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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.

At the onset of the 1940s, the War Department employed more than twenty-six thousand civilian and military personnel. The department occupied seventeen buildings throughout Washington, DC. The number of employees was projected to reach thirty thousand by 1942. The headquarters of the War Department was located in the Munitions Building, a temporary structure built during World War I. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson told President Franklin D. Roosevelt in May 1941 that his department needed more space, especially with war raging in Europe.

At the end of the 1930’s, the U.S. Navy began preparing to fight a war in both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. The Navy continued to rely heavily on battleships and aircraft carriers, but it also began building a fleet of long-range submarines. Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the Navy from the coast of California to Hawaii as a show of force, hoping to deter the Japanese from attacking. In the Atlantic, American submarines fought German U-boats in an unofficial naval war. When Roosevelt declared a state of emergency on September 8, 1939, the Navy was authorized to increase its number of enlisted personnel by almost sixty thousand, to 191,000. Officers and nurses in the reserves were also called back to active duty. On June 14, 1940, Roosevelt signed a bill authorizing the expansion of the Navy’s number of combatant ships by 11 percent as a precautionary measure. As the war in Europe spread, Congress passed a second bill, signed on July 19, increasing the size of the Navy by 1,325,000 tons of combatant ships.

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.