Robert Goddard, a Massachusetts-born physicist, launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket on this date 100 years ago.

It was not an overly impressive flight. The rocket, fueled by gasoline and liquid oxygen, rose just 41 feet into the air, and the flight lasted 2.5 seconds before it struck ice and snow.

Nevertheless, this rocket, named “Nell,” represented a historic achievement that would help launch the modern age of spaceflight. Three decades later, the first objects would begin to ride liquid-fueled rockets into space, followed shortly by humans. A little more than 40 years would pass before humans walked on the Moon.

To mark this historic moment, a few Ars staffers are sharing some of their most memorable launches. Please add yours in the comments below.

Technology like four-wheel steering and variable valve timing debuted in the Prelude.

Twenty‑five Big Boy locomotives were originally built for Union Pacific to haul heavy freight over Utah’s Wasatch Range during World War II. While eight were preserved after retirement more than six decades ago, Big Boy No. 4014 is the only one still in operation today.

Newton's meticulous investigation led to Chaloner's conviction for high treason in 1699. Despite Chaloner's desperate letters begging for mercy, Newton showed none—the counterfeiter was hanged, drawn, and quartered. Newton prosecuted dozens of other counterfeiters with similar determination, securing convictions that sent many to the gallows. By the time he became Master of the Mint in 1700, Newton had transformed the institution from a corrupt, inefficient operation into a formidable force against monetary crime.

Newton remained Master of the Mint until his death in 1727, overseeing the Great Recoinage that stabilized England's currency and earning a salary that made him wealthy. The man who discovered the laws of gravity proved equally adept at enforcing the laws of the land, demonstrating that genius could be applied to practical affairs with devastating effectiveness. His tenure showed that even the greatest scientific mind of his age understood that knowledge without action meant nothing when his nation's economic survival hung in the balance.

Newton's aggressive campaign against counterfeiting and his reorganization of the Royal Mint had profound and lasting effects on British monetary policy and economic stability. The Great Recoinage he supervised replaced degraded, clipped coins with new standardized currency, which helped restore public confidence in English money and facilitated trade both domestically and internationally. His transformation of the Mint into an efficient, professional institution established administrative standards that influenced government operations for generations. Perhaps most significantly, Newton's work helped establish the principle that monetary crimes were serious threats to national security deserving severe punishment, a precedent that shaped how governments worldwide would later approach financial crimes and the protection of currency integrity. //

Jeb Webb — Make America Friendly Again @Jeb_AI
·
Feb 28
One more Isaac Newton innovation: The ridges around the edge of our .10, .25 and .50 coins were a way to reduce counterfeiting.

During newtons time, coins were almost pure silver, and people would shave off edges, so coins were all different sizes. ridges put a stop to that.

The original Allied powers united because of a web of bilateral treaties activated in the wake of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination by a Serbian nationalist on June 28, 1914. In a domino-like chain reaction, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia (July 28); Serbia’s protector, Russia, mobilized its forces to defend Serbia (July 30); and Austria-Hungary’s ally, Germany, declared war against Russia (August 1), which also necessitated declaring war against France (August 3). Germany’s plan for fighting France required it to first invade Belgium (August 3–4). Great Britain was obligated to defend Belgium, so it responded by declaring war against Germany (August 4). And as an ally of Great Britain, Japan declared war against Germany on August 23.

In 1971, Rev. Dr. William R. Tolbert Jr. became President of Liberia following the death of President William V. S. Tubman Sr. Departing from his predecessors, Tolbert sought to root out corruption and close the divide between the ruling class of America-Liberians, and the indigenous majority who had been marginalized since the republic's founding in 1847. Tolbert's reforms faced resistance from two fronts: entrenched elites and Western powers who saw their influence diminished, and the ethnic majority who regarded his agenda as too halting. By the late 1970s, domestic hardships set Tolbert's presidency in crisis. On April 12, 1980, the unrest erupted into a full-scale military coup when soldiers stormed the Executive Mansion killing President Tolbert and ending more than a century of Americo-Liberian rule. This was followed by the public executions of thirteen cabinet members on April 22, 1980. This is the untold story of Africa's least known reformer and the enduring societal aftermath of his murder.

Ts'o, Hohndel and the man himself spill beans on how checks in the mail and GPL made it all possible

The Indians who sold Manhattan were bilked, all right, but they didn’t mind—the land wasn’t theirs anyway //

By now it is probably too late to do anything about it, but the unsettling fact remains that the so-called sale of Manhattan Island to the Dutch in 1626 was a totally illegal deal; a group of Brooklyn Indians perpetrated the swindle, and they had no more right to sell Manhattan Island than the present mayor of White Plains would have to declare war on France. When the Manhattan Indians found out about it they were understandably furious, but by that time the Dutch had too strong a foothold to be dislodged—by the Indians, at any rate—and the eventual arrival of one-way avenues and the Hamburg Heaven Crystal Room was only a matter of time.

In the Age of Discovery, maps held closely guarded secrets for the kings, adventurers, and merchants who first acquired them.

The Lockheed L-1011 competed primarily with the DC-10. Whereas McDonnell Douglas had produced two successful jet airliners and built an extensive customer base, this was Lockheed's first jet-powered airliner. However, while McDonnell Douglas was able to get its aircraft out the door in a swift fashion, Lockheed faced several delays with its program, primarily centered around issues with the Rolls-Royce RB211.

Both aircraft were largely developed out of a request from American Airlines for a twin-engine widebody smaller than the Boeing 747. Both companies developed trijets due to restrictions on twin-engine operations over water, and Lockheed put extra effort into the Tristar's technology. It featured an advanced autopilot, an autoland system, and an automated emergency descent function. This was undoubtedly the most advanced subsonic airliner of its time. //

Charles
I think when the 767 came on the scene, that's what really killed the tristar. //

TJCrewChief
I had a friend that was a 747 and L1011 pilot for TWA. He just loved the Lockheed L1011.

He extolled the fly ability and called it a " Pilots Airplane."

Divers have located the wreck of the Lac La Belle, a luxury steamer that vanished in a violent gale in 1872, a discovery that came after nearly six decades of organized searching. //

The Lac La Belle left Milwaukee on October 13, 1872, bound for Grand Haven, Michigan. Captain William Gilcher commanded the ship that, along with passengers, carried barley, pork, flour, and whiskey.

A gale caused massive waves that battered the hull. A quickly spreading leak filled the hold, and when the pumps failed, the vessel sank stern-first into about 300 feet of water. //

Luke Warm
a day ago
I left Marquette Mi. the day the Edmund Fitzgerald was lost. My sister who lived there recommended I check out Presque Isle on my way back. I thought I was about to die. My car looked like it survived a roller over. The waves kept pushing me into the rocks, and the retreating waves trying to suck me into Superior. The Mackinaw bridge closed less than an hr after I crossed it heading south. The bridge looked like to world's biggest swing. I learned very quickly that you do not steer when the road your on is swinging. //

Shadd
20 hours ago
I've been to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, up at Whitefish Point, MI. It's about 45 mins north of the Mackinac Bridge. I highly recommend it. //

Hank Reardon
16 hours ago
Readers interested in Great Lakes shipping and shipwreck history might also be interested in visiting the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center at Thunder Bay, Michigan.
https://thunderbay.noaa.gov/visit/great-lakes-maritime-heritage-center.html

Also, unrelated to Great Lakes shipwrecks but equally fascinating is the display of cargo from the 1865 wreck of the Missouri river steamboat Bertrand, discovered in 1968. The large amount of freight bound for the goldfields of Montana captures a snapshot of life in America and is meticulously displayed at the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, on the Missouri River north of Omaha.
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/desoto/steamboat-bertrand

for many years, American Airlines had actually spurned the Boeing 737, choosing instead to build its entire hub-and-spoke operation around the McDonnell Douglas MD-80. For the better part of three decades, their glistening, polished metal bodies with the distinctive T-tails were the predominant aircraft at the airline's hubs across the country. But why did American choose the MD-80 over the 737, and what caused it to eventually return to Boeing? //

American's flight operations director, David Clark, commented on the MD-80 upon its retirement.

"It is very old school, there aren't any modern computer screens affixed to the controls. The steering columns are connected to a cable that goes directly to the flight controls. You can feel it give and pull throughout each flight, and it is a totally thrilling experience that pilots trained on newer aircraft may never experience."

President Trump awarded two very belated Medals of Honor to two highly deserving Americans on Wednesday.

The first went to Army Staff Sergeant Michael Ollis, unfortuantely this was a posthumous award. //

The second story is much more uplifting.

Elmer Royce Williams was born April 4, 1925, in Wilmot, South Dakota. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy shortly after Pearl Harbor as an aviation cadet and completed flight training in August 1945. Williams chose a career as a career officer and eventually flew the Navy's first jet carrier fighter, the Grumman F9F Panther. //

In his efforts, Williams expended all of his ammunition and shot down four, very likely five, of the seven Soviet MiG–15s, setting the American aviator record for MiGs shot in a single sortie and the only naval dogfight over water in the Korean War. //

Williams was told the MiGs were not flown by North Koreans, or Chinese, but by Soviet Naval Aviation pilots flying out of Vladivostok. He was also told never to speak of the incident to anyone—his squadron mates or even his wife.

he New York Post is counting down to America’s 250th birthday with a look back at the nation’s — and the paper’s — history. We’re revisiting 250 notable covers and articles from our archives, starting with the very first paper Alexander Hamilton published on Nov. 16, 1801, when it was known as the New-York Evening Post.

How the Bible’s Supernatural Story Was Bent to Fit Culture—and Why Recovering It Matters

One of the quiet tragedies of church history is not that Christians rejected the Bible, but that—at a critical moment—they reinterpreted it to survive cultural pressure. Instead of allowing Scripture to challenge the assumptions of the age, parts of the Church chose to soften the Bible’s worldview so it would sound reasonable to the world it was trying to convert. Over time, that accommodation didn’t just adjust emphasis; it changed how entire passages were understood.

Genesis 6 sits at the center of that story. //

By the time of Augustine of Hippo, Christianity had moved from persecuted minority to imperial religion. The Church was now expected to sound respectable to educated Greco-Roman elites. Pagan philosophers mocked stories of divine beings mating with humans as primitive mythology. Christianity, eager to be seen as intellectually serious, felt pressure to respond.

Augustine did not ask, “How would ancient Israelites have understood this?”
He asked, “How can Christianity defend itself in this culture?”

Influenced by Neoplatonism, Augustine assumed that angels were purely spiritual and therefore incapable of physical interaction. That assumption came from philosophy, not from the Hebrew Bible. Rather than adjust his philosophy to fit Scripture, Augustine adjusted Scripture to fit philosophy. The result was the Sethite interpretation—a reading that removed supernatural rebellion, removed imprisoned angels, and removed cosmic consequences. //

Instead of submitting to Scripture and allowing it to reshape assumptions about reality, the Church reshaped Scripture so it would align with dominant intellectual norms. Over time, believers forgot that this was ever a choice. Tradition hardened into “what the Bible says,” even when it conflicted with what the Bible actually meant. //

Missler approached Scripture as a unified system. He argued that Genesis 6 was not an oddity, but a strategic moment in a cosmic war—one that echoes forward into Daniel, the Gospels, and Revelation. His warning was simple but unsettling: if the Bible opens with supernatural rebellion, it should not surprise us when it closes the same way. Missler’s work forced Christians to grapple with the scope of the biblical story. //

If the Bible is only about human morality, then Jesus is only a moral solution.
But if the Bible is about cosmic rebellion and restoration, then Jesus is far more than a teacher or example—He is the rightful ruler reclaiming a world that was stolen.

The loss of this story didn’t make Christianity stronger.
It made it smaller.

Recovering it does not mean chasing speculation or abandoning doctrine. It means having the humility to admit that, at one point in history, the Church chose cultural survival over biblical honesty—and that decision still shapes what many believers are taught today.

The Bible was not written to sound reasonable to every age.
It was written to tell the truth about reality.

And that reality, from Genesis to Revelation, is far more supernatural—and far more meaningful—than most Sunday School lessons ever dared to admit.

His dad was murdered. Just outside Tulsa. You probably never heard about it. //

Paul Aurandt grew up. At age 22 he got married. Shortly thereafter, America entered the War. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps.

After military service, he would move to Chicago. There, he would land a job at WENR, reading the news. The experience of growing up without a dad would imbue him with empathy such as had never before been seen in his line of work.

He would change his name. This new on-air name would become a household name, garnering an audience of 24 million daily listeners. Each listener, tuning in to hear him say what he said after each five-minute broadcast.

And now you know the rest of the story.

“…while cleaning up the construction mess, out of the corner of my eye there lied a small blue envelope that had most [likely] been dropped into the wall as the house was being built almost 100 years prior! It was a letter sent from a sister in Bantry, Ireland, to a man named Con Shea here in Casper, Wyoming.”

“It was a letter thanking Mr. Shea for a present he had sent to his family back home in Ireland,” Smith told the Daily Mail. “There was also some catching up and keeping him abreast of the goings on back there in Ireland.”

Smith did some research to learn more about the man who built the home, who “…had immigrated to the US, and had become a very successful sheep herder here in Wyoming,” Smith explained to the outlet.

This is the story of how Billy Graham—a man used by God to reach millions of people for Jesus Christ—was himself born again. Quotes are taken from his autobiography, Just As I Am.

After writing/co-authoring/translating three very highly regarded history books, and selling them in three languages all over the world in five figure numbers, I was dissapointed how the entry barrier to history writing did not always appear to be orientated towards writing facts, and sometimes more about pretending how complicated the whole process was.

It IS extremely difficult, but, it is NOT complicated.

If you REALLY do want to write a history book, and its keeping you awake at night, here is one method which works.

How to Write a History Book_V1-0Download

Ten years after the end of ground combat in Vietnam, the US returned to military intervention, instigating the invasion of Grenada to restore order.