To All
. Good Thursday morning April 30. We are partly cloudy right now and supposed to clear later this morning and sunny for the Bubba Breakfast tomorrow
. Regards,
Skip
HAGD
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
Go here to see the director’s corner for all 97 H-Grams
Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/
. April 30
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This Day In World History APRIL 29
April 30
1798 Congress establishes the Department of the Navy as a separate cabinet department. Previously, naval matters were under the cognizance of the War Department. Benjamin Stoddert is named as the first Secretary of the Navy.
1822 USS Alligator, commanded by Lt. W.W. McKean, captures the Colombian pirate schooner Ciehqua near the Windward Islands.
1942 USS Indiana (BB 58) is commissioned during World War II.
1944 USS Bang (SS 385) attacks a convoy engaged the previous night and sinks the Japanese merchant tanker Nittatsu Maru off the northwest of Luzon. Also on this date, USS Flasher (SS 249) sinks the Vichy French gunboat Tahure in the South China Sea off Cape Varella, French Indochina.
1945 USS Thomas (DE 102), USS Bostwick (DE 103), USS Coffman (DE 191) and frigate Natchez (PF 2) sink German submarine U 548 off the Virginia Capes.
1945 Navy patrol bombers PB4Y (VPB 103) and a PBY-5A Catalina aircraft flown by Lt. Fredrick G. Lake from VP 63 sink two German submarines off the coast of Brest, France.
2005 USS Robert G. Bradley (FFG 49) conducts its second significant drug interdiction operation in the first month of its deployment to the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command area of responsibility, disrupting the smuggling of 4.6 metric tons of narcotics from the fishing vessel Salomon.
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This day in World History
April 30
313 Licinius unifies the whole of the eastern Roman Empire under his own rule.
1250 King Louis IX of France is ransomed.
1527 Henry VIII of England and King Francis of France sign the Treaty of Westminster.
1563 All Jews are expelled from France by order of Charles VI.
1725 Spain withdraws from the Quadruple Alliance.
1789 George Washington is inaugurated as the first U.S. president.
1803 The United States doubles in size through the Louisiana Purchase, which was sold by France for $15 million.
1812 Louisiana is admitted into the Union as a state.
1849 Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian patriot and guerrilla leader, repulses a French attack on Rome.
1864 Work begins on the Dams along the Red River, which will allow Union General Nathaniel Banks' troops to sail over the rapids above Alexandria, Louisiana.
1930 The Soviet Union proposes a military alliance with France and Great Britain.
1931 The George Washington Bridge, linking New York City and New Jersey, opens.
1943 The British submarine HMS Seraph drops 'the man who never was,' a dead man the British planted with false invasion plans, into the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain.
1945 Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his bunker. Karl Donitz becomes his successor.
1968 U.S. Marines attack a division of North Vietnamese troops in the village of Dai Do.
1970 U.S. troops invade Cambodia to disrupt North Vietnamese Army base areas.
1972 The North Vietnamese launch an invasion of the South.
1973 President Richard Nixon announces the resignation of Harry Robbins Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and other top aides.
1975 North Vietnamese troops enter the Independence Palace of South Vietnam in Saigon ending the Vietnam War.
1980 Terrorists seize the Iranian Embassy in London.
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April 30
Hello All,
Thanks to Dan Heller and the Bear
Links to all content can now be found right on the homepage http://www.rollingthunderremembered.com. If you scroll down from the banner and featured content you will find "Today in Rolling Thunder Remembered History" which highlights events in the Vietnam war that occurred on the date the page is visited. Below that are links to browse or search all content. You may search by keyword(s), date, or date range.
An item of importance is the recent incorporation of Task Force Omega (TFO) MIA summaries. There is a link on the homepage and you can also visit directly via https://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/task-force-omega/. There are 60 summaries posted thus far, with about 940 to go (not a typo—TFO has over 1,000 individual case files).
If you have any questions or comments about RTR/TFO, or have a question on my book, you may e-mail me directly at acrossthewing@protonmail.com. Thank you Dan
Thanks to Micro
To remind folks that these are from the Vietnam Air Losses site that Micro put together. You click on the url below and get what happened each day to the crew of the aircraft. ……Skip
For Thursday 30 April. ..
April 30: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=1727
This following work accounts for every fixed wing loss of the Vietnam War and you can use it to read more about the losses in The Bear’s Daily account. Even better it allows you to add your updated information to the work to update for history…skip
Vietnam Air Losses Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady’s work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
This is a list of all Helicopter Pilots Who Died in the Vietnam War . Listed by last name and has other info https://www.vhpa.org/KIA/KIAINDEX.HTM
MOAA - Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
(This site was sent by a friend . The site works, find anyone you knew in “search" feature. https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ )
Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
By: Kipp Hanley
AUGUST 15, 2022
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. From the archives
. Berlin Airlift: When American power was unstoppable 76th anniversary marks saving of German city from Soviet strangulation By Thomas V. DiBacco.
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In this era of increasing diplomatic friction with Russia over Ukraine, it would be well to remember that April 30 marks the 76th anniversary of the first, and most unbelievable, successes of American and Western foreign policy marking the beginning of the Cold War.
That was the first sign on April 30, 1949, that the Soviet Union started to ease its Berlin blockade of Western power access to the city by permitting limited canal traffic. A formal agreement ending the blockade came on May 4. It had been a 328-day siege, coming to an end thanks to the massive airlifting of supplies to the beleaguered city.
After World War II, Germany was divided into four temporary zones occupied by the United States, Great Britain, France and Soviet Union. Berlin was located 100 miles inside the eastern-located Soviet zone, and it, too, was divided into four zones, but essentially two as a result of Western powers merging their boundaries, a situation that also mirrored the larger geographical zones. Postwar agreements looked forward to a unified Germany, and Western powers initiated, first in 1947, an economic-aid program named after Secretary of State George Marshall and second in 1948, currency reform that would stabilize Germany’s almost worthless existing monetary system.
The Soviets balked at both notions. Recognizing that West Berlin could produce only about a quarter of its food needs and even less of its energy requirements, they began on June 24, 1948, to block all rail, road and canal access from the west. The goal, of course, was to gain total control of the city because the Western powers, it was thought, would give up under such total blockage — or risk war. That was unlikely, given that the latter had only 22,600 troops in their Berlin section. The Soviets in their zone, on the other hand, numbered 1.5 million soldiers. Worse, at the start of the Soviet blockade, West Berliners had only 36 days of food supplies and 45 days of coal.
Gen. Lucius D. Clay, head of the U.S. Occupation Zone, set forth both the dilemma and solution: “There is no practicability in maintaining our position in Berlin, and it must not be evaluated on that basis. We are convinced that our remaining in Berlin is essential to our prestige in Germany and in Europe. Whether for good or bad, it has become a symbol of the American intent.”
Hence began the largest military-diplomatic relief effort in history, as impressive as the D-Day invasion in terms of its boldness and tenacity. Operation Vittles, as the airlift was dubbed by Americans, was meticulous in terms of its planning, calculations and results. Some 1,990 calories for each of the 2.2 million West Berliners were set as the minimum daily requirement, necessitating 1,534 tons per day in food and 3,475 tons of coal and gasoline for fuel and electricity. Although Soviet fighters boasted that they would challenge the airlift, the threat was hollow. Some 400 Western-supplied cargo planes — flying stacked above each other in a 20-mile wide air corridor — arrived every three minutes at first two, then three airfields in West Berlin. On Saturday, April 16, 1949, a day before the end of Lent, a record 1,398 planes landed in what was called the Easter Parade, averaging one every 61.8 seconds.
The daily food supplies varied from 640 tons of flour to 109 tons of meat and fish, from 19 tons of powdered milk to five tons of whole milk for children, the latter dubbing the planes “candy bombers” because of their always dependable supply of sweets.
And not only were supplies brought in, but manufactured goods made by West Berliners filled returning planes. Some 175,000 ill West Berliners, including young children, were also airlifted out during the period as a result of a severe winter. The total statistical accomplishments were breathtaking: From June 24, 1948, to May 12, 1949, when the Soviets capitulated and opened up all routes to the city, more than 278,000 flights had taken off, and 1,592,787 tons of supplies had been airlifted, equal to about 1,000 pounds per West Berliner. To make certain that sufficient surpluses were built up for West Berliners, air deliveries continued until Sept. 30, 1949. To be sure, there were losses during the airlift period. Seventeen American and eight British aircraft had crashed, with 70 resulting deaths. The pilots represented not only traditional occupation-zone powers, but also Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans.
As for Americans at home, the era of the airlift was no picnic. A railroad strike, demobilization problems, short supplies, and high prices made for public unrest. Still, a national poll on Sept. 15, 1948, indicated that 85 percent backed the airlift policy, with only 7 percent opposed and 8 percent undecided.
Thomas V. DiBacco is professor emeritus at American University.
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.. From the archives
Thanks to Interesting Facts
Read below a bit and find out the answer to the question you have all been waiting for
Chickens might be among the closest living relatives of the Tyrannosaurus rex.
The end of the dinosaurs is often pictured as an apocalyptic event complete with a giant asteroid, a cataclysmic collision, and general fire and brimstone-type stuff, but the ends of biological epochs are rarely so cut-and-dried. In fact, the story of the dinosaurs didn’t even end on that unfortunate spring day 65 million years ago, because dinosaurs still live among us — we just call them birds.
Today, scientists consider all birds a type of dinosaur, descendants of creatures who survived the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period. And yes, that even includes the chicken. In 2008, scientists performed a molecular analysis of a shred of 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex protein, and compared it to a variety of proteins belonging to many different animals. Although proteins from alligators were relatively close, the best match by far belonged to ostriches — the largest flightless birds on Earth — and the humble chicken.
Today’s chicken is a descendant of a still-extant tropical bird known as the red junglefowl, and a member of an order of birds known as Galliformes (gallus means “rooster” in Latin). Following the initial 2008 study, further research has proved that a chicken’s genetic lineage closely resembles that of its avian dinosaur ancestors. Scientists have even concluded that a reconstruction of T. rex’s chromosomes would likely produce something similar to a chicken, duck, or ostrich. So the next time you eat a chicken for dinner, you might pause to consider its connection to some of the most fearsome beasts to ever stalk the planet.
Now you all know the answer
The egg came before the chicken.
There’s a well-known riddle that seems to present a biological paradox: What came first, the chicken or the egg? At first glance, the question may seem impossible to answer, but that actually depends on what you mean by “egg.” Sexual reproduction emerged in nature some 2 billion years ago, and the ancestors of birds began laying eggs around 300 million years ago. With the modern chicken only emerging some 10,000 years ago, the egg — if we mean any kind of egg — clearly predates the chicken. When discussing specifically a chicken egg, the answer changes. Although scientists can’t pinpoint the exact moment, at some point ancient landfowl breeders chose two of the tamest red junglefowls (Gallus gallus) and produced an egg with an embryo mutated just enough to be considered a modern chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus). In 2010, researchers found that chicken eggs can’t be produced without a protein found in chicken ovaries called ovocledidin-17 — which suggests that the first chicken had to come before the first chicken egg, which was probably laid when that first chicken reached maturity at around 18 weeks of age.
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Thanks to History Facts
. 13 Facts About the 13 Original Colonies
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Founded in the 17th and 18th centuries on the East Coast of what is now the U.S., the 13 British colonies in America were established for different reasons and governed in different ways. Maryland, for instance, was founded as a religious haven for English Catholics, while royal colonies such as New Hampshire were established to generate wealth for England. Despite their differences, all 13 colonies eventually became united in their resistance to British rule. At the start of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, there were more than 2.5 million people — a mix of European colonists, enslaved Africans, and Indigenous peoples — living in the colonies, from New Hampshire in the North to Georgia in the South. Here are 13 interesting facts that you may not have learned about the 13 original colonies.
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New Hampshire Was the First Colony to Grow Potatoes
New Hampshire was the first of the American colonies to form an independent government, as well as the first colony to have a state constitution. Yet it’s the humble potato that might be the Granite State’s biggest contribution to American history. Potatoes were brought to the colonies several times during the 1600s, but it wasn’t until 1719 that the first permanent potato patches were established by Scotch-Irish immigrants near Londonderry, New Hampshire. From there, the popularity of potatoes spread, making them the most commonly consumed vegetable in the U.S. today — and, since 2013, the state vegetable of New Hampshire.
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Massachusetts Was Named for Its Indigenous Peoples
In 1620, English settlers, many of whom were religious pilgrims, arrived on the Mayflower in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, forming the second permanent settlement of British colonists in the New World (after Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607). A larger group of English Puritans followed soon after, and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Indigenous peoples had been living on the land for thousands of years, and the colony was named for the Massachusett tribe, making the Bay State the first of the colonies to be given an Indigenous name. The name “Massachusett” comes from the Algonquin word “Massa-adchu-es-et,” which roughly translates as “great-hill-small-place.”
Connecticut’s Royal Charter Was Hidden in a Tree
In 1662, the Colony of Connecticut was granted a royal charter by England’s King Charles II. But in 1686, King James II, after taking the throne following his brother’s death, decided he wanted the royal charters returned so he could establish the Dominion of New England. James wanted to combine the New York, New Jersey, and New England colonies under the leadership of one royal-appointed official. The colonists refused, because the charter guaranteed them the ability to self-govern and elect their own officials without interference from England. Legend has it that while the matter was being debated in Hartford between the royal governor and the colonists, the candles in the meeting hall suddenly went out. Under cover of darkness, the royal charter was spirited away by colonial captain Joseph Wadsworth and hidden in the trunk of a nearby white oak tree. The tree came to be known as the Charter Oak, a symbol of freedom and, in time, the Connecticut state tree.
Rhode Island’s Founder Was Kicked Out of Massachusetts
The founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, also established the first Baptist church in colonial America, and his views about religious freedom led to his banishment from the Massachusetts colony. In 1636, the banished Williams and his followers purchased land from the Narragansett people (Williams had disapproved of how land was being taken from the Indigenous population) and settled on Narragansett Bay. Rhode Island was governed on the basis of religious freedom and the separation of church and state — making it a haven for religious minority groups, including Baptists, Quakers, and Jews. In 1763, the Touro Synagogue was dedicated in Newport, Rhode Island, making it the first Jewish synagogue in New England and only the second synagogue in the colonies, after the one in New York.
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New York Was Established by the Dutch
When the Pilgrims left England in 1620, they were sailing for the Hudson River, because they had heard good reports about the area following English explorer Henry Hudson’s Dutch-sponsored journey in 1609. Unfavorable weather conditions led the pilgrims to settle near Cape Cod instead, but their impending arrival in the New World spurred the Dutch traders to colonize Manhattan before the English could arrive and stake their claim. The colony of New Netherland was established by the Dutch West India Company in 1624, encompassing parts of modern-day New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, and Dutch settlers established the settlement of New Amsterdam on the island of Manhattan. Forty years later, the English took control and renamed the area New York. The city went on to become the first United States capital after the American Revolution.
New Jersey Is Home to One of the Oldest Colonial Legends
Early American history is filled with myths and legends, many of which were based on Indigenous folklore. One of the most enduring mythical creatures from the original colonies is the Jersey Devil, a terrifying beast said to stalk the forests of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens (also called the Pinelands). Different versions of the story exist, but all share a similar narrative: In 1735, a woman named Mother Leeds learned she was pregnant with her 13th child and cried out, “Let it be the devil!” She then gave birth to a monstrous “devil baby” who flew out the window into the forest. The legend is rooted in the different cultural and religious beliefs held by both the European colonists and the Lenape people who lived in the area.
Pennsylvania Was Founded as Payment for a Debt
Several of the original colonies were established under proprietary charters, with land grants given to individuals based on their relationship with England’s king. In 1681, English Quaker writer and intellectual William Penn secured a large grant of land from King Charles II as payment for a debt the king owed to Penn’s father. The king gave the younger Penn the territory between Maryland and New York, allowing Penn to establish the Province of Pennsylvania, named for his father. The colony was known for being a safe haven for Quakers, and open to all faiths.
Delaware Also Declared Independence From Pennsylvania
In 1682, the year after the Pennsylvania colony was established, the Duke of York sold William Penn the deed to three counties in lower Pennsylvania that make up modern-day Delaware. At first, the three counties were governed as part of Pennsylvania, but in 1704, they were allowed to form their own separate elected legislature. This division created two colonial assemblies, the “Upper Counties” of Pennsylvania and the “Three Lower Counties on Delaware,” governed by a single governor. On June 15, 1776, Delaware declared itself independent from both British and Pennsylvania authority.
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Maryland’s First Documented Pirate Was a Leader of the Virginia Colony
The Delmarva Peninsula separates the Chesapeake Bay from the Atlantic Ocean, which made the bay very attractive to pirates and privateers in the early days of the colonial settlements. The first act of piracy in Maryland history was committed in 1635 by William Claiborne, a member of the Council of Virginia. Claiborne had established a settlement and trading post on Kent Island, which was a part of the Virginia colony at the time. However, when King Charles I granted a royal charter to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, the map was redrawn to include Kent Island in the Maryland territory. Refusing to relinquish his claim to the island, Claiborne ordered his men to raid a Maryland fur trading port on Palmer Island (modern-day Garrett Island) and went on to attack Maryland ships in Chesapeake Bay. Claiborne’s rebellion eventually led to the Maryland Assembly charging him with “grevious crimes of pyracie and murther.”
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Virginia Had Witchcraft Trials, Too
About two dozen trials for witchcraft took place in Virginia between 1626 and 1730, the most famous of which was the trial of Grace Sherwood, who was convicted of witchcraft after enduring a trial by water method known as “ducking.” On July 10, 1706, Sherwood’s thumbs were tied to her toes and she was “ducked” in the Lynnhaven River. The belief was that an innocent person would sink and drown, while a true witch would survive the ordeal. After being thrown from a boat, Sherwood was able to free herself and float, thus securing her conviction for witchcraft. She became known as the “Witch of Pungo” and spent several years in jail before eventually being released.
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North Carolina’s “Lost Colony” of Roanoke Remains a Mystery
In 1587, two years after the first failed attempt to establish a settlement on North Carolina’s Roanoke Island, a group of more than 100 English colonists made a second attempt, forming the first English outpost in the New World. John White, the governor of the new colony, left his family to return to England for supplies, but when he finally made it back to Roanoke in 1590, everyone was gone, including his daughter and granddaughter, Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas. DNA and archaeological research suggest the group may have split up, with the majority going to live on Hatteras Island with the Croatoan people, and the rest going to live near the Chowan River near the North Carolina border. But more than 430 years later, there are still more questions than answers about what’s become known as the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke.
South Carolina Had a Booming Indigo Trade
South Carolina was the first of the colonies to successfully grow indigo — a crop so vital to the colony’s economy that it was referred to as “blue gold.” Indigo’s production, and subsequent success in the colonies, is attributed to teenager Eliza Lucas (later Eliza Pinckney), whose father shipped indigo seeds to America from Antigua in the 1730s. Her father also hired Nicholas Cromwell, a dye-making expert from Montserrat, to guide her. Cromwell was caught sabotaging the dye-making process and was dismissed, only to be replaced by his brother Patrick, who was also caught sabotaging Lucas’ production efforts. The Cromwell brothers had good reason for concern: Indigo dye was a major export for Montserrat and competition with South Carolina could ruin the island’s economy. Despite the setbacks, Lucas and the enslaved people on her father’s plantations learned how to successfully process the subtropical bush. They were so successful that when Lucas married Charles Pinckney in 1744, she used her indigo crop as dowry, and the couple shared their seeds with other plantation owners. However, Indigo’s success was dependent on the labor of the enslaved people on the plantations, and the increasing demand for the dye in England unfortunately led to an increase in the number of enslaved laborers to keep up with production.
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Georgia Was Founded as a Colony for Social Reform
In 1732, King George II signed a charter that established Georgia as the last of England’s North American colonies. Founded by prison reformer James Oglethorpe and a group of like-minded trustees, Georgia was envisioned as a charity colony for England’s “worthy poor.” The colony laws outlawed slavery and forbade large landholdings. Oglethorpe and the other trustees couldn’t hold office, earn a salary, or own land in the colony. However, the settlers in Georgia, many of whom arrived from other colonies, believed enslaved labor was the only way for the colony to achieve prosperity. Ultimately, the slavery ban, along with many of the other restrictions the trustees had placed, was lifted in 1751.
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Some bits from1440
Good morning, it's Thursday, April 30, and we're covering the movie that popularized the word "cerulean" and a new lawsuit over the death of Tupac Shakur.
Also in today's Digest: the revival of short-form video app Vine (Sports, Ent., & Cult.), shrinking dog brains (Sci. & Tech.), tickets for driverless cars (Etc.), and much more.
🇺🇸 Civics Thursday—Before modern sanitation, around 20,000 pigs roamed New York City's streets, feeding on garbage the city had no way to collect. This week, we explore how American cities went from that to the sanitation systems that now process over 290 million tons of waste every year.
Need To Know
Voting Rights Act Curtailed
The Supreme Court yesterday limited the Voting Rights Act, a Civil Rights-era law intended to protect minority voting power. Several states are expected to use the ruling to redraw their maps; within an hour of the decision, Florida lawmakers passed a map possibly eliminating up to four Democrat-held districts, including one that is heavily Puerto Rican.
In a 6-3 decision, the conservative majority struck down Louisiana’s second majority-Black electoral district, which stretches diagonally across the state (see map). Black voters had advocated for the district, arguing the previous map diluted their influence by concentrating them into one of six districts despite making up about one-third of the population. The majority, however, cited increased minority voter registration and turnout as evidence that majority-minority districts are no longer necessary. They outlined an updated framework that interprets the Voting Rights Act as only barring maps that intentionally limit minority voting power.
Separately, the court yesterday weighed the Trump administration's effort to remove legal protections from hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants. A ruling is expected this summer.
Miranda Priestly Returns
The sequel to 2006’s “The Devil Wears Prada” debuts this weekend, projected to bring in $73M-$80M domestically and $180M globally in its opening weekend. The first trailer was 20th Century Studios’ most-watched in history within 24 hours, reaching 222 million views across platforms; The original movie was based on the 2003 bestselling novel by Lauren Weisberger, itself allegedly informed by Weisberger’s experience working as an assistant for Vogue’s long-term editor in chief Anna Wintour. (Wintour stepped down from the role last year after 37 years; see previous write-up.) Meryl Streep earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Miranda Priestly, with lines including “that’s all” and a monologue on the fashion cycle that produced a mass-market cerulean sweater
Media outlets like Vogue have been repositioning print magazines as collectibles amid a decadeslong decline in readers’ print consumption.
🫶 Humankind: California prison inmates learn to raise service dogs as part of a rehabilitation program.
In partnership with Doroni
A Drone Expert Is Making Flying Cars Real
In 2016, after years working on military drones, Doron Merdinger began sketching a flying car. He saw how quickly the tech had advanced. Soon, people would fly from driveways. So he built Doroni.
It’s great timing, too. The urban air mobility market is worth $4B today. By 2040, Morgan Stanley puts it at $1 trillion. By 2050, $9 trillion. And with 600+ reservations for Doroni’s aircraft and $240M+ in potential revenue already, the demand for this innovation is undeniable.
When FOX Business saw the showroom model get unveiled in March, they called it “the ‘flying car’ set to revolutionize personal air travel.” With commercial deliveries planned for 2028 and $1.4B+ in annual revenue targeted by 2032, Doroni’s scaling fast. Share in their growth as an early-stage Doroni investor today.*
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> DiVine, a Jack Dorsey-backed reboot of 2010s short-form video app Vine, launches to the
> Silent Tactic is the first horse to scratch from Saturday's Kentucky Derby, citing a foot injury | Get up to speed on the horse replacing him, Great White
> PGA Cadillac Championship begins today, marking the $20M, 72-player event's first time at Miami's Trump National Doral since 2016
Science & Technology
> Nerve fibers within skin cancer melanoma can slow tumor growth, challenging the conventional view that nervous system drives cancer growth; finding may inspire future anticancer therapies
> Study finds dog brains began shrinking about 5,000 years ago, even though evidence shows they have lived alongside humans for over 15,000 years, suggesting domestication was a more gradual process than previously believed
> Virtual violin uses physics to let violin makers—or luthiers—adjust design and sound before carving; luthiers previously had to wait for the finished product to hear the results of their hard work
Politics & World Affairs
> Former FBI Director James Comey appears in court after being indicted on charges of making threats against President Donald Trump last year
> Pentagon official says the Iran war has cost $25B in testimony before Congress
> Man stabs two Jewish men in London in what police are calling a terrorist incident; one suspect is in custody
Tech’s biggest names move toward markets that matter. So with the flying car market expected to reach $1T by 2040, Tesla’s hinting at Roadsters with lift-off capabilities and NVIDIA’s helping power eVTOL aircraft.
But Doroni’s been ahead of this shift for years. They just unveiled a showroom model of a personal aircraft FOX Business called “the ‘flying car’ set to revolutionize personal air travel.” With $240M+ in potential revenue already, they’re just getting started. Invest in Doroni today.*
This week, we took a deep dive into how cities manage trash and recycling—and what happens after you throw something away. Here is what we found:
> When Charles Dickens visited New York in 1842, he was amused by the thousands of trash-eating pigs roaming the city. The story of how the city got rid of them touches on gentrification, class, and the birth of the urban working class.
> Learn about the system of landfills, recycling plants, and sanitation workers that shape our lives in ways most of us never see. In this podcast, 1440 explores the hidden life of trash. (Listen)
Baby teeth can reveal early exposure to hidden metals.
Man recounts being followed by a shark off the California coast.
Century’s longest total solar eclipse to last over six minutes.
Historybook: George Washington inaugurated (1789); Aviator Bessie Coleman, first African American woman and first Native American to hold a pilot license, dies in a plane crash (1926); Blues musician Muddy Waters dies (1983); World Wide Web launches into public domain by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee (1993).
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"Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a persons own mind—than on the externals in the world."
- George Washington
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Thanks to Nice News
Meet Chonkers: The Hefty Sea Lion Taking San Francisco (and the Internet) by Storm
Pier 39
Now that Punch is doing well (phew), here’s another lovable animal to set your sights on. Chonkers is a sea lion who has captivated onlookers near and far after being spotted lounging on San Francisco’s Pier 39 — and, frankly, he’s hard to miss. While the average California sea lion weighs around 600-800 pounds, Chonkers is about three times that.
Unlike the rest of the pack that typically gathers for sunbathing on the pier, Chonkers is a Steller sea lion, a species more often seen near Washington or Alaska. That explains why he’s roughly 2,000 pounds, as surviving cold winters requires more blubber. Popular Science reports that Chonkers was likely drawn to the Bay Area for a combination of its ample fish supply and the chance to chill out with some friends. (Sea lions are thigmotactic, which is a fancy way of saying they like to cuddle together for warmth and security.)
The striking sea lion first arrived at the pier in March and has unsurprisingly gone viral for his large presence, with one reporter noting that the sound of him plopping on the deck is reminiscent of “an oak tree falling down.” Videos show him causing a stir reemerging from the water and enjoying the view before taking a dip.
Harbormaster Sheila Chandor told The Wall Street Journal he’s been a good neighbor so far. “He doesn’t have anything to prove, and that works in our favor,” she said. If you want to try to catch a glimpse, check the pier’s live sea lion cam.
© Los Angeles Zoo
Wishing a very happy 60th birthday to Topa Topa, the first California condor to reside in a zoo. In 1967, Topa Topa was brought to the Los Angeles Zoo as a 1-year-old fledgling found “weak, malnourished, and weighing a meager 17 pounds,” per the zoo. Today, the striking bird continues to be key to helping his critically endangered species rebound, with a lineage of around 300 birds — nearly 100 of which are now flying in the wild. “He represents so much more than a species; he is a symbol of the California condor’s experience from decline to triumph,” said LA Zoo CEO Denise Verret
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Turkey’s Ascent From Dependence to Autonomy
Decades of defense industrial growth have given Ankara new freedom of action, but it still has work to do.
By: Andrew Davidson
Situated at the intersection of the Black Sea, the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, Turkey occupies some of the most strategically valuable land on Earth. Its misfortune for at least the last century has been its inability to control the vital trade routes that flow all around it. Membership in NATO – and thus American security guarantees – has served as a bulwark against potential encroachment from Russia and instability along its southern borders, but it comes at a cost. Perhaps the earliest high-profile example of this came in 1974, when Turkey deployed troops to defend Turkish Cypriots against their Greek counterparts on the island of Cyprus. In response, the U.S. imposed an arms embargo against Turkey. The embargo was lifted in 1978, but not before it exposed the risks for Turkey of dependence on external weapons suppliers, leading Ankara to begin developing a domestic defense industrial base.
Half a century later, Turkey’s decision to pursue greater autonomy looks prescient. U.S. commitments to NATO are as uncertain as ever, while Turkey’s regional environment is changing rapidly. Feeling besieged since the 2023 Hamas attacks, Israel is seeking buffers and consolidating its positions in the Golan Heights and southern Lebanon. In the ongoing U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, Iranian missiles have entered Turkish airspace and been intercepted near key NATO facilities. Meanwhile, the Russia-Ukraine war has yielded attacks on vessels in the Black Sea as well as a greater Russian military presence there, demonstrating that even access to established maritime zones is no longer guaranteed and must be secured.
Therefore, Turkey is expanding outward, but not by choice alone. It is adapting to a system in which it must secure its own position, leveraging decades of defense industrial development to extend its presence across maritime and overland routes. Compared with its neighbors and most fellow NATO members, Turkey has a head start in building strategic autonomy, but gaps remain in the size of its navy and integration across domains. These limitations continue to constrain its ability to convert that presence into sustained control.
Defense Industry Evolution
Turkey’s defense industry developed incrementally, moving from licensed assembly to coproduction and, increasingly, indigenous design. Early efforts focused on lower-complexity systems, but over time Ankara leveraged partnerships to climb the value chain.
A key step was coproduction of the F-16 Fighting Falcon with Turkish Aerospace Industries in the late 1980s, which built domestic expertise in airframes, integration and maintenance. Parallel investments in electronics – led by Aselsan – expanded capabilities in sensors, communications and fire control. Together, these efforts created a broad industrial base capable of producing complete systems rather than merely isolated components.
That base now spans multiple domains, including armored vehicles, artillery systems, naval platforms and next-generation airpower programs such as the TAI Kaan. Turkey is also working to expand long-range strike capabilities and develop more autonomous, networked systems outside traditional NATO architectures.
More recently, unmanned systems have become the industry’s most visible success. Platforms such as the Bayraktar TB2 have been widely exported and combat-tested, positioning Turkey as a leading supplier in a segment where demand is growing rapidly. These systems have not only expanded Turkey’s operational toolkit but also generated sustained export revenue, which is critical for scaling production and funding further development.
Exports now underpin the sector’s growth. Turkey supplies defense systems to more than 30 countries, with exports rising from roughly $1.6 billion a decade ago to more than $7 billion in 2025. These external markets sustain production, spread development costs and reduce reliance on domestic demand. Without them, the industry would struggle to maintain its current pace of expansion.
Despite this progress, propulsion remains a key constraint. Turkey has reduced dependence on foreign engines in lower-end systems such as drones, but it still relies on Western (primarily U.S.) engines for its most advanced platforms, including fighter aircraft. This preserves external leverage over Turkish exports and operations, making engine development the central gap Ankara is now working to close.
Expanding Outward: Maritime Access and Strategic Positioning
As Turkey’s defense industry has matured, it has enabled Ankara to operate more independently beyond its immediate borders, particularly along the maritime routes connecting Europe, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean. Turkey’s external positioning is focused on important maritime corridors and surrounding seas, where it is establishing a presence to maintain its position in an environment where control over those routes is increasingly contested. This approach aligns with Turkey’s Blue Homeland concept, which treats maritime space as an extension of national security and emphasizes control over transit, resources and surrounding waters.
This is most visible in Somalia, where Turkey established the Turksom military training base in 2017, anchoring its presence near the Bab el-Mandeb, a critical strait linking the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. Turkey is also expanding its footprint beyond a traditional military presence, including efforts to develop space-launch infrastructure. Though framed as a civilian initiative, such projects deepen Ankara’s long-term position along a major maritime corridor and extend its presence into adjacent domains.
In the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey has paired a military presence with formal maritime claims. Its intervention in Libya secured the 2019 maritime delimitation agreement, while its continued military footprint in western Libya reinforces that position in a region central to energy exploration and sea lane access. Turkey has also reduced friction along another key node through normalization with Egypt, expanding its ability to operate within the Suez corridor linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.
Outside of its immediate region, Turkey is extending its reach through defense industrial partnerships, including naval cooperation with Malaysia near the Strait of Malacca and drone exports to Morocco. These efforts strengthen Turkey’s presence toward the western Mediterranean and Atlantic approaches.
Taken together, Turkey is forming a distributed network across critical maritime routes, enabling it to maintain its position without assuming the costs or risks of direct control.
Meanwhile, as disruption grows along key shipping lanes from the Red Sea to the Strait of Hormuz, Ankara is building overland alternatives. The clearest expression of this is the proposed Development Road, linking Iraq’s Grand Faw Port to Turkey’s transport network and onward to Europe. The corridor would provide a partial alternative to maritime chokepoints such as the Suez Canal and reinforce Turkey’s role as a transit state between the Gulf and Europe. Its viability depends on security across Iraqi territory, particularly in the north. Turkey’s military operations there are aimed not only at immediate threats but also at securing the environment through which any future trade route would pass. Its presence in northern Syria reflects the same logic, extending a buffer that stabilizes areas adjacent to potential transit corridors.
Limits of Expansion
Turkey’s expanding capabilities have increased its ability to operate across regions, but they also expose structural limitations. The most immediate constraint is scale. Turkey’s navy is growing, supported by domestic shipbuilding programs and a pipeline of new vessels, including new fielded platforms like the TCG Anadolu, a drone-centric amphibious assault ship. However, the Turkish navy is still a force in transition. Though Ankara is increasing the number and range of its platforms, it lacks the capacity to sustain continuous operations far from its shores or to maintain persistent control over sea lanes beyond its immediate region.
A second constraint lies in integration. Turkey has developed capabilities across multiple domains, including unmanned systems and long-range strike, but these remain incompletely integrated at scale. Ankara has demonstrated the ability to coordinate these capabilities in regional operations, but it does not yet possess a fully developed sensor-to-shooter architecture capable of sustaining complex, multidomain operations across broader theaters. As a result, it can project presence but cannot consistently translate that presence into coordinated, system-level effects.
Economic pressures and centralized decision-making reinforce these limits. Sustaining defense industrial growth and forward deployments requires consistent investment, which is complicated by inflation and currency volatility.
Conclusion
Turkey is developing from dependence to autonomy, enabled by a domestic defense industry that allows it to operate more independently across its region and beyond. As U.S. guarantees become less predictable, Turkey is balancing between NATO commitments and a widening set of regional relationships, while retaining leverage within the alliance as its second-largest military. This reflects a broader shift toward more flexible, issue-based alignments.
If instability along key maritime routes persists and overland corridors such as the Development Road advance, Turkey’s strategic relevance will increase. But unless it can integrate its capabilities and sustain them economically, it will struggle to translate its greater presence into real influence.
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Another from Brett
The Great Uncoupling: Why the UAE’s Exit from OPEC Changes Everything
How the sudden collapse of the petrodollar and the rise of tokenised gold are rewriting the rules of global power
The coffee is, at this precise moment, the only thing in the hemisphere that is both entirely reliable and behaving with any sense of purpose. It sits in a heavy ceramic mug, steam rising in a lazy, unhurried spiral that suggests it has nowhere better to be, which is a luxury the rest of the world is about to lose. Outside, the sky is that bruised, indecisive grey that precedes a sunrise, a time when the birds are still considering whether the day is actually worth the effort of song. It is a quiet, fragile window of peace before the collective madness of several billion people begins to churn.
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Beside the patio doors, Tigger has completed his morning ritual of demanding, and receiving, a bowl of kibble that he will only half-eat and a fresh saucer of water that he will ignore in favour of a muddy puddle later. He is now perfectly positioned. He sits with his paws tucked neatly beneath his chest, a ginger and white statue of judgment, staring through the glass at the garden. He is awaiting either Ding-Dong or Snowy for the morning feline cold war stare-off, a masterclass in silent diplomacy and psychological attrition.
While Tigger prepares to defend the patio from the encroaching neighbourhood fluff, a much larger and more expensive set of curtains is being pulled back in the Middle East. Tucked away in a series of digital dispatches from the desert is a sequence of words that effectively resets the global clock. The United Arab Emirates has announced it is leaving OPEC on the first of May.
If you were to look for the tectonic plate of the modern economy, the thing upon which everything from your plastic toothbrush to the stability of your pension relies, you would find it in a dusty agreement made decades ago. It was a simple, if somewhat lopsided, arrangement. The UAE and their neighbours would pump the liquid history of ancient plankton out of the ground, they would price it exclusively in American dollars, and in return, the United States would act as a sort of extremely well armed bouncer at the door of the Middle Eastern nightclub.
This was the Petrodollar. It was the gravity that kept the financial world from floating off into the void. But gravity, it turns out, is subject to the laws of local interest. The bouncer, it seems, has spent the last several months standing quite firmly in front of one specific patron’s table—Israel—while letting the rest of the room descend into a bit of a scuffle. The UAE has looked at the bruises, looked at the bill, looked at the bouncer, and concluded that the protection they were paying for was largely an ornamental feature of the past. The announcement of their departure is the sound of a very large, very expensive glass vase shattering in a silent room.
This is arguably the most significant moment in oil production since we first figured out that the black stuff could make things go. For a generation, OPEC was the thermostat of the planet. Now, the UAE has reached out and simply unplugged it. When a player as central as Abu Dhabi decides that the collective rules no longer apply, the concept of the collective begins to look rather flimsy. It is a sovereign declaration of independence that effectively signals the end of the old world. If the UAE leaves, the logic that held the others in place evaporates. You can almost hear the other members of the group checking their own exits, wondering why they are still holding onto a currency that feels increasingly like a heavy anchor rather than a buoyant life jacket.
The Petrodollar is not just fading; it is being actively dismantled by a better set of tools. For years, the global financial system has been held together by a series of ageing pipes known as SWIFT. It is a system that moves money with the grace of a Victorian postal service, taking days to verify what should take seconds and charging a handsome fee for the privilege of the wait. The UAE, however, has spent its time building a digital laboratory. They are not merely leaving one club; they are opening a far more efficient one across the street. While the rest of the world was arguing about whether digital assets were a hobby or a hallucination, the UAE was quietly figuring out how to use them as a bridge.
If you want to sell a few million barrels of oil to India or China, you no longer need to wait for a bank in New York to wake up and give you the thumbs up in dollars. You can move the value across a decentralised ledger, the XRP Ledger, in the time it takes to take a sip of this coffee. It is fast, it is indifferent to borders, and most importantly, it does not require permission from a bouncer who has gone on an extended lunch break. But the real masterstroke, the bit that makes the old guard truly nervous, is what they have done with gold. They have taken the oldest, most cynical form of wealth,.the shiny yellow metal, and turned it into a series of digital tokens on that same ledger.
This is not gold you have to put on a boat and guard with a navy. This is gold that has been digitised, verified, and made liquid. It allows for a form of settlement that is both ancient and futuristic. You can trade your oil for a digital claim on physical gold, settled instantly, bypassing the dollar entirely and leaving the SWIFT system to rust in the corner like a discarded steam engine. We are witnessing the first major economy to decouple its primary resource from the political whims of a distant superpower, and reattach it to a system governed by mathematics and physical assets. It is a pioneer move that makes the dollar look less like a global standard and more like a regional loyalty card.
Tigger shifts his weight by the door. A flicker of white fur, Snowy has appeared by the fence. The stare-off begins. There will be no growling or hissing, just the unwavering application of the gaze. It mirrors the larger game. Tigger doesn’t need a bouncer to protect his patio; he has his own internal ledger of who belongs and who doesn’t. He is a sovereign entity. The world that wakes up in an hour or so will still look the same on the surface. People will still fret about their commutes and wonder if they should have the porridge or the toast. But the foundation under their feet has fundamentally changed. The UAE has called a bluff that has been running since the seventies. They have looked at the promise of protection, and the requirement of the dollar and decided they can do a better job of both themselves.
As I finish this coffee, the sun is finally beginning to poke its head over the horizon, oblivious to the fact that the financial light of the last fifty years is being dimmed. The petrodollar was a grand experiment in trust and power, but trust is a finite resource, and power eventually finds a more efficient path. The UAE has found that path, and it is paved with ledger entries and tokenised bullion. The old world is crumbling, not with a bang, but with the quiet click of a digital transaction that does not need anyone’s permission to exist. Tigger remains unmoved by the window, a tiny emperor of his own domain, while the empires of men scramble to find their new places in a world where the bouncer and his coin, are no longer required.
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This Day in U S Military History…….April 30
1803 – During the early moments of the nineteenth century, the United States government wheeled and dealed its way into what is generally regarded as the “greatest land bargain” in the nation’s history, the Louisiana Purchase. The deal, which was dated April 30, 1803, though it was in fact signed on May 2, had been in the works since the spring of 1802. It was then that President Thomas Jefferson had learned of Spain’s decision to quietly transfer Spanish Louisiana to the French; fearful of the strategic and commercial implications of the Spanish swap, Jefferson ordered Robert Livingston, the U.S. minister in Paris, to broker a deal with the French either for a slice of land on the lower Mississippi or a “guarantee” of unmolested transport for U.S. ships. Negotiations dragged on for months, but took a crucial turn when Spanish and U.S. trade relations collapsed in the fall of 1802. With Spain now barring American merchant ships from transferring goods at the port in New Orleans, Jefferson set his sights on purchasing a far larger chunk of land. In early 1803, James Monroe headed to Paris to broker Jefferson’s deal. With France teetering on the brink of war with Great Britain, and mindful not only of the fiscal repercussions of such a conflict, but of the possibility of a renewed U.S.-English alliance, Napoleon’s negotiators acceded to a deal to sell the whole of Louisiana. All told, the Louisiana Purchase cost the U.S. $15 million: $11.25 million was earmarked for the land deal, while the remaining $3.75 million covered France’s outstanding debts to America. Thus, for the prime price of 3 cents an acre, the United States bought 828,000-square miles of land, which effectively doubled the size of the young nation.
1943 – As part of a deception plan for the invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky), the British submarine Seraph releases a corpse into the sea off the Spanish port of Huelva hoping it will be picked up and the papers carried passed on to the Germans. The body purports to be that of a Major Martin of the Royal Marines and he is carrying letters from General Nye, Vice-Chief of the British General Staff, and Admiral Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations, to Eisenhower, Alexander and Cunningham referring to Allied plans for an invasion of Greece. The Germans do receive the information and it contributes to their lack of appreciation of the true Allied strategy.
1944 – US Task Force 58 (Admiral Mitscher) raids the Japanese base at Truk for a second day. Over the two days, the Japanese lose 93 aircraft out of a total 104 while the Americans lose 35 planes. Meanwhile, American Admiral Oldendorf leads a force of 9 cruisers and 8 destroyers to bombard targets in the Sawatan Islands, southeast of Truk.
1945 – On Okinawa, Japanese counterattacks and infiltration attempts along the Shuri Line area are defeated. There is heavy fighting in the Maeda and Kochi Ridge positions. The US 1st Marine and 77th Divisions replace the US 27th and 96th Divisions in the line.
This battle started on 1 April and goes for 82 days
1975 – By dawn, communist forces move into Saigon, where they meet only sporadic resistance. The South Vietnamese forces had collapsed under the rapid advancement of the North Vietnamese. The most recent fighting had begun in December 1974, when the North Vietnamese had launched a major attack against the lightly defended province of Phuoc Long, located due north of Saigon along the Cambodian border, overrunning the provincial capital at Phuoc Binh on January 6, 1975. Despite previous presidential promises to provide aid in such a scenario, the United States did nothing. By this time, Nixon had resigned from office and his successor, Gerald Ford, was unable to convince a hostile Congress (read Joe Biden) to make good on Nixon’s earlier promises to rescue Saigon from communist takeover. This situation emboldened the North Vietnamese, who launched a new campaign in March 1975. The South Vietnamese forces fell back in total disarray, and once again, the United States did nothing. The South Vietnamese abandoned Pleiku and Kontum in the Highlands with very little fighting. Then Quang Tri, Hue, and Da Nang fell to the communist onslaught. The North Vietnamese continued to attack south along the coast toward Saigon, defeating the South Vietnamese forces at each encounter. The South Vietnamese 18th Division had fought a valiant battle at Xuan Loc, just to the east of Saigon, destroying three North Vietnamese divisions in the process. However, it proved to be the last battle in the defense of the Republic of South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese forces held out against the attackers until they ran out of tactical air support and weapons, finally abandoning Xuan Loc to the communists on April 21. Having crushed the last major organized opposition before Saigon, the North Vietnamese got into position for the final assault. In Saigon, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned and transferred authority to Vice President Tran Van Huong before fleeing the city on April 25. By April 27, the North Vietnamese had completely encircled Saigon and began to maneuver for a complete takeover. When they attacked at dawn on April 30, they met little resistance. North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace and the war came to an end. North Vietnamese Col. Bui Tin accepted the surrender from Gen. Duong Van Minh, who had taken over after Tran Van Huong spent only one day in power. Tin explained to Minh, “You have nothing to fear. Between Vietnamese there are no victors and no vanquished. Only the Americans have been beaten. If you are patriots, consider this a moment of joy. The war for our country is over.”
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
HEERMANCE, WILLIAM L.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company C, 6th New York Cavalry Place and date: At Chancellorsville, Va., 30 April 1863. Entered service at: Kinderhook, N.Y. Born: 28 February 1837, Kinderhook, N Y. Date of issue: 30 March 1898. Citation: Took command of the regiment as its senior officer when surrounded by Stuart’s Cavalry. The regiment cut its way through the enemy’s line and escaped but Capt. Heermance was desperately wounded, left for dead on the field and was taken prisoner.
VARGAS, M. SANDO, JR.
Rank and organization: Major (then Capt.), U.S. Marine Corps, Company G, 2d Battalion, 4th Marines, 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade. Place and date: Dai Do, Republic of Vietnam, 30 April to 2 May 1968. Entered service at: Winslow, Ariz. Born: 29 July 1940, Winslow, Ariz. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as commanding officer, Company G, in action against enemy forces from 30 April to 2 May 1968. On 1 May 1968, though suffering from wounds he had incurred while relocating his unit under heavy enemy fire the preceding day, Maj. Vargas combined Company G with two other companies and led his men in an attack on the fortified village of Dai Do. Exercising expert leadership, he maneuvered his marines across 700 meters of open rice paddy while under intense enemy mortar, rocket and artillery fire and obtained a foothold in 2 hedgerows on the enemy perimeter, only to have elements of his company become pinned down by the intense enemy fire. Leading his reserve platoon to the aid of his beleaguered men, Maj. Vargas inspired his men to renew their relentless advance, while destroying a number of enemy bunkers. Again wounded by grenade fragments, he refused aid as he moved about the hazardous area reorganizing his unit into a strong defense perimeter at the edge of the village. Shortly after the objective was secured the enemy commenced a series of counterattacks and probes which lasted throughout the night but were unsuccessful as the gallant defenders of Company G stood firm in their hard-won enclave. Reinforced the following morning, the marines launched a renewed assault through Dai Do on the village of Dinh To, to which the enemy retaliated with a massive counterattack resulting in hand-to-hand combat. Maj. Vargas remained in the open, encouraging and rendering assistance to his marines when he was hit for the third time in the 3-day battle. Observing his battalion commander sustain a serious wound, he disregarded his excruciating pain, crossed the fire-swept area and carried his commander to a covered position, then resumed supervising and encouraging his men while simultaneously assisting in organizing the battalion’s perimeter defense. His gallant actions uphold the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service.
Jay now lives in Poway Ca. and is a really nice man. skip
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS
FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR APRIL 30
THANKS TO HAROLD “PHIL” MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
1908: Aviation buffs in the 1st Company, Signal Corps, New York National Guard, set up an aeronautical corps to learn about balloons. This effort was the earliest known involvement of the guard in aviation. (21)
1917: In World War I, Maj William “Billy” Mitchell became the first American officer to fly over the German lines. He flew as an observer in a French aircraft. (21) (24)
1919: The Navy-Curtiss NC-4 first flew.
1946: The Army and Navy adopted a standard system for designating guided missiles and giving them popular names. For designations, four letters would be used: A for air, S for surface, U for underwater, and M for missile. These letters would be mixed in three letter combinations, with the first indicating the missile's origin, the second its objective, and the third its identity as a missile. As such, a surface-to-air missile became a SAM. (6)
1951: KOREAN WAR. Fifth Air Force set a new record of 960 effective sorties in one day. Two H-5 helicopters each picked up a downed UN pilot behind enemy lines. Small-arms fire damaged one helicopter. The first indication of enemy radar-controlled antiaircraft guns came with the loss of three out of four F-51s making an air-to-ground attack against a target at Sinmak. (28)
1952: Through 1 May, Max Conrad used a Paper Pacer to fly 2,462.33 miles from Los Angeles to New York, setting a world distance record for light planes (aircraft with total weight in flying
order between 1,102.3 and 2,204.6 pounds). (24)
1955: Adm John H. Towers, Naval Aviator No.3, died. (24)
1962: Joseph A. Walker flew the X-15 to a record altitude of 246,750 feet for a piloted aircraft. (9)
1963: Between 30 April and 12 May, Mrs. Betty Miller made the first solo flight of a woman across the Pacific Ocean. She made four stops in her flight from Oakland to Brisbane, Australia, in a twin-engine Piper Apache.
1965: After a political crisis flared into a revolution in the Dominican Republic, the US intervened to protect and evacuate American and foreign citizens. The US also provided medical aid and other assistance. TAC and MATS transports flew 1,702 sorties to airlift 16,000 passengers and
16,086 tons of cargo to the island. (2)
1966: North American pilot Alvin S. White and Col Joseph A. Cotton saved the XB-70A (No.2) from disaster. When the landing gear got stuck, Colonel Cotton crawled through the aircraft to reach a relay box. Then, he used a paper clip to short out two malfunctioning terminals and lower the gear. (3)
1967: The Air-Launched, Air-Recoverable Rocket (ALARR) completed its first operational test. It
was designed to detect and identify nuclear tests in the atmosphere. (16) (26)
1969: The USAF inactivated the last Mace unit, the 71st Tactical Missile Wing, at Bitburg AB. (4)
1973: The AWACS completed its European evaluation successfully.
1974: Maj Mike Love completed the X-24B’s first powered flight after a B-52 dropped the wingless research vehicle from 45,000 feet. (3)
1980: The Defense System Acquisition Review Council (DSARC) decided to produce Boeing's AGM- 86B as the ALCM. (3)
1981: The B-1 prototype No.4 completed its last flight to end the B-1 test program. (3)
1990: The Navy decommissioned the USS Coral Sea aircraft carrier at Norfolk, Va. It went into service in 1947. (8: Jul 90)
1996: The USAF revealed the Tacit Blue aircraft that was secretly used until 1985 to test stealth technology. With its 56-foot wingspan, Tacit Blue furnished the technology used to produce the B-2 Spirit bomber. (26)
1997: An AFFTC aircrew launched a live Mk 84 JDAM for the first time from a B-52 at the Navy’s China Lake range. (3)
1998: The Perseus B completed its first checkout flight, reaching 15,500 feet in a one-hour flight.
The Perseus B completed its first checkout flight, reaching 15,500 feet in a one-hour flight. The
propeller-driven RPV conducted atmospheric research in support of NASA’s Environmental
Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) project at altitudes up to 60,000 ft for as
long as eight hours. (3)
1999: The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB unveiled the X-34, a technology demonstrator for a reusable space launch vehicle. (3)
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