Faster Than The Speed Of Sound!
Today, October 14, in 1947 was the day that famed test pilot Chuck Yeager flew this very airplane, the Bell X-1, faster than the speed of sound. He reached 700mph at 43,000 ft. It was a speed that had seemed totally impenetrable until then. Yeager nick-named the plane “Glamorous Glennis” in tribute to his wife. This is the actual airplane as I photographed it at The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.
Credit goes to my friend Brooks Wachtel who in his daily on Facebook “On This Day” covers the most interesting things in world history. Brooks is an Emmy winning writer who co-created the very respected series “DogFights” for the History Channel among his extensive accomplishments.
“Mississippi Burning” 50 Years Ago Today
Fifty years ago today, three Civil Rights workers were murdered by members of the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan including members of the Neshoba County Sheriff’s Department and Philadelphia Police Department of Mississippi. James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael “Mickey” Schwerner were working on the “Freedom Summer” campaign registering people to vote. This story has been retold in the 1988 motion picture “Mississippi Burning” which was actually the name given the investigation by the FBI. Outrage over the murders of these three young men were among the many outrages that led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
My photograph here… So ordinary but yet so very profound in the history of this country and in all humanity… A section of the lunch counter from Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina that became pivotal in the protests against racial discrimination on Feb. 1, 1960. A non-violent protest by four very brave students, five months later the entire Woolworth’s chain was desegregated, serving blacks and whites alike.
One of the very moving and extraordinary things I saw, many unexpectedly, on my trip last year. On display at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History in Washington D.C.
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