Tag: 1965

On This Day 51 Years Ago – Mariner 4 dismissed the possibility of life on Mars!

On: By: Philip Wake
On 14 July 1965 Mariner 4 performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars. It captured the first images of another planet (ie not of Earth a moon) ever taken from deep space.  The pictures of a cratered, seemingly dead world drastically changed the view of the scientific community of the possibility of life on Mars - from possible to improbably if not impossible. Mariner 4 (together with Mariner 3 known as Mariner–Mars 1964) was the fourth in a series of spacecraft designed Read more [...]

On This Day 51 Years Ago – Great Train Robbery’s Tea-Boy escaped from Prison

On: By: Philip Wake
On 8th July 1965 Ronnie Biggs escaped from Wandsworth prison. He was one of the criminals who took part in the Great Train Robbery of 1963 in which  £2.6 million (equivalent to £49.1 million today) was stolen from a Royal Mail train heading between Glasgow and London in the early hours of 8th August 1963. Though the gang did not use any firearms Jack Mills the train driver was beaten over the head with a metal bar. His injuries were severe enough to end his career. It was the latter aspect Read more [...]

On This Day 51 Years ago – The First American Space-Walk

On: By: Philip Wake
On 3rd June 1965 Edward Higgins White became the first American to conduct a space-walk. The EVA took place during the Gemini 4 mission. The space-walk started at 3:45pm EDT on the third orbit when Ed White opened the hatch and used the hand-held manoeuvring unit (oxygen jet gun) to push himself out of the capsule. The EVA started over the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii and lasted 23 minutes, ending over the Gulf of Mexico. Initially, Ed White propelled himself to the end of the 8-meter tether Read more [...]