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SOLRAD 1 was a science and surveillance satellite launched into orbit on June 22, 1960. Developed by the US Naval Research Laboratory, it was the first satellite to successfully observe solar X-rays, the first to conduct surveillance from orbit, and the first to be launched with another instrumented satellite (the unrelated navigation satellite, Transit 2A). The scientific mission was a success, sending data that determined normal solar X-ray output and confirmed the connection between increased solar X-ray activity and radio fade-outs. The Galactic Radiation and Background electronic surveillance package on board had a covert mission: mapping the Soviet Union's air defense radar network. This mission was also successful, operating through September 22, 1960, and revealing that the network was more extensive than had been expected. SOLRAD 1 was switched off in April 1961, making it the first satellite to be remotely deactivated. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Nikolai Yegipko

... that Soviet Vice-Admiral Nikolai Yegipko (pictured) had once been rejected for membership in the Komsomol after it was reported that he used "perfumed" soap?
... that Thurrock services was built on top of a rubbish dump?
... that while American social media celebrity Olivia Jade said, "I don't really care about school", she applied and was accepted to the University of Southern California?
... that the fatwa against insulting revered Sunni figures issued by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was described as winning "widespread praise"?
... that silent film actress Fannie Bourke ran a 500-seat "votes for women" movie theatre in New Rochelle, New York?
... that in 2018, an asteroid measuring 12 meters (39 feet) across exploded in an air burst over the Bering Sea near the Kamchatka Peninsula with the force of 173 kilotons of TNT?
... that Orvar Swenson performed the first successful surgery to treat Hirschsprung's disease, a birth defect which causes megacolon?
... that during the Canada–Philippines waste dispute, Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte threatened to declare war on Canada over 103 mislabeled shipping containers of household trash?

In the news

Mohamed Morsi

At least 184 people are killed by a heat wave in India.
Former President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi (pictured) dies during his trial, at the age of 67.
An outbreak of acute encephalitis in Bihar, India, results in the deaths of more than 100 children.
A power outage affects Argentina, Uruguay and parts of Paraguay.
In golf, Gary Woodland wins the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

On this day

June 22

King George V and Queen Mary

813 – Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: A vastly outnumbered Bulgarian Empire force defeated a Byzantine army in the Battle of Versinikia.
1807 – The British warship HMS Leopard pursued and attacked the American frigate USS Chesapeake in the belief that the latter had deserters from the Royal Navy.
1911 – George V and Mary of Teck (both pictured) were crowned king and queen of the United Kingdom at Westminster Abbey in London.
1941 – World War II: As Axis troops began their invasion of the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian Activist Front started an uprising to liberate Lithuania from Soviet occupation.
2009 – Two Metro trains in Washington, D.C., collided, killing nine people and injuring eighty others.

Lucrezia Tornabuoni (b. 1427) · Matthew Henry (d. 1714) · Judy Garland (d. 1969)

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The Yugoslav dinar was the currency of the three Yugoslav states: the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), between 1918 and 2006. It was subdivided into 100 para. The currency was inaugurated in 1918, with the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, replacing the Serbian dinar. In the early years, it circulated alongside the Yugoslav krone, the successor of the Austro-Hungarian krone. In the early 1990s, the currency was subject to what has been described as the worst hyperinflation in history, as economic mismanagement made the government bankrupt and forced it to take money from the savings of the country's citizens. Inflation rates reached over one billion per cent per year, which led to five revaluations of the currency between 1990 and 1994. In total, there were eight distinct dinari, six of which were given distinguishing names and separate ISO 4217 codes.

This picture shows the obverse (top) and reverse (bottom) sides of a ten-dinara banknote of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, dated 1920. It was engraved and printed by the American Bank Note Company. The obverse features an allegory engraved by Robert Savage, entitled "Progress".

Banknote credit: American Bank Note Company; imaged by Andrew Shiva

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