THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

07 August, 1974 – Daredevil walks on a high wire between twin towers of the WTC

French high-wire artist Philippe Petit, who was 24 years old at the time, walked eight times across a high wire between the two towers in 45 minutes. The high wire was 1,350 feet from the ground.


08 August, 1908 – Wright brothers publicly show their flying machine for the first time

The human air flight pioneers displayed their flying machine and its capabilities at a racecourse at Le Mans, France, five years after they made their first successful flight in 1903.


09 August, 1854 – Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden

An American transcendentalist, Thoreau wrote the book in a span of just over two years while residing near Walden Pond, a lake in Concord Massachusetts. The book is also known as Walden.


10 August, 2003 – The first person to get married while in space

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko was on the International Space Station when he married Ekaterina, located in Texas at the time of the wedding. The wedding took place through a NASA satellite.


11 August, 1999 – Last total solar eclipse of the millennium

The eclipse was visible from Europe, Asia, Africa and in parts of North America. Because of its path through populated parts of the world, the solar eclipse is thought to be one of the most viewed eclipses in history.


12 August, 1990 – The largest dinosaur fossil is found

American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson found the fossilised remains of a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the state of South Dakota.


13 August, 1960 – First two-way telephonic conversation with a satellite

The conversation was made possible due to NASA’s balloon satellite Echo 1, launched into space on August 12. The satellite worked as reflector – signals sent to it were reflected back to the Earth.

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