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On 19 August 1960, 65 years ago this week, a court in Moscow handed a US pilot, Francis Gary Powers, a 10-year sentence after he was apprehended by Soviet security forces. The BBC reported on what became a Cold War diplomatic disaster. Francis Gary Powers was on a CIA spying mission over Soviet Russia when his U-2 plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile. "I looked up, looked out, and just everything was orange, everywhere," Powers recalled. "I don't know whether it was the reflection in the canopy itself or just the whole sky. And I can remember saying to...

On December 15, 1961, an Israeli court in Jerusalem sentenced Adolf Eichmann to death for crimes against the Jewish people and crimes against humanity. The verdict followed a dramatic months-long trial in which Holocaust survivors gave powerful testimony about their experiences and Israeli prosecutors pushed for the conviction of the former SS officer who sent millions of Jews to their deaths during World War II. When the war ended, Eichmann initially escaped justice by fleeing to Argentina, where he hid out for nearly a decade until he was kidnapped by Israeli intelligence operatives and taken to Israel for trial. His...

A geomagnetic storm promises to light up the sky across 15 U.S. states tonight—here’s where to go and how to catch the Northern Lights in all their glory. Tonight, a geomagnetic storm is expected to bring the awe-inspiring Northern Lights to parts of the United States, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicting active aurora displays across 15 states. The event is the latest in a series of heightened solar activities, thanks to the sun being in its “solar maximum,” a period of intense solar activity that leads to more frequent and vivid aurora displays. This forecast gives...

Francis Gary Powers was on a CIA spying mission over Soviet Russia when his U-2 plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile. "I looked up, looked out, and just everything was orange, everywhere," Powers recalled. "I don't know whether it was the reflection in the canopy itself or just the whole sky. And I can remember saying to myself, 'By God, I've had it now.'" In fact, Powers managed to parachute to safety, but his troubles were far from over. Having been arrested and interrogated by the KGB, he was put on trial in Moscow, where his family could only...

Key Points * Google and Kairos Power will deploy an advanced nuclear reactor to help power the tech company’s data centers on the Tennessee Valley Authority grid. * The Hermes 2 reactor developed by Kairos will dispatch 50 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 36,000 homes. * TVA will purchase the electricity from the reactor, making it the first utility in the U.S. to sign an offtake agreement with an advanced nuclear plant. =============================================================== Alphabet’s Google and Kairos Power will deploy an advanced nuclear plant connected to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s electric grid by 2030, the companies announced Monday....

Humans are one step closer to traveling at faster-than-light speeds. Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: * A research paper proposes a fully physically realized model for warp drive. * This builds on an existing model that requires negative energy—an impossibility. * The new model is exciting, but warp speed is still probably decades or centuries away. ============================================================= In a surprising paper, scientists say they’ve nailed down a physical model for a warp drive, which flies in the face of what we’ve long thought about the crazy concept of warp speed travel: that it requires exotic, negative...

Ultraviolet observations suggest that some heavy white dwarf mergers might be masquerading themselves. A white dwarf interacting with a red giant. Is this how this white dwarf formed? We do not know yet. Image credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Ralf Crawford (STScI) Astronomers report the finding of a unique new object that doesn’t fit with categories that were only established in the last few years. They have observed an ultra-massive white dwarf with an outer layer of hydrogen and helium, 10 billion times thinner than other white dwarfs. This object is believed to be the product of a past merger event....

The submarine that sank a train: the U.S.S. Barb | 8:28 The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered | 1.57M subscribers | 663,144 views | May 18, 2017

Almost everyone remembers that fighting in World War II ended on Aug. 15, 1945, and that a formal surrender ceremony was signed aboard the battleship USS Missouri (BB 63) in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2. But between those two dates, an unexpected air action took place. Involved were a well-known Japanese air ace, a little-known four-engine American heavy bomber, and U.S. Army photographer Sgt. Anthony J. Marchione.

============================================================ NATIONAL PINOT NOIR DAY National Pinot Noir Day on August 18 encourages wine lovers to experience one of the wine world's most versatile wines. #NationalPinotNoirDay Since Pinot Noir's high acidity along with the lower tannins, it complements food nicely. Wineries around the world produce pinot noir using red wine grapes and primarily the Pinot Noir varietal. The dry wine includes hints of cherry and raspberry, as well as earthy flavors and notes of floral. It's one of the world's favorite red wines, too. One Pinot Noir grown and produced in Burgundy, France bears the name of the region. France...

Silence on the official history of 1939 to 1945 has led to a flowering of creative interpretations. When did World War II end? Or, when will World War II end? This may seem a rhetorical question to most, with Aug. 15 marking the 80th anniversary of V-J Day (Victory Over Japan Day). On that date, Japan supposedly surrendered unconditionally. Few realize, however, that the state of war between the Allies and Japan did not legally end until years later with the Treaty of San Francisco, which was signed in September 1951 and took effect in 1952. That treaty did not...

Queens activists are demanding the FBI investigate the “foreign national” crime syndicates turning seedy Roosevelt Avenue into a “gangland” — claiming the criminals pose a national security threat. “We request that you initiate an investigation into what we understand are gangs engaging in criminal enterprises including human trafficking, illegal narcotics sales and the mass distribution of fraudulent documents which poses a national security threat,” wrote Rosa Sanchez, head of the Restore Roosevelt Avenue Coalition, and Democratic district leader Hiram Monserrate in an Aug. 14 letter to FBI Director Kash Patel. Federal intervention is required because state and local laws are...

An adviser used by Nigel Farage and others in Reform UK to boost their social media popularity has suggested that Britain would be better off had it stayed neutral in the second world war instead of fighting Nazi Germany. ... “Trillions of pounds of British taxes have been spent in foreign lands in the pursuit of ‘democracy’, ‘human rights’ and ‘doing what is right’,” the post said. “More than a million British lives have been lost since WW1 in wars and battles that have never once been fought by British men, on this island.” Fighting in both the world wars...

According to a La Brújula Verde report, excavations at the site of Uşakli Höyük in central Anatolia unearthed the remains of several infants, which may provide new insight into little-known Hittite burial practices. The partial or complete skeletons of at least seven young children were discovered by a team from the Italian Archaeological Mission in Central Anatolia near a mysterious stone feature simply known as the "Circular Structure." The building, which dates to the second millennium b.c., was first uncovered several years ago. Archaeologists still do not know its exact purpose, but believe it had ritual significance. The remains of...

Welcome to Episode 5 of "Battles That Shaped Time: Turning Points in Warfare" In the summer of 955 AD, the fate of Europe balanced on a single battlefield -- the Lechfeld. For over 50 years, the Magyars had ravaged the continent, undefeated and unstoppable. But on this day, Emperor Otto I would gamble everything -- not just on steel, but on the fury of the skies. As a summer storm turned rivers into raging traps and mud swallowed armies whole, the battlefield became a crucible of destiny. This is the story of the day Europe's future was forged in thunder,...

Two Israeli scholars have revealed the discovery of a rare four-line Aramaic inscription in a cave near the Dead Sea in the Judean Desert, a find they believe may date to the Bar Kochba Revolt against the Romans in the 2nd century CE.Unveiled at a major academic conference in Jerusalem, the inscription’s first line reads, “Abba of Naburya has perished.” Only fragments of the remaining text have been deciphered, with words such as “on us,” “he took,” and “the.”Cave already known for its ancient Hebrew inscription The cave, near Ein Gedi National Park in the Dead Sea region, was already...

The U-Boat campaign off the United States' coast is pretty well known. Complacency on the American side, and daring on the German side. Combining in a perfect storm that saw many, many losses in the early days after the United States joined the war. That said, not all those losses were American. Some U-Boats were lost too, including one particularly noteworthy one. U-166. A submarine sunk close off the Gulf Coast. This sinking became something of a controversy, in how the captain responsible was treated by the Navy. But the boat, herself, is interesting all her own. After all, this...

Like so many westerns after Tex Ritter had a hit with the theme for High Noon, The Lonely Man (1957) starts with a cowboy tune sung by no less than Tennessee Ernie Ford. "The world looks empty to a lonely man," Ford sings, "as he rides an endless trail." It's a "hopeless" world "as he drifts from place to place." The credits roll over the silhouette of this lonely man on horseback, a tiny figure in a vast wasteland captured in Paramount's VistaVision. American westerns in the '50s were probably the pinnacle of the genre, at least if you go...

When the Bedale hoard was first discovered by metal detectorists in 2012, it was immediately recognized as one of the most significant assemblages of Viking-era silver objects and jewelry that had ever been found in England. Dating to the late ninth or early tenth century, the collection consists of 29 silver ingots and several elaborate neck rings, among other items. According to a statement released by the University of Oxford, a recent study of the origins of the Bedale silver is shedding new light on the international scope and far-reaching extent of Viking trade. Researchers led by Oxford archaeologist Jane...

The central strategy of media bias is defining your terms. The most obnoxious strategy of liberal journalists is defining the Republicans as ideological extremists engaging in culture wars and weaponizing partisan narratives for political victory. They pretend Democrats are nothing like this. The epic political battles of our time are between the ultraconservatives and the nonpartisans. The same exercise happens with federally funded messaging, from public broadcasting to national museums. When President Donald Trump demands a review of these taxpayer-subsidized narratives, it’s considered some kind of authoritarian crusade against nonpartisan truth-telling. It doesn’t matter how much left-wing propaganda Trump voters...