Mars. The red planet. A planet that has captured the human imagination for decades. Mars has been the feature of millions of Hollywood sci-fi movies that claimed it as the home of Aliens dubbed “Martians”. Humanity has long imagined what it would be like on Mars and created fancy sceneries for it, ranging from advanced Alien colonies to barren wastelands. For some reason, people and … Continue reading Viking 1: A Retrospective
On this day in 1936 Alan Turing published his famous paper On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem. Today Turing is widely considered the father of modern computers and the field of cryptography during WWII. He worked at the Bletchley Park research complex in England, which while renowned today was kept a closely guarded secret during the war. Code breakers at Bletchley Park … Continue reading This Day in History: 5/28/20
On this day, May 21st, in 1919, the US House of Representatives passed the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. It was the second time the House had passed this amendment. The first time, on January 10th, the Senate refused to pass the Amendment when it came to them, so it was re-introduced to the House four months later, when it was successfully … Continue reading This Day in History: 5/21/2020
On May 14th 1264, a usurper took control of England. At the Battle of Lewes an alliance of rebel barons led by Simon de Montfort confronted the forces of King Henry III and his son, Prince Edward. As in most rebellions, the barons were fighting to take power from the king, as well as for various other complicated reasons. King Henry’s forces had the advantage … Continue reading This Day in History: Rebellion, Democracy, and Kidnapping
On this day in 1915, the British passenger liner Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-Boat as part of the unrestricted submarine warfare campaign that took place during WWI. The Lusitania was attacked while on route from Liverpool, England to New York City. It is unclear whether German forces intentionally sank the Lusitania or if they mistook it for a military ship, but … Continue reading This Day in History: 5/7/20
On this day in 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States. Now you might be expecting a lengthy article about the American Revolution and how proud we are of American independence, but you already know that story so why not read about a different story. Less well known than the American Revolutionary War is the war that came right … Continue reading This Day in History: 4/30/20
On April 16th in 1457, the army of Pharaoh Thutmose III defeated a coalition of rebellious kings at the city of Megiddo. The battle, now known as the Battle of Megiddo, is considered to be one of the earliest battles to have a reliable, if biased, historical account, having been recorded by Thutmose’s military scribe Tjaneni. Thutmose III was the step-son of Hatshepsut, the first … Continue reading This Day in History: 4/16/20
On this day in 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, marking the effective end of the US Civil War. The Confederate army had already been in desperate retreat for days by the time the surrender was formalized at Appomattox Court House. In fact, one of the terms of the final surrender agreement was that the Confederate soldiers would … Continue reading This Day in History: April 9
On this day in 2015, NASA’s Dawn probe entered orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres. Ceres is one of only five dwarf planets in the solar system, and the only dwarf planet in the asteroid belt. Upon entering orbit, Dawn became the first spacecraft to enter orbit around an object in the asteroid belt. NASA lost contact with Dawn on October 31st, 2018, but the … Continue reading This Day in History: 3/6/2020
This week the City Voice will be starting our new series of this day in history articles. Every week, we’ll bring you a story of a historical event that happened on this day. This week, we are talking about the discovery of DNA. The existence of DNA itself was first recognized in 1869, but the classic double helix structure that is so prevalent today was … Continue reading This Day in History: 2/28/20
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