1847
Scott's cannon open on Chapultepec at dawn; the castle has nowhere to hide
A day-long bombardment of the hilltop fortress outside Mexico City sets up tomorrow's infantry assault.
1958
A sliver of germanium hums to life; Kilby proves the integrated circuit works
A switch, a sine wave, and no more wiring transistors one at a time.
1962
We choose to go to the Moon, Kennedy tells 40,000 at Rice Stadium
Kennedy stakes the decade on a landing NASA's own administrator priced at 22 billion dollars.
1966Member story · 1776 Club
Conrad and Gordon dock with the Agena before they've finished one lap of Earth
The Gemini 11 crew catches its target 1 hour 34 minutes after launch, faster than any rendezvous NASA has tried.
1991Member story · 1776 Club
Discovery lifts off to release a satellite built to watch the ozone layer
A noise glitch on the air-to-ground radio link held the countdown fourteen minutes before Kennedy Space Center cleared it for launch.
1992Member story · 1776 Club
Jemison rides Endeavour into orbit, the first Black woman to reach space
She carried a West African statuette and a photo of aviator Bessie Coleman with her into orbit.