Wednesday · November 11, 2026
Edited daily
American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
20091776 Club

Endeavour lifts off on sixth try; thirteen people are now in orbit at once

STS-127 clears the pad at 6:03 p.m. carrying the final pieces of Japan's Kibō laboratory, the last major addition to the station's Japanese wing.

By the summer of 2009, the International Space Station had been under construction for over a decade, piece by piece, launch by launch. On July 15, 2009, at 6:03 p.m. EDT, Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off on STS-127 after five scrubbed attempts, carrying the final segments of Japan's Kibō laboratory module. The shuttle docked with the station two days later,, pushing the number of people in orbit at once to a record thirteen. Sixteen days and five spacewalks after launch, Endeavour brought its crew home to a night landing at Kennedy Space Center…

1776 Club

This story is held for members.

Members read every story of the day — and tomorrow's, and the next.

Join the 1776 Club
$17.76 your first year · then $39.99/yr · cancel anytime
More from July 15
1870

Georgia is readmitted; the last Confederate state formally returns to the Union

Five years after Appomattox, Georgia completes the steep terms of Reconstruction, ratifying the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and seating Black legislators under the new rules.
1979

Carter tells the nation it suffers a 'crisis of confidence'; he never says the word malaise

With gas lines stretching for hours and inflation gnawing at paychecks, the President goes on live television to diagnose a mood, not announce a fix.
1862

CSS Arkansas steams alone through two Union fleets; Vicksburg's guns shelter her by nightfall

Lt. Brown's ironclad fights down the Yazoo, batters the Carondelet, Lancaster, and Pinola at close range, and reaches port with 30 casualties.
19161776 Club
A broken Martin hydroaeroplane and months-long waits for parts pushed the timber heir and his Navy engineer friend to build planes themselves.
Read this as a member →
Read the full July 15 edition →Everything that happened on July 15 →
More from Modern America
2020

Biden accepts the nomination alone in a Delaware ballroom, no crowd, no roar

A pandemic convention ends with the nominee speaking to a camera instead of a stadium.
1994

Thirty-three years after his death, the Air Force finally makes Eugene Bullard an officer

France called him a hero and gave him a pilot's license in 1917; his own country waited until 1994 to make it official.
2012

Voyager 1 leaves the Sun's bubble; no craft has gone farther

Thirty-five years after launch, its instruments detect the plasma signature of true interstellar space.
2005

Katrina comes ashore at Buras; hours later, New Orleans is drowning

Fifty-three levee and floodwall breaches put 80 percent of the city underwater by nightfall.
The Daily Record · free by email

Tomorrow's edition in your inbox — one featured story, one quote, and today's flag status. Free, every morning.

The full experience

Read every story, narrated, in the app.

Take this story with you.

The complete daily edition, the deep-cut narration, and a library that's yours — the 1776 Club lives in the app.

Your membership comes with you — every event, narrated, with flag alerts, CarPlay, and your saved library.

Download on the App Store