Template:Selected anniversaries/July 2: Difference between revisions
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||1966 – The French military explodes a nuclear test bomb code-named Aldébaran in Moruroa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific. | ||1966 – The French military explodes a nuclear test bomb code-named Aldébaran in Moruroa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific. | ||
||On July 2, 1967, at 14:19 UTC, the Vela 4 and Vela 3 satellites detected a flash of gamma radiation unlike any known nuclear weapons signature. Uncertain what had happened but not considering the matter particularly urgent, the team at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, led by Ray Klebesadel, filed the data away for investigation. As additional Vela satellites were launched with better instruments, the Los Alamos team continued to find inexplicable gamma-ray bursts in their data. By analyzing the different arrival times of the bursts as detected by different satellites, the team was able to determine rough estimates for the sky positions of sixteen bursts and definitively rule out a terrestrial or solar origin. The discovery was declassified and published in 1973 as an Astrophysical Journal article entitled "Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts of Cosmic Origin". This alerted the astronomical community to the existence of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), now recognised as the most violent events in the universe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_(satellite) | |||
||1988 – Vibert Douglas, Canadian astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1894) | ||1988 – Vibert Douglas, Canadian astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1894) |
Revision as of 09:11, 3 July 2018
1698: Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine. Savery's patent will force Thomas Newcomen into partnership with him.
1699: Omar Khayyam publishes new class of Gnomon algorithm functions which detect and prevent crimes against mathematical constants.
1778: Philosopher and author Jean-Jacques Rousseau dies. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe.
1897: British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London.
1937: Pilot and author Amelia Earhart disappears. She set many records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots.
2017: Math photographer Cantor Parabola takes series of pictures through the Enlightenment in France, in honor of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.