Thursday, November 28, 2013

Today in 1520, Ferdiand Magellan became the first European navigator to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean

Magellan was a Portuguese Navigator working in the service of Charles V the king of Spain.

Ferdinand Magellan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When Spain finally realized that the new lands to the West were not the Indies, but rather a new continent, they still desperately needed to find a route that would take them to the Spice Islands (modern Maluku Islands of Indonesia) of Asia. Charles V hired Ferdinand Magellan to find such a route. The fleet of five ships was outfitted with supplies for two years and lasted from 1519 to 1522 and employed 270 sailors from eight European countries. Magellan foolishly agreed to help out a local chieftain by attacking his rival and was killed in the battle with a bamboo spear.

Only one ship (the Victoria) and 18 of the original 270 men made it all the way around the globe and back to Spain.

Ferdinand Magellan

(below) Magellan's Route

When

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Baruch Spinoza (1632-77), a Dutch rationalist philosopher born a Portuguese Jew, was born today, Nov. 24, in 1632.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
"His extremely naturalistic views on God, the world, the human being and knowledge serve to ground a moral philosophy centered on the control of the passions leading to virtue and happiness. They also lay the foundations for a strongly democratic political thought and a deep critique of the pretensions of Scripture and sectarian religion. Of all the philosophers of the seventeenth-century, perhaps none have more relevance today than Spinoza."

Baruch Spinoza

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Spinoza was expelled from his Jewish Synagogue at age 23 for his radically modern views and was shunned. His books were later put on the Catholic Church's Index of forbidden books.

He was a forerunner of the modern Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism.

Spinoza lived an outwardly simple life supporting himself as a lens grinder and turned down all honors and teaching opportunities and died of a lung disease at age 44. He also turned down his inheritance and allowed it to go to his sister. He has been called the Prince of Philosophers.

IEP: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Saturday, November 23, 2013

C.S. Lewis, Aldous Huxley and JFK all died 50 years ago today

JFK was assassinated 50 years ago today. That same day, authors C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley also died.

Huxley was the author of "Brave New World" and numerous essays of social and cultural criticism.

Lewis was the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain and the Great Divorce.

JFK guided the nation through the Cuban Missile Crisis and came up with the idea of reducing taxes to stimulate economic productivity (believe it or not!)

Zapruder Film Slow Motion (HIGHER QUALITY):

Thursday, November 21, 2013

First manned hot air baloon flight in 1783.Ben Franklin was watching!

The first manned flight in an un-tethered hot-air balloon took place in Paris on this day in 1783.

On November 21, 1783, physicist Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier, along with the Marquis d'Arlandes, became the first humans to fly. Their flight, in a hot air balloon designed by brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier, was witnessed by thousands in Paris, including the royal family and Benjamin Franklin, and soon inspired a ballooning craze.

Wikipedia: First manned flight

King Louis XVI had proposed sending condemned criminals on that dangerous first flight, but was persuaded otherwise.

APS Physics: Today in Physics History

On November 21, 1783, the balloon was ready for the first human passengers. Although King Louis XVI said he wanted to send prisoners on this potentially dangerous experiment, physicist Pilatre de Rozier volunteered for the honor of being the first to fly in an untethered hot air balloon.

He and the Marquis d’Arlandes, who bravely agreed to accompany him, lifted off from the center of Paris, rose to a height of about 3000 feet, and drifted for about 25 minutes before landing in the outskirts of the city, about five miles from where they began.

These early balloon flights were witnessed by Benjamin Franklin, who was in Paris at the time as ambassador to France. Franklin, intrigued by the idea of flight, predicted that hot air balloons would soon be used in the military for spying. Franklin died before being able to take a balloon ride himself.