End of ocean drying: all the water that was on the surface has seeped into the subsurface and the mantle, which is no longer warm enough to re-emit it to the surface as vapor. Life in the oceans also becomes extinct (because there are no
The supercontinent Pangea Ultima was formed from the union of Austro-Antarctica-Eurasia and the Americas; the hypothesis is by Christopher Scotese.
The supercontinent Austro-Antarctica-Eurasia is formed from the union of Austro-Eurasia and Antarctica.
The supercontinent Austro-Eurasia is formed from the union of Eurasia and Australia
The supercontinent Eurasia is formed from the union of Africa, Europe and Asia
Publication in Nature: The remains of the planetoid Theia have been found deep within the Earth’s mantle. This is therefore the same area where Helium 3 originates. Scientists have thus found the remains of the planetoid Theia, which collided with Earth 4.5 billion years ago,
paper has been published in Nature about the detection of a surprising amount, for Earth, of Helium-3, a rare form of helium known for its relative abundance on the lunar surface and its usefulness in fueling high-efficiency, neutron-reducing nuclear fusion reactors. It was found to
Tonga Islands. A violent volcano erupts on the island of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, 65 km north of the archipelago’s main island, Tongatapu. It is the most violent eruption in recent decades globally. It triggers tsunamis of a few meters on several Pacific coasts. Two people
Syria. A joint American-French-British missile attack (105 missiles in total, launched from ships, American B-1 bombers, French Raphaels, and British Tornados) targeted military targets linked to the Assad regime’s chemical weapons attack a few days earlier.
The Chinese space station Tiangong 1 (Heavenly Palace) re-entered and disintegrated in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. It was launched on September 29, 2011. It weighed 8 tons (by comparison, the American Skylab weighed 95 tons upon reentry in July 1979, and the MIR
Syria. The Turkish army and Turkish-armed rebels complete the capture of Afrin and the surrounding area, at the expense of the Kurdish YPG.
Syria. Two months after the start of Turkey’s Olive Branch offensive against the YPG, Turkish troops entered Afrin, the Kurdish capital of the region.
Stephen Hawking dies at 76. Stephen Hawking leaves us, having made a unique and exceptional contribution to our understanding of our universe. On the same day, in 1879, Albert Einstein was born.
Spain. A train derails in Santiago de Compostela, killing 77 people and injuring 143. The driver appears to be responsible for speeding around a curve at 190 km/h on a stretch with an 80 km/h speed limit while talking on his cell phone.
Monday: Stern’s edition, printed in 2,250,000 copies, is published with the news of Hitler’s diaries.
Kuznetsov Bureau (OKB-276). When Valentin Glushko canceled the Soviet Lunar Program in 1974, he ordered all NK-33s destroyed. Engineers in Samara instead preserved hundreds of them (at least 450) in a hangar with the words “Caution – Radiation!” and a skull… The engines were rediscovered
During the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur (Yom Kippur War), Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against Israel. Egyptian troops broke through the Israeli defensive line until October 10, while Jordanian and Syrian troops entered Golna. Then, Israel mobilized, and the multi-pronged attack was
The U.S. Senate cuts funding for America’s supersonic transport program.
Russell Ross announced he had succeeded in growing muscle fibers in vitro. The idea is not new, as Winston Churchill had already predicted in 1931 that we would eventually have cultured meat: “We shall avoid the absurdity of growing a whole chicken and eating only
At the end of the Gemini missions, the time spent in orbit by American astronauts amounted to 1993 hours.
Reines, using a detector at the bottom of a gold mine in Johannesburg, South Africa, finds the first “natural” neutrino, meaning one not generated by nuclear reactors or particle accelerators.
Murray Gell-Mann and Yuval Ne’eman propose a system for classifying particles based on their charge and level of strangeness. This model is often called “the eightfold way,” recalling the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path. With this new classification, Murray Gell-Mann and Yuval Ne’eman manage to simplify
Cuban dictator Batista is forced to flee from Fidel Castro’s rebels.
Reines and Cowan are confident enough that they’ve finally detected neutrinos to report it to Pauli, who is forced (good-naturedly) to buy them a case of good champagne. After 42 years.
At the new Savannah River nuclear reactor in South Carolina, at the suggestion and intermediation of John Wheeler, scientists Reines and Cowan consistently and repeatably measure a source of abundant neutrinos for the first time: two per hour! And they realize Wheeler’s idea. They thus
The Manchester Baby, an electronic computer with a stored program on board, successfully runs its first program. It was developed by Kilburn and Williams. The first program consisted of 17 instructions.
Magnus von Braun, Wernher’s brother, is chosen by the group of German scientists who fled Peenemünde as an ambassador to contact the Americans; from Oberjoch in Bavaria, he cycles to meet an advanced anti-tank unit of the 44th Infantry, US Army 3rd Armored Division; Fred
Edward Teller astounds everyone by presenting to Oppenheimer’s team calculations demonstrating that a nuclear fusion bomb triggered by a fission bomb is possible, requiring very limited amounts of heavy hydrogen (deuterium) to produce an explosion of millions of tons of TNT (Mton). The idea had
At a joint session of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society, Arthur Stanley Eddington presents the results of measuring the curvature of starlight (1.7 arc seconds) during a total solar eclipse on an island off the coast of Nigeria. He thus provides the
First assembly line (Ford) goes into operation: production quadruples: 300,000 cars per year
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck enunciates the famous law E = hv with h being Planck’s constant, v being the frequency; with which light is quantized; he formulates blackbody radiation, deduces the value of Planck’s constant h, Boltzmann’s constant k and Avogadro’s number.
Italian defeat at Adwa: Baratieri’s Italian troops are defeated by Ethiopians led by Menelik, leaving over 4,000 Italian soldiers dead and many more wounded; protests erupt over the colonial policies of the Crispi government, which eventually resigns.
The first biography of Nikola Tesla is published: “The inventions, research, and writings of Nikola Tesla” by Thomas Commerford Martin, editor of Electrical Engineer, written in contact with Tesla himself.
Siege of Atlanta, Georgia. Hood decides to save what he can: the Army of the Tennessee (conf.). He then abandons the city after blowing up its depots, workshops, and warehouses.
Brescia. The battle draws to a close. The Austrians, under the command of Marshal Haynau, the hyena of Brescia, number 5,000. By evening, the Austrians break through and enter the city. For three days, the city gates are kept closed and the town is plundered
London. British Prime Minister Lord Liverpool informs Foreign Secretary Robert Stewart Castlereagh, Marquess of Londonberry, of the decision to exile Napoleon to Saint Helena, intending to consign him to permanent oblivion. It is a resounding mistake: Napoleon acquires the aura of martyrdom, lays the foundations
Detroit. British General Isaac Brock and his Indian ally Tecumseh of the Swanei use trickery and subterfuge to deceive their American adversary, Hull, who eventually surrenders Fort Detroit and 2,400 of his soldiers, who in reality far outnumber the Indians and the British. Seven Americans
Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina. Nathanael Greene (after whom many American cities were named, including Greenville, SC), who had replaced Gates as commander of the American troops in the South, attacked the British at Cowpens. 90% of the British forces were captured (830) or killed
New York State. First Battle of Freeman’s Farm: American General Gates wins a victory over British General Burgoyne. This prompts him to seize the initiative.
Buda. The Bavarians assault the walls of the lower city. They encounter little resistance. They enter and find it empty, as the Ottomans have retreated to the much more defensible upper city.
Drake circumnavigates the globe. English navigator Francis Drake returns to Plymouth aboard the Golden Hind after being the first British sailor to circumnavigate the globe. In 1577, Drake had set sail from England with the aim of raiding Spanish possessions on the Pacific coast of
Mesopotamia. Domestication begins, also understood as the selection of the most suitable species and therefore the involuntary genetic modification of the species, of plants like wheat, peas, olives, and animals like sheep and goats. All this allows human groups to form villages, have surpluses to
On the Indonesian island of Flores, Homo floresiensis thrived, along with modern Homo sapiens. The Homo floresiensis species was discovered only in the early 21st century AD and bears an incredible resemblance to the Hobbit species invented and described by Tolkien a century earlier in
The freshwater melting of Arctic ice, accumulated in lakes in Northern Canada (particularly Lake Agassiz), overflows and suddenly flows into the Atlantic Ocean (and/or Arctic Sea); the sudden decrease in salinity disrupts the marine currents in the North Atlantic and causes the brief glacial episode
Sangamon Interglacial Period, a period of approximately 12,000 years of relative climatic stability, not unlike what we are experiencing now, over the past 12,000 years.