Chief Designer

12 January marks the birth of Soviet engineer, Sergei Korolev, in 1907. Korolev was the driving force behind the Soviet space program from the 1950’s until his death in 1966. Fearing that he might be …

Frozen

It was in the October, 1959 issue of the magazine, ‘Literaturnaya Gazeta’, that a graduate of the Soviet Academy of Mining, Petr Mikhailovich Borisov proposed the construction of a dam spanning the 55 mile Bering …

The Nature of Things

21 April marks the birthday of conservationist and nature writer John Muir, in 1838. He is frequently referred to as the ‘Father of the National Parks’, having petitioned the Congress for passage of the National …

A Genius…A Refugee…An American

It was on 15 January, that Albert Einstein declared his intention to become an American Citizen. Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire on 14 March 1879. …

The Great Outdoors

13 January marks the day that Sigurd Olson died in 1982. Sigurd Olson was an American author and environmentalist. Born to Swedish, Baptist parents, Olson grew up in northern Wisconsin where he developed his lifelong …

What goes up, must come down

It was on 4 January, in 1958, that Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial Earth satellite, fell from orbit after having completed 1,440 orbits of the Earth. On the first orbit the Telegraph Agency of …