civilian aviator and for his significant contribution to the development of aviation in the United States Navy.”
Photo Credit: Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum
Wayback Wednesday: Loma Prieta Earthquake 1989
Photo Credit: heavy.com
In 1989, at 5:04pm local time in California, a 6.9-7.1 magnitude earthquake struck an area nearly 10 miles northeast of Santa Cruz on the Loma Prieta segment of the San Andreas Fault. The epicenter was in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park. Named for the Loma Prieta Peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the effects and damage covered Santa Cruz County, Monterey County, the San Francisco Peninsula, the ‘Frisco Bay and across the bay in Oakland. There were 3,700+ injuries and 63-67 deaths (depending upon what article you read) and $5-$6 billion dollars in damage. The earthquake disrupted Game 3 of the 1989 World Series.
Photo Credit: huffingtonpost.com
Other October 17 history:
1814…..The London Beer Flood kills eight people. (Yes, this actually happened.)
1931…..Al Capone goes to prison for tax evasion. (Addendum: There seems to be confusion on the specific date of his conviction. Time Magazine, The NYTimes and the History Channel say the 17th. The FBI says the 18th. Pick one…)
1973…..OPEC imposes the oil embargo as punishment for assisting Israel during the Yom Kippur War. (Remember those gas lines, anyone?)
1979…..President Jimmy Carter signs into law the Department of Education Organization Act, creating the U.S. Department of Education and renaming the Department of Health, Education & Welfare to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (Because the government wasn’t big enough, already…)
2018…..Canada just legalized cannabis for recreational use…today!
Cosmic-Observation 