From today's featured article Challenger breaking up after the explosion The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members aboard. Challenger disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC), 73 seconds into its flight. The disaster was caused by the failure of the two O-ring seals in a joint in the Space Shuttle's right solid rocket booster in record-low temperatures. Several crew members are known to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft, but the impact of the crew compartment at terminal velocity with the ocean surface was too violent to be survivable, and the orbiter had no escape system. President Ronald Reagan created the Rogers Commission to investigate the accident; it criticized NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes that had contributed to the accident. There was a 32-month hiatus in the Space Shuttle program. To replace Challenger, the construction of Endeavour was approved in 1987, and the new orbiter first flew in 1992. (Full article...)
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Did you know ....jpg) St. James Theatre
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Six songs reached number one on the Harlem Hit Parade chart in 1942. Launched by Billboard in the same year, it ranked the "most popular records in Harlem". The chart was based on a survey of record stores primarily in the Harlem district of New York City. It is considered to be the start of the lineage of the magazine's R&B chart. Most of 1942's number ones were in the genres of jazz and swing, which were among the most popular styles of music in the early 1940s. The first chart-topper was "Take It and Git" by the tuba player and bandleader Andy Kirk and his band the Twelve Clouds of Joy, which occupied the top spot for a single week. The only song to spend multiple consecutive weeks at number one in 1942 was "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter and his orchestra, which reached the top spot in the December 19 issue of Billboard and remained there the following week. "Trav'lin' Light" by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra featuring Lady Day, a pseudonym for singer Billie Holiday (pictured), had the highest total number of weeks atop the chart in 1942, spending three non-consecutive weeks in the top spot. (Full list...)
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Ueno Tōshō-gū is a Shinto shrine located in the ward of Taitō in Tokyo, Japan. Tōshō-gū shrines are characterized by the enshrinement of Tokugawa Ieyasu under the name Tōshō Daigongen. This photograph shows Ueno Tōshō-gū's golden gate, which is a karamon, a type of mon in Japanese architecture characterized by the use of karahafu, a curved gable with a style peculiar to Japan. This karamon was built in 1651 and the Government of Japan has designated it an Important Cultural Property. Photograph credit: Basile Morin
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