Calendars throughout history have struggled to be logical and maintain synchronism between the lunar cycle (about 29.5 days) and the solar year (about 365.25 days). Most systems include a bodge factor or intercalary months or days to bring things back into line, with varying degrees of accuracy. Sumerian The ancient Continue Reading
Modern Age
The First Computer Virus
In 1971, Bob Thomas at BBN Technologies created a self-replicating program, designed to infect servers on ARPANET, the precursor to the internet. Allegedly named after the Scooby Doo villain, the Creeper Virus infected the remote systems and displayed the message “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!”. Ray Tomlinson, who also Continue Reading
Americans planned to nuke the Moon
On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union took the lead in the Space Race by launching Sputnik I, the first successful artificial satellite. One of several plans by the the US government to reverse this embarrassment, given the failure of the their own Project Vanguard satellites, was to detonate an Continue Reading
Nixon’s Speech if Apollo XI crew got stranded
President Richard Nixon had a speech prepared in the event that the Apollo XI crew got stranded on the moon. From the US National Archives it reads: Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These Continue Reading
Why D-Day?
The invasion of France by the Allies on 6 June 1944 was known as D-Day. Why ‘D’ and not ‘F’ (for France) or ‘I’ (for invasion) or any other letter? The simple answer is that ‘D’ stands for Date. The US military regularly used this type of shorthand and H-Hour Continue Reading