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Uranus was observed as early as 1690, but astronomers thought it was a star. Using a telescope he built himself, British astronomer Sir William Herschel observed Uranus over a series of nights in 1781. Herschel initially reported to the Royal Society that he had discovered a new comet. After tracking the “comet” for two years, astronomers finally agreed that Uranus was actually the seventh planet in the solar system.

When Uranus was first observed (perhaps as early as 1690), many astronomers considered it to be a star rather than a planet. British astronomer William Herschel studied Uranus in 1781 when he thought he had discovered a new comet. After two years of further study, astronomers agreed that Uranus was, in fact, a planet.

Ground-based telescopes have a long history of advancing astronomy research. Starting in the 1960s, large ground-based telescopes,situated in advantageous locations on the Earth’s surface and having apertures larger than 250 centimeters,were used to explore and further study objects in our solar system. For example, in the 1950s, the Martian atmosphere was believed to be thin, and, based on the intensity and polarization of Martian reflected light, Martian surface pressure was determined to be only 5 to 10 percent of that on the Earth. Designers of preliminary Martian landers used this value when deciding whether a descent to the Martian surface should be affected by a balloon, glider, or downward-pointing rocket engine. Also, the presence of this much atmosphere suggested that Martian life might exist, as there would be enough air to breathe (if free oxygen were present) and enough protection from ultraviolet light and extreme temperature changes.

Denmark became a state during the tenth century and a constitutional monarchy in 1849. Its citizens often rank as the happiest in the world in global surveys, and the country is the second most peaceful in the world. Denmark is located on the Jutland Peninsula in northern Europe. It borders the Baltic and North Seas and Germany to the south. Sweden is located to the northeast. The country also includes the islands of Fyn, Sjælland, and several other smaller ones. Its position gives it control of the Danish Straits, which link the Baltic and North Seas. Denmark is a low-lying nation, prone to flooding, that is protected from the sea by a series of dikes. The elevation of the country ranges from 171 meters above sea level to 7 meters below sea level. Denmark is a pioneer in harnessing energy from wind power, combating the country’s air pollution problem. Approximately one-quarter of the population lives in the capital city of Copenhagen. Denmark joined the European Union in 1973 but did not adopt the euro as its currency. Denmark’s standard of living and per-capita gross national product are among the world’s highest. The country is also a welfare state, leading the world in income equality. Among Denmark’s top resources are limestone, chalk, natural gas, petroleum, and salt.

After Uranus’s discovery, scientists noticed that it did not behave as expected. They concluded that the gravitational effects of a yet unknown planet caused discrepancies noted in Uranus’s orbit. In the early 1840s, British astronomer John Adams and French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier independently calculated the unknown planet’s orbit and mass. In 1846, German astronomer Johann Galle discovered Neptune within one or two degrees of its predicted location.

The crash of the USS Shenandoah is among the United States’ most dramatic aviation disasters. The airship encountered severe winds that carried it higher into the sky than it could withstand. It ultimately broke in two and crashed in southern Ohio, killing fourteen of the men on board.

Mexico is located in North America, sharing a border with the United States to the north. It is bordered to the south by Belize and Guatemala in Central America. To the east, Mexico borders the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The country’s western shore meets the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of California, and the Gulf of Tehuantepec. Only about one-third of Mexico is flat. A chain of volcanic mountains runs east-west across the country just south of Mexico City. Plateaus also dominate the landscape. The Sierra Madre mountain chains surround the region’s plateau in a V shape. The Sonoran Desert covers the area east of the Gulf of California. Mexico’s economy is the eleventh largest in the world. In 2021, the average annual income was $19,100. A large portion of Mexico’s income results from oil production. The country is a leading producer of silver and also mines copper, lead, zinc, and gold.

A founding member of the European Union, Italy became a nation-state in 1861 and a republic in 1946. Italy is a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea in southern Europe. The country comprises a boot-shaped mainland, the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, and several smaller islands. Italy shares borders with Austria, Switzerland, France, San Marino, and Slovenia. Natural threats to the nation include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, mudslides, and avalanches, along with land subsidence in Venice. Three-quarters of the country is mountainous; the Alps stretch across the northern region, and the Apennines run southward along the peninsula. The southern area of the country has four active volcanoes, including Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etna. In 2008, Italy’s economy was the fourth largest in Europe and seventh worldwide. The country is known for its cuisine, wine, cheese, olive oil, and marble. Italy has played a large role in European and global history. Home to Etruscans and later the Romans, Italy has been influential in the fields of architecture, literature, painting, sculpture, science, education, government, philosophy, music, and fashion.

Mexican-born baseball player. Baldomero Melo Almada Quiros, better known as Mel Almada (ahl-MAH-dah), was born February 7, 1913, in Huatabampo, located in northwestern Mexico along the Gulf of California. He was one of the eight children of Baldomero Almada and Amelia Quiros Almada, wealthy upper-class landowners. Baldomero was a descendant of conquistadors and Amelia from Spanish nobility. Baldomero was appointed governor of Baja California but the previous governor, Esteban Cantu, refused to give up the position. Hoping to escape the turmoil and violence of the Mexican Revolution, the family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1914.

John Nelson Wanamaker (WAHN-ah-may-kehr), the oldest of seven children, was born on July 11, 1838, in Philadelphia. His father, Nelson, owned a small brickyard. Young Wanamaker helped turn bricks out of molds so they could dry in the family’s backyard. He attended school for three years, starting at age nine. As a teenager, he worked in men’s clothing stores, becoming a manager by age nineteen. He quit this job for health reasons and spent his savings traveling the country. In 1858, Wanamaker became the secretary of the Philadelphia Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), earning $1,000 a year. Wanamaker married Mary Brown on September 27, 1860.

The Lincoln Memorial, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was constructed to honor Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States. In the years since its dedication in 1922, the monument has also become a symbolic setting for social and political gatherings.

Horacio Rivero, Jr. (oh-RAHS-see-oh rih-VEHR-oh) was born on May 16, 1910, to Horacio Rivero and Margarita DeLucca Rivero, who also had two daughters, Sara and Lydia. The family lived in Ponce, located along the southern coast of Puerto Rico. Rivero attended public school in Ponce before graduating from Central High School in San Juan. Growing up along the coast, Rivero always wanted to join the Navy. He was the second alternate in line for the appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy given by Puerto Rico’s commissioner Felix Cordova Davila. After the principal and first alternate appointees failed the academy’s entrance exam, Rivero was given the spot on June 20, 1927, when he was seventeen years old.

American outlaw and folk hero. Tiburcio Vásquez (tee-BUR-see-oh VAHS-kehz) is one of the most well-known Latino outlaws and folk heroes. It is impossible to separate the myths from the facts about his life; many sources give conflicting information. He was born in Monterey California, but his birth date is unclear; later in life, while he was in prison, Vasquez told a reporter from the Los Angeles Star his birth year was 1835 and he told a reporter from the Los Angeles Herald it was 1837. His tombstone lists only a year, 1835. Vásquez’s parents, José Hermenegildo Vásquez and Maria Guadalupe Cantua, had five other children—three sons and two daughters. Vásquez’s father owned a small area of land and worked as a farmer. Vásquez’s great-grandfather is believed to have been part of the 1776 Juan Bautista de Anza expedition, which was the first European attempt to establish an overland route from Mexico to California’s Pacific coast. Vásquez attended school, spoke English and Spanish, and could read and write proficiently. His criminal career began as a teenager in 1854 (some sources say 1852 or 1853). Vásquez was at a dance when a fight broke out between several Latino, American, and Irish men. Constable William Hardmount was shot and killed trying to break up the fight. Vásquez fled with Anastacio Garcia, a dangerous bandit. Garcia taught Vásquez how to be an outlaw and bandit. Vásquez often explained his crimes as his effort to reclaim California from the invading Caucasian Americans, who began to arrive after the discovery of gold in 1848.

Dutch physicist. Pieter Zeeman Pieter Zeeman was born May 25, 1865, in the small town of Zonnemarie in the Netherlands. Zonnemarie is in the Zeeland province on the island of Schouwen, in the southeastern part of the country. Zeeman’s parents, Catharinus Farandinus Zeeman and Wilhelmina Worst, had six children: four sons and two daughters. Catharinus was a Lutheran minister. Wilhelmina home-schooled Zeeman and his siblings through elementary school. Zeeman then attended secondary school in Zierikzee, the island’s major city. Zeeman was still in high school on November 17, 1882, when a massive geomagnetic storm disrupted telegraphs and created auroras worldwide. He observed and sketched the aurora as a pale green arch that formed in the eastern sky. Zeeman sent letters with his description and drawings to the journal Nature, and they were published in 1883. After graduating, he attended school in Delft for two years, studying classical languages and reading papers by leading scientists. While there, Zeeman met physicist H. Kamerlingh Onnes, who was a pioneer in refrigeration technology and later discovered superconductivity.

William Mills Wrigley (RIHG-lee), Jr., was born on September 30, 1861, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents, William Wrigley, Sr., and Mary Ann Ladley Wrigley, had married on December 3, 1860. William, Sr., was a soap maker, and in 1870 he founded the Wrigley Manufacturing Company, which made Wrigley’s Scouring Soap. William, Jr., and a friend ran away to Manhattan at age eleven, where William worked selling newspapers. He soon returned to Philadelphia and quit school at age thirteen to work for his father. He made $1.50 a week stirring a vat of liquid soap in the factory and later became a soap salesman. As a teenager, Wrigley traveled from city to city, convincing merchants to carry Wrigley’s Scouring Soap in their stores. He married Ada Foote in 1885, and their daughter Dorothy was born in July, 1886; eight years later, the couple had a son, Philip.

The Netherlands declared independence from Spain in 1579, and by the 1600’s it had the world’s first modern economy. The Netherlands was one of the top commercial and seafaring powers of the time. It had also established colonies around the world. The small nation is located in Western Europe along the North Sea. The 451-kilometer coastline gives the country easy access to ocean trade routes; the country is often called the gateway to Europe. The Netherlands also shares borders with Germany and Belgium. Three main rivers—the Rhine, Schelde, and Meuse—divide the country. Most of the southwestern region of the Netherlands is part of a large river delta. Twenty-seven percent of the country is below sea level. An extensive set of dikes protects the Netherlands from flooding and erosion. The Netherlands’ economy is the sixteenth largest in the world. The nation was ranked ninth in overall global competitiveness in 2007. The average annual income that year was $31,700. The country was a founding member of the European Union, joining in 1952.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was constructed in 1921 to honor the numerous unidentified soldiers killed in action during World War I. Located in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, the white marble tomb was designed by Lorimer Rich and sculpted by Thomas Hudson Jones.

William Henry Vanderbilt (VAN-duhr-bihlt) was born on May 8, 1821, to Cornelius and Sophia Vanderbilt. As a child, William was frail and often sickly. Because of his ill health, his father never thought much of William and regularly insulted him. Even into adulthood, Cornelius believed that William was not smart enough to run the family business and called him names like “beetlehead,” “blockhead,” and “good for nothing.” When William was a teenager, Cornelius got him a job in a New York banking house. The two men had a falling-out when William was nineteen and decided to marry Maria Louisa Kissam. Cornelius felt that his son’s decision to marry the daughter of a poor minister from Brooklyn exhibited bad judgment.

Cuban-born soldier. The majority of information known about Loreta Janeta Velázquez (loh-REH-tah jah-NEH-tah veh-LAHS-kehz) comes from her autobiography, The Woman in Battle, published in 1876. She was born in Havana, Cuba, on June 26, 1842. Her father was a Spanish government official and her mother was French American. Velázquez had three older brothers and two older sisters. In 1844, the family moved from Cuba to Mexico (to an area that is now part of Texas), where her father owned plantations. Her father fought for Mexico in the Mexican-American War and became very bitter toward Americans.

Mexican-born outlaw and folk hero. According to church records, Joaquín Murieta (wah-KEEN MYEW-ree-EH-tuh) was born in 1830 in the Sonora region of Mexico. His mother, Rosalia, had been previously married. Murieta occasionally used the last name of her first husband, Carrillo, as an alias.

Charles Stark Draper was born to Arthur and Martha Draper in Windsor, Missouri. His father was a dentist and his mother was a schoolteacher. In 1917, Draper enrolled in the University of Missouri, where he planned to study medicine. In 1919, he transferred to Stanford University in California, graduating in 1922 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He then attended Herald’s Radio College in order to work as a ship radio operator. After finishing his training, Draper took a road trip cross-country with a friend who was attending Harvard. On their way to Boston, they drove through Cambridge. Draper was taken with the town, especially the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). That day, he enrolled in MIT’s electrochemical program.

On Valentine’s Day of 1929, five members of Chicago mobster George “Bugs” Moran’s gang and two others were murdered by a group of men dressed as police officers. Known as the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, the event was thought to have been orchestrated by rival gangster Al Capone in an attempt to consolidate his power over organized crime in Chicago.

Architect. Cesar Pelli Cesar Pelli was born October 12, 1926, in Tucumán, Argentina. His mother worked as a teacher, lecturer, and writer. Pelli was exposed to European and American cultural influences as well as Argentine culture while growing up. As a boy, he read that architects needed to be good at drawing and appreciate history; Pelli liked both, so he decided to pursue architecture as a career.

Archaeoastronomy combines astronomy and archaeology into a study of ancient civilizations that focuses on the relationship between their observations of sky phenomena and their science, religion, architecture, and cultural practices. In advancing the discipline, astronomers and archaeologists work alongside ethnographers, geographers, anthropologists, mathematicians, historians, and others. However, many interpretations of archaeoastronomy are controversial and open to alternate explanations.

Construction of the Squalus began on October 18, 1937, in the Portsmouth Navy Yard in New Hampshire. The Squalus was commissioned on March 1, 1939, under the command of Oliver Naquin. The submarine began a series of test dives near the Isles of Shoals and made its nineteenth on the morning of May 23. The dive was routine until the vessel reached a depth of sixty feet, when the engine rooms began to flood. Twenty-six men died when the after section of the submarine flooded. The Squalus came to rest at a depth of 243 feet, with the bow at an angle of eleven degrees. The Squalus sent up a marker buoy along with signal rockets. While waiting to be rescued, the crew put on their Momsen lungs, which they used as gas masks. The lung recycled exhaled air using an oblong rubber bag containing soda lime.

Argentine-born architect. Eduardo Fernando Catalano (ehd-WAHR-doh fehr-NAHN-doh kaht-ah-LAH-noh) was born December 19, 1917, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the youngest child of a commercial artist. Little is known about his early life in Argentina. Catalano studied architecture at Buenos Aires University. He came to the United States after winning a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania. Catalano continued his studies in architecture at Harvard University under architect Walter Gropius and architect and furniture designer Marcel Breuer; Gropius and Breuer are considered two of the pioneers of modernist architecture. Modernist architecture is characterized by simple, unembellished designs and buildings often constructed of glass, steel, and concrete.

Mexican-born criminal and activist. Juan Nepomuceno Cortina (NEH-poh-mew-SAY-noh cohr-TEE-nah) was born May 16, 1824, in Camargo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. His parents, Estefana Goseacochea and Trinidad Cortina, both had been married before and each had two sons. In addition to Cortina, Estefana and Trinidad had two more children together, Jose Maria and Maria del Carmen. Cortina, nicknamed Cheno, was slender, with reddish-blond hair and gray eyes.

ACTOR AND DESIGNER

Lauren started his fashion empire with a line of men’s neckties in 1967 and expanded to clothing, home furnishings, luggage, and accessories—a complete lifestyle.