🚀 The launch of Gemini 4 on June 3, 1965. Onboard are astronauts Jim McDivitt and Edward White

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😳 View of Earth from Gemini 4 spacecraft

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👨‍🚀 Edward White made the first American spacewalk

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Everyone has heard of the Mona Lisa, but less well-known than Leonardo da Vinci's painting are his notebooks. They show that he was a designer and scientist way beyond his time. He drew his visions of the aeroplane, the helicopter, the parachute, the submarine and the car. It was more than 300 years before many of his ideas were improved upon.

http://telegra.ph/The-Inventions-of-Leonardo-da-Vinci-06-13

On the day that the Great Smog descended on London 😷 5th December 1952 @facethenation

The Great Smog of London, lethal smog that covered the city of London for five days (December 5–9) in 1952, caused by a combination of industrial pollution and high-pressure weather conditions. This combination of smoke and fog brought the city to a near standstill and resulted in thousands of deaths.

The phenomenon of “London fog” long predated the crisis of the early 1950s. Known as “pea-soupers” for their dense, yellow appearance, such all-encompassing fogs had became a hallmark of London by the 19th century. These hazes were not natural formations of the atmosphere: water vapour would stick to particulates released by coal-burning factories, producing dark and heavy clouds that impaired visibility.

The Great Smog of 1952 was a pea-souper of unprecedented severity, induced by both weather and pollution. The result was the worst pollution-based fog in the city’s history.

Visibility was so impaired in some parts of London that pedestrians were unable to see their own feet. Aside from the Underground, transportation was severely restricted. Ambulance services suffered, leaving people to find their own way to hospitals in the smog. Many people simply abandoned their cars on the road. Indoor plays and concerts were cancelled as audiences were unable to see the stage, and crime on the streets increased. There was a spike in deaths and hospitalizations relating to pneumonia and bronchitis, and herds of cattle in Smithfield reportedly choked to death. Though the fog lasted five days, finally lifting on December 9, its severity was not fully appreciated until the registrar general published the number of fatalities a few weeks later, which amounted to about 4,000. The effects of the smog were long-lasting, however, and present-day estimates rank the number of deaths to have been about 12,000.

Between 1968 and 1972, NASA successfully sent 24 men 👨‍🚀 where no human beings had been before or since 🚀 🌕. The final mission, Apollo 17, flew in December 7, 1972 and closed the final chapter in NASA's triumphant Apollo Program @facethenation

The flag deployed during Apollo 17 has a unique history. It traveled to the Moon and back on Apollo 11, and hung on the wall of Mission Control afterwards. On the first day of the mission, Gene Cernan erected it in Taurus-Littrow lunar valley. As he deployed it, Cernan said, "This was one of the proudest moments of my life. I guarantee it." @facethenation

The city of Berkeley has always been a hotbed of civil unrest ✊

National Guardsmen faced off with Anti-Vietnam war demonstrators in Berkeley on May 22, 1969 — two days after helicopters sprayed tear gas on the University of California campus

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🛸 Navy's "Flying Platform" on April 9, 1955. The device is the first aircraft using a ducted fan for left and propulsion. The pilot controls horizontal flight by merely shifting his weight

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