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Gemini 6A was a manned spaceflight in NASA’s Gemini program. It was the fifth manned Gemini flight, the thirteenth manned American flight and the twenty-first spaceflight of all time. It was the last United States spacecraft to be flown using batteries as the primary power source.

Gemini 6 was originally intended to be the first mission to dock with an Agena Target Vehicle. However, after a failure in the Agena Target six minutes after its launch, the mission was canceled. NASA decided to substitute an alternate mission: a meeting in space of two Gemini spacecraft. Gemini 6A would launch eight days after the launch of Frank Borman and Jim Lovell’s Gemini 7.

Walter Schirra and Thomas Safford made it into orbit three days later in the Gemini 6A. Using guidance from the computer as well as his own piloting, Schirra performed the space rendezvous with the companion spacecraft in orbit on the afternoon of December 15. Once in formation, the two Gemini capsules flew around each other, coming within a foot of each other, but never touching. One of Gemini’s primary goals – orbital rendezvous – had been achieved.

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The Treaty of Paris of 1898 ended the Spanish-American War. American and Spanish delegates met in Paris on October 1, 1898 to produce a treaty that would bring an end to the war after six months of hostilities. The Treaty provided that Cuba would become independent from Spain, but the United States Congress made sure it would be under American control.

Spain relinquished all claim of sovereignty over Cuba and it was to be occupied by the U.S. The Treaty also assured that Spain would cede to the U.S. the island of Puerto Rico and other islands, as well as the island of Guam. The major conflict concerned the situation of the Philippines. The Spanish argued that it could not be demanded as war conquest, but they eventually yielded because they had no other choice.

The U.S. ultimately paid Spain #20 million for possession of the Philippines. The controversial treaty was the subject of debate in the U.S. Senate during the winter of 1898-1899, and it was approved on February 6, 1899 by a vote 57 to 27, only one vote more than two-thirds majority required. The defeat put an end to the Spanish Empire in America and one year later in the Pacific Ocean, marked the beginning of an age of U.S. colonial power.

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The John Birch Society is a political education and action organization founded by Robert W. Welch Jr. in Indianapolis, Indiana. The society is associated with traditionally conservative causes such as anti-communism, support for individual rights, and the ownership of private property. It promotes United States independence and sovereignty and opposes globalism and international regional groups.

The society was established by a group of 12 men led by Welch, a retired candy manufacturer while another founding member was Fred Koch, founder of Koch Industries, one of the largest private corporations in America. A transcript of Welch’s two-day presentation at the founding meeting was published as The Blue Book of the John Birch Society and became a cornerstone of its beliefs, with each new member receiving a copy.

Welch saw “collectivism” as the main threat to Western Civilization, and liberals as “secret communist traitors” who provide cover for the gradual process of collectivism. One of the first public activities of the JBS was a “Get US Out!” (of membership in the United Nations) campaign. One Man’s Opinion, a magazine launched by Welch in 1956, was renamed American Opinion and became the JBS’ official publication.

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Apollo 17 was the 11th manned space mission in the NASA Apollo program. It was the first night launch of a United States human spaceflight and the 6th and final lunar landing mission of the Apollo program. The mission was launched on December 7, 1972 and concluded on December 19.

One of the last two men to set foot on the Moon was also the first scientist-astronaut, geologist Harrison Schmitt. While Ronald Evans circled in America, Schmitt and Eugene Cernan collected a record 240 lbs of rocks during three Moonwalks. The crew roamed for 21 miles through the Taurus-Littrow valley in their rover, discovered orange-colored soil, and left the most comprehensive set of instruments on the ALSEP on the lunar surface.

The landing site for this mission was on the southeastern rim of the Mare Serenitatis, in the southwestern Montes Taurus. There area also contained a landslide, several impact craters, and some dark craters which could be volcanic. On this mission, the astronauts took a famous photograph of the Earth known as “The Blue Marble,” which shows almost the entire continent of Africa and Antarctica.

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Vanguard TV3 was the first attempt by the United States to launch a satellite into orbit around the Earth. It was a small satellite designed to test the launch capabilities of the three-stage Vanguard rocket and study the effects of the environment on a satellite and its systems in Earth orbit.

At its launch attempt on December 6, 1957 at Cape Canaveral, the booster ignited and began to rise but about two seconds after lift off, after rising about four feet, the rocket lost thrust and began to settle back down to the launch pad. As it settled against the launch pad, the fuel tanks ruptured and exploded, destroying the rocket and severely damaging the launch pad.

The Vanguard satellite was thrown clear and landed on the ground a short distance away but was damaged and could not be reused. It is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. The exact cause of the accident was never determined with certainty, but the commonly accepted explanation is that low fuel tank pressure during the start procedure allowed some of the burning fuel to leak into the fuel system.

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D.B. Cooper is the name attributed to a man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the United States, received $200,000 in ransom, and parachuted from the plane. He was not apprehended and despite hundreds of leads through the years, no conclusive evidence has surfaced regarding Cooper’s true identity or whereabouts, and the bulk of the money has never been recovered. Several theories offer competing explanations of what happened after his jump, which the FBI believes he did not survive.

On the day before Thanksgiving, a man traveling under the name Dan Cooper boarded a Boeing 727-100 Northwest Orient Flight 305 flying from Portland International Airport to Seattle. After the jet had taken off, he handed a note to a young flight attendant and told her he had a bomb and was hijacking the plane. Cooper demanded $200,000 and two sets of parachutes. The pilots informed the FBI who told them to cooperate with the man. The plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport once Cooper’s demands were met.

The plane refueled and took off with Cooper, the money, and the parachutes. Eventually, he lowered the aft stairs and jumped out of the plane never to be seen again. The nature of Cooper’s escape and the uncertainty of his fate continue to intrigue people. The case has baffled government and private investigators for decades with countless leads turning into dead ends.

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The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, took place in Dallas, Texas. He was fatally wounded by gunshots while riding with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy in a Presidential motorcade. The ten-month investigation by the Warren Commission, the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, and other government investigations concluded that the President was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Just before 12:30 pm, Kennedy’s limousine entered Dealey Plaza and slowly approached the Texas School Book Depository head-on. When the Presidential limo turned and passed the Depository and continued down Elm Street, shots were fired at Kennedy with the great majority of witnesses recalling hearing three shots. Governor Connally, riding in the same limo, was also critically injured but survived. The staff at Parkland Hospital’s Trauma Room who treated Kennedy observed that he had no chance of survival and was pronounced dead at 1 pm.

The assassination is still the subject of widespread speculation and has spawned numerous conspiracy theories, none of which have been proven. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations found both the original FBI investigation and the Warren Commission Report to be seriously flawed. It also concluded that at least four shots were fired and that it was probable that a conspiracy existed.

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The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal took place from November 12, 1941 to November 15, 1942 and was the decisive engagement in a series of naval battles between Allied and Imperial Japanese forces during the months-long Guadalcanal campaign in the Solomon Islands. The action consisted of combined air and sea engagements over four days and related to a Japanese effort to reinforce land forces on the island.

Allied forces had landed on Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942 and seized an airfield that was under construction by the Japanese military. Several subsequent attempts by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy to recapture the airfield failed. In early November 1942, the Japanese organized a transport convoy in an attempt to once again retake the airfield.

To allow the convoy to approach the island and deliver its cargo, the Japanese navy sent several warship forces to bombard the airfield. U.S. forces intercepted the Japanese convoy and warships with aircraft and warship attacks. In the resulting battle, both sides lost numerous warships in two extremely destructive nighttime surface engagements, with the U.S. suffering more warships sunk. However, the U.S. was successful in turning back attempts by the Japanese to bombard the airfield.

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The Flat Hat Club or F.H.C. Society was the first of the collegiate secret societies or fraternities founded in the present United States, at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The initials of the F.H.C. Society stand for a Latin phrase that translates into “brotherhood, humaneness, and knowledge.”

As members of the first American collegiate fraternity in the modern sense, the brothers of the F.H.C. devised and employed a secret handshake, wore a silver membership medal, issued certificates of membership, and met regularly for discussion and fellowship. The Society became publicly known as the “Flat Hat Club” in probably allusion to the motherboard caps then commonly worn by all students at the College.

U.S. President Thomas Jefferson is perhaps the most famous member of the Flat Hat Club. Other notable members of the original society included Col. James Innes, St. George Tucker, and George Wythe. A second Latin-latter fraternity, the P.D.A. Society was founded at William and Mary in March 1773 in imitation of the F.H.C. Society. The modern F.H.C. Society was revived in May 1972. It remains an all-male fraternity with most of its activities comparatively secret within the university.

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The Levelland UFO Case occurred around the small town of Levelland, Texas, located west of Lubbock on the flat prairie of the panhandle. The case is considered to be one of the most impressive in UFO history, mainly because of the large number of witnesses involved over a relatively short period of time.

The incident began late on the evening of November 2 when two immigrant farm workers called the police department to report a UFO sighting. They said that they saw a blue flash of light near the road and claimed that their truck’s engine died. Then, a rocket-shaped object rose up, approached the truck and, as it moved away, the truck’s engine restarted. An hour later, a motorist reported an egg-shaped object was sitting in the road, blocking his path and glowing bright blue.

Several other people in the area experienced similar encounters. The Levelland sightings received national publicity and were soon investigated by Project Blue Book, which had been created by the United States Air Force to investigate UFO reports. The Air Force investigators concluded that a severe electrical storm was the major cause of the sightings and reported automobile failures.

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