2011 – Death of Elisabetta (Betty) Pierazzo, age 47 cancer. She was a Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tuscon, Arizona. Her area of expertise lay in impact modeling throughout the solar system, and she was an expert on the astrobiological and environmental effects of impacts on Earth and Mars. Minor Planet 15339 was named for her. In 2015, a crater on the far side of the Moon was named in her honor. Also in 2015, a school in Noale, Italy (her home town) was named for her (Istituto Comprensivo di Noale Elisabetta “Betty” Pierazzo).
1963 – The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut L. Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space.
1960 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4
1958 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.
1836 – In Scotland Francis Baily, a British explorer and stockbroker who turned to astronomy at the age of 50, observed this day‘s total solar eclipse for which he explained the phenomenon at the beginning and ending of totality now known as Baily’s Beads. Baily helped found the Royal Astronomical Society of London, revised star catalogs, and studied meteorology. He died August 30, 1844.
1618 – Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion.
Birthdays
1857 – Birthday, Williamina Paton Fleming, Scottish astronomer who helped develop a common designation system for stars and discoverer of the Horeshead Nebula in 1888.
