In honor of George Washington’s birthday, I am bringing an article, written by Dave Roos, called 8 Crazy Facts About the Washington Monument. Enjoy!

The National Park Service calls the original design plan “audacious, ambitious and expensive,” which explains why all but the obelisk was eventually scrapped.

On Sept.19, 2019, the Washington Monument reopened to the public after a three-year renovation. Eager tourists got in line early to experience the zippy new elevator and take in one of the best views East of the Mississippi.

The Washington Monument is an impressive structure dedicated to an American icon, but its construction was less than smooth (it was actually derailed for decades by a political coup). Here are eight surprising facts about America’s favorite obelisk.

A Memorial for Washington Was Planned Way Before He Died

It’s hard to overstate how much Americans loved George Washington. As early as 1783, when Washington was very much alive, plans were in the works for erecting a large statue of the first president on horseback near the Capitol building. In fact, the architect of Washington, D.C., the French landscape engineer Charles Pierre L’Enfant, left an open place for the statue in his drawings. And that’s almost exactly where the Washington Monument sits today.

Congress failed to act on the equestrian statue, and even after Washington died in 1799, legislators couldn’t agree on what kind of monument best suited the national hero. Frustrated with congressional feet-dragging, a private organization called the Washington National Monument Society was formed in 1833 to raise money and solicit designs for a large-scale homage to America’s beloved first president.

The Original Design Was a Mashup

In 1836, the Washington National Monument Society announced a design contest for the future Washington Monument and the winning sketch was submitted by 29-year-old architect Robert Mills, who would go on to design the U.S. Post Office, the Patent Office and the Treasury Building.

Mills’ original design was a mashup of architectural references. First, there was to be a 600-foot obelisk with a flattened top, a nod to the Egyptomania that had captured the early 19th-century imagination. (Note that soon after Washington’s death, the House of Representatives proposed the construction of a marble pyramid, 100 feet on each side, to serve as the first president’s mausoleum. The pharaohs would have approved, but Congress didn’t.)

In Mills’ original sketch, the giant Egyptian obelisk was to be encircled at its base by a neoclassical temple with 30 towering columns. On top of the circular temple would be a statue of Washington on a chariot, and in between each of the 30 columns would stand statues of 30 different revolutionary war heroes.

The National Park Service called Mills’ original plan “audacious, ambitious and expensive,” which explains why all but the obelisk was eventually scrapped.

There’s a Zinc Time Capsule in the Cornerstone

An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 crowded the National Mall to witness the laying of the Washington Monument’s cornerstone on July 4, 1848. But first the 24,500-pound hunk of pure white marble had to be dragged through the streets on a cart with bystanders grabbing lengths of rope to help the cause.

After a droning two-hour speech by the Speaker of the House, the assembled dignitaries placed mementos in a zinc box that would be sealed in the monument’s cornerstone for eternity (or until an alien race plucks it from the ruins of Western civilization). Included in the zinc time capsule were copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, a portrait of Washington, an American flag, all the coins in circulation and newspapers from 14 states. The laying of the cornerstone was performed by a grandmaster of the masonic lodges and its actual location apparently is still a mystery.

Construction Was Stalled by the Pope’s Stone Saga

The unfinished stump of the Washington Monument, as it looked for over 25 years. During the U.S. Civil War, the site was used for the grazing and slaughtering of government cattle, earning it the nickname Beef Depot Monument.

By 1856, after eight years of slow and painstaking construction, the obelisk stood 156 feet high and would remain that way — an unfinished eyesore that Mark Twain called “a hollow, oversized chimney” — for the next 21 years. The reason, weirdly enough, had to do with the Pope.

In 1853, the Washington National Monument Society was dangerously low on funds, so they came up with a scheme whereby large donors could have a commemorative stone placed in the interior of the obelisk. One of those donors ended up being Pope Pius IX, who shipped over a 3-foot piece of marble from the Temple of Concord in Rome.

The Pope’s gift really ticked off members of the new “Know-Nothing” party, who were virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic. On the night of March 6, 1854, a gang of men locked the night watchman in his shed and stole the Pope’s stone, allegedly tossing it in the Potomac.

The controversy over the stolen stone brought donations to a standstill. But even worse was what happened next; a contingent of Know-Nothings staged a coup and overthrew the leadership of the Monument Society. Donations dried up entirely and the Know-Nothings only managed to add 20 more feet to the obelisk by the outbreak of the Civil War, when construction was halted altogether.

Yes, the Monument is Three Different Colors

After the Civil War, during which the grounds of the stubby Washington Monument were used as a cattle yard and slaughterhouse, Congress finally decided to take over. On July 5, 1876, in time for the centennial celebration of the Declaration of Independence, Congress appropriated $2 million for the completion of the monument and construction resumed in 1877.

The first task of the new chief engineer, Thomas L. Casey, was to reduce the total height of the obelisk to 555 feet, exactly 10 times the width of the structure, and to spend years reinforcing the foundation with concrete.

The next issue was the masonry. The original quarry in Baltimore had shut down, so Casey tried shipping down rock from Massachusetts. But after placing only a few layers of this stone, it was clear that it was a different color and of poorer quality than the original. So, the builders changed tack yet again and brought in stone from another Baltimore quarry, which was used to finish the final two-thirds of the obelisk.

The result is that the Washington Monument is nearly white on the bottom, a tannish-pink on the top with a thin belt of light brown in the middle. Classy, Casey.

The Priceless Capstone Would Cost a Few Bucks Today

Construction of the obelisk was finally completed on Dec. 6, 1884, more than 36 years after the first cornerstone was laid, with the ceremonial setting of the capstone. When you think of precious metals befitting the capstone of a 555-foot monument dedicated to the nation’s greatest hero, you think of gold, maybe silver, but certainly not aluminum.

Yet back in the late 19th-century, pure aluminum was a very rare commodity, and it was chosen for this important feature, as the metal would not tarnish. (In 1884, aluminum cost $1.10 per ounce or $26 per ounce in 2019 dollars; in 2019, aluminum cost around 78 cents per pound.) The 100-ounce aluminum capstone for the Washington Monument was the largest single piece of cast aluminum in the world. The final cost of the Washington Monument was $1.18 million in 1884 or nearly $30 million in 2019 dollars.

Before the capstone was shipped to Washington, D.C., it went on exhibit on the showroom floor of Tiffany & Co. in New York City, where visitors could say they “jumped over the Washington Monument.” Yay!

For Five Glorious Years, It Was the World’s Tallest Manmade Structure

And then Eiffel built his silly tower in 1789, which at 1,063 feet is nearly twice as tall as the Washington Monument.

But the Washington Monument is — and probably always will be — the tallest structure by far in Washington, D.C., although not for the reasons you might have heard. It has nothing to do with city planners who didn’t want any building to block the view of the Capitol Building or the Washington Monument. That’s actually a myth.

The height limits on buildings in the District of Columbia were established by the Height of Buildings Acts of 1899 and 1910, which were primarily concerned with the fire safety of new construction methods that allowed buildings to be raised to incredible new heights. The laws, which are still on the books in D.C., restrict the height of buildings to the width of the street in front of them, which is 130 feet in most places and 160 feet on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Half a Million Tourists Ride Up the Monument Every Year

The Washington Monument is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Washington, D.C., and untold millions of people visit the monument grounds every year. But given that there’s only one elevator that zips people to the observation deck, only 55 people can be admitted into the monument every half hour. That means that around 500,000 people enjoy the spectacular view from the top of the Washington Monument every year.

The newly installed elevator system will only take 70 seconds to carry visitors to the 51-story observation deck, where they will take in panoramic views of the National Mall, the Capitol Building, the White House and the wilds (suburbs, actually) of Virginia and Maryland up to 25 miles in all directions on a clear day.

Now That’s Cool

The first tourist elevator was installed in the Washington Monument in 1889, just five years after its completion.

SOURCE: https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/destinations/landmarks/places-of-interest/washington-monument.htm

Happy Birthday George!!

I was poking around on the internet and discovered this article about Benjamin Franklin.  It seemed too good to pass up. 

33 Facts That Capture The Strange And Salacious Life Of Benjamin Franklin

He is well known for his bifocals and quippy cartoons, but these facts about Benjamin Franklin reveal a much more eccentric man.

Benjamin Franklin is a crucial figure in the history of the founding of the United States. His accomplishments are so well known that he’s often referred to as the “only U.S. President to have never been U.S. President.”

But Franklin was more than a politician. His inventions — which range from the odometer to his own alphabet — show the great grasp of his mind. He also made a name for himself as a talented writer and publisher.

From his political triumphs to his scientific breakthroughs to his colorful and eccentric personal life, these are some of the most surprising facts about Benjamin Franklin, America’s favorite renaissance man.

Benjamin Franklin Was Once The Richest Person In America…

By 1785, Benjamin Franklin had become the wealthiest person in the newly formed United States. They didn’t put his face on the $100 bill for nothing — his estimated net worth in today’s money is around $10 billion.

… But He Could Have Been Richer If He’d Patented His Inventions

Benjamin Franklin decided not to patent his many inventions because he believed that it was enough to help others with his creations. This would also allow other inventors to tinker with and build upon his ideas.

He Played A Crucial Role In Achieving American Independence

Benjamin Franklin was present for many important moments throughout the American Revolution. Not only did he sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776, but he also signed the Treaty of Alliance with France in 1778, the Treaty of Paris in 1783, and the United States Constitution in 1787.

He was also the oldest person to sign the Declaration of Independence at the age of 70, and the oldest to sign the Constitution at the age of 81.

Benjamin Franklin Almost Died Trying To Electrocute A Turkey

Benjamin Franklin was famously fascinated by electricity. He performed a number of experiments with it, including using it to cook food. Eventually, he created a method of using electricity in order to kill and cook turkeys.

In a letter to his brother, John, Franklin detailed how he decided to show off this method at a party. He brought out the doomed turkey and started setting up the charge when, all of a sudden, the attendees saw a bright flash of light engulf him. Franklin had accidentally electrocuted himself — though in the letter he confessed that his ego sustained the biggest injury.

Surprising Fact About Benjamin Franklin: He Published A Lot Of Obscene Writing

Despite his studious reputation, Franklin did not shy away from the salacious. He once wrote a letter titled “Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress,” which was considered obscene at that time and wasn’t published when his collection of papers was made available during the 19th century.

The controversial letter contained many sexual references and basically touted the virtues of choosing an older mistress over a younger one.

Franklin Also Wrote About Farts

Franklin penned an essay called “Fart Proudly” in 1781, which he sent to the Royal Academy of Brussels, a respected scientific organization.

“It is universally well known, that in digesting our common food, there is created or produced in the bowels of human creatures, a great quantity of wind,” Franklin wrote. He also sincerely suggested that the scientists invent “some Drug wholesome & not disagreable, to be mix’d with our common Food, or Sauces, that shall render the natural Discharges of Wind from our Bodies, not only inoffensive, but agreable as Perfumes.”

In other words, the founding father implored the researchers to find ways to make his farts — and other people’s farts — smell better.

He Published One Of The First Famous American Political Cartoons

Concerned about the aggression of the French and the lack of a strong colonial alliance in America, Benjamin Franklin published his famous “Join or Die” cartoon on May 9, 1754, in his Pennsylvania Gazette. In addition, he wrote an op-ed that argued for a more unified colonial government.

This wasn’t Franklin’s first political cartoon — he’d published another one in 1747 — but it was his most enduring. Ten years later, his snake emblem resurfaced when colonists protested the Stamp Act. It would also be used during the Revolutionary War, and even by both sides during the Civil War.

Shocking Fact About Benjamin Franklin: He Was A Womanizer

Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography that “the hard-to-be-governed passion of my youth had hurried me frequently into intrigues with low women that fell in my way.” Indeed, he was quite the womanizer.

As a young man, he made advances toward his friend’s mistress and also fathered an “illegitimate” child. And even when he reached his 50s, Franklin spent little time with his wife in Philadelphia. Instead, he chose to gallivant around London and Paris in order to satisfy his urges.

He Invented The Odometer

Tasked by the British government with improving the colonies’ postal system, Franklin worked tirelessly to streamline mail delivery — and invented the first odometer. He measured the distances between postal stations with a geared device fitted to the back wheel of his carriage.

The machine clicked ahead by one mile with every 400 revolutions of the wheel, which allowed Franklin to accurately measure the early colonial roads — and thus thoroughly improve postal routes in the system.

He Suggested Something Similar To Daylight Savings Time

While Benjamin Franklin did not invent what is now known as Daylight Savings Time, he did propose a pretty similar system. Franklin was also the first person to have such an idea in recorded history.

This happened in 1784 when the 78-year-old Franklin was serving as an ambassador to France. After being rudely awakened by the summer sun at 6 a.m., he penned a satirical essay that suggested Parisians could save money through “the economy of using sunshine instead of candles.”

Since time wasn’t standardized back then, his idea had no way of being implemented. But years later, in the early 1900s, William Willett of England led the first campaign to do what Franklin had previously suggested.

Benjamin Franklin Was The 15th Of 17 Children

Born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin was one of 17 children. His father, Josiah, had married twice. Josiah had seven children with his first wife and 10 more with his second, Franklin’s mother Abiah Folger. Franklin was the 15th of 17 kids and the youngest son.

He Was An Early Proponent Of Inoculation

Benjamin Franklin was one of the earliest supporters of vaccination — specifically for smallpox. The outbreaks in Boston in 1721 and 1730 left an impression on him and he preached to everyone, including his wife, that the preventative method of inoculation made scientific sense.

But Franklin’s wife didn’t believe that injecting fluid from an infected person into a healthy person would create immunity and so she chose not to inoculate their son, Francis. Unfortunately, Francis died of smallpox in 1736.

Franklin Invented The Flexible Urinary Catheter

When Benjamin Franklin’s brother John experienced painful bladder stones, the resourceful inventor set to work on finding a solution for him.

Franklin designed the flexible urinary catheter in 1752, the earliest of its kind. It was made of metal parts and hinged together with a wire, which was thoroughly enclosed so that there was enough rigidity during its insertion.

He Had Only Two Years Of Formal Education

Benjamin Franklin learned to read at a young age and was a promising student at the Boston Latin School. But Franklin’s father had a failing candle and soap shop that needed all the help that it could get. So, at the age of 10, Franklin dropped out of school to help in the shop full-time.

Unstimulated by his work, Franklin spent his free time reading books. He also honed his memory skills by reading essays and then rewriting them without looking. And despite his lack of formal education, Franklin earned honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, and several other top institutions.

He Published His Early Writing Under A Female Pseudonym

After working in his father’s shop, Benjamin Franklin became an apprentice at the print shop of his older brother, James. Though he learned a lot about newspaper publishing, Franklin was routinely beaten by his brother, who also refused to publish any of his writing in The New-England Courant. So, Franklin submitted his work as a “woman” named “Silence Dogood.”

“Dogood” became wildly popular and Franklin only revealed the writer’s true identity after “she” started receiving marriage proposals.

Eventually, Franklin grew tired of his brother’s “harsh and tyrannical” behavior toward him. He decided to flee Boston in 1723, breaking his contractual obligation to his brother as his apprentice in the print shop.

Astonishing Fact About Benjamin Franklin: He Was Briefly A Fugitive

By fleeing his brother’s print shop, Benjamin Franklin became a fugitive. This was illegal since he was contractually obliged to be his brother’s apprentice.

But it also helped Franklin to strike out on his own. In 1728, Franklin and a friend opened a print shop. They published books and pamphlets, and Franklin was named the official printer of Pennsylvania in 1730.

He purchased The Pennsylvania Gazette and transformed it into the most popular newspaper in the colonies. Franklin also launched his popular Poor Richard’s Almanack, which set him on the path to immeasurable riches.

Franklin “Retired” At The Age Of 42

Starting in 1733, Benjamin Franklin published the widely successful Poor Richard’s Almanack once a year for 25 years. It contained weather predictions, poems, recipes, advice, trivia, and proverbs.

It was such a huge hit in the colonies that Franklin eventually accumulated enough cash to retire from the printing business. He became a “gentleman of leisure” at the age of 42 and focused on his studies and inventions.

He Had His Doubts About The American Revolution At First

At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin allegedly quipped, “We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” But the founding father wasn’t always so gung-ho about the idea of revolting against Great Britain during the American Revolution.

He once wrote, “Every encroachment on rights is not worth a rebellion,” and called the Boston Tea Party an “act of violent injustice on our part.”

Benjamin Franklin’s Son Was A British Loyalist

Benjamin Franklin was close with his “illegitimate” son William — until the American Revolution. Then, William remained a loyal Tory and refused to resign from his position as the royal governor of New Jersey.

For that choice, he’d eventually spend two years in colonial prison. And Franklin would ultimately cut him out of his will.

He Started The First Volunteer Fire Department In America

In articles published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, Franklin expressed the need for better fire prevention methods. This led to the formation of the Union Fire Company in Philadelphia in December 1736. Unofficially, the department became known as Benjamin Franklin’s Bucket Brigade.

Interesting Fact About Benjamin Franklin: He Was A Champion Chess Player

Benjamin Franklin was a prolific chess player who introduced the board game to America and wrote the famous essay “The Morals of Chess.” He was eventually inducted into the Chess Hall of Fame in 1999.

He Was Never The President…

Franklin is often referred to as the “only U.S. President to have never been U.S. President.” But he was the governor of Pennsylvania and the ambassador to France and Sweden. And Franklin was close with some men who did become president, including John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

… But He Was The First Postmaster General Of The United States

In 1753, the British Crown made Benjamin Franklin the postmaster of all 13 colonies, a post he held for two decades. And in July 1755, the Continental Congress made Franklin the first postmaster general.

Little-Known Fact About Benjamin Franklin: He Was A Great Swimmer

Franklin loved the water and even invented hand flippers to go faster. He later earned a spot in the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968.

He Became A Fashion Icon While Living In Paris

When Franklin went to France in 1776 to rustle up support for the Revolution, he played up the rustic American look with a fur hat and plain clothes.

The French loved it. Women across the country could soon be seen in fur caps and big wigs in a style dubbed “coiffure à la Franklin.”

Fascinating Fact About Benjamin Franklin: He Perfected The Glass Armonica

By the 1700s, Europeans had devised a way of filling glasses with wine and rubbing the rims to make music. But Franklin took this idea and ran with it. He invented the glass armonica in 1761, which was made of 37 glass bowls.

“Of all my inventions,” Franklin declared, “the glass armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction.”

He Became An Abolitionist Later In Life

Benjamin Franklin once owned slaves at his print shop, but he later became convinced of the gross inhumanity of the practice.

Franklin presented an abolitionist petition to Congress shortly before his death at age 84 in 1790, and he also included a provision in his will that his daughter had to free her slave in order to receive her inheritance.

Franklin Left Huge Sums Of Money To His Favorite Cities

Benjamin Franklin left $2,000 sterling to his birthplace (Boston) and his hometown (Philadelphia). However, Franklin also stipulated that the money had to be placed in a trust for 200 years. So by the time the cities gained access to the gift, it was worth a total of $6.5 million.

He Lived His Life According To 13 Virtues

Benjamin Franklin wrote down 13 virtues when he was 20 years old — and sought to practice them throughout the rest of his life.

They included: Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity, and Humility.

But even Franklin admitted that he couldn’t always live up to them.

“On the whole, tho’ I never arrived at the Perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining but fell short of it,” he wrote of his failure to follow his own virtues all the time. “Yet as I was, by the Endeavor, a better and a happier Man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.”

Franklin Thought He Could Improve The Alphabet

Benjamin Franklin came up with many enduring ideas during his life. But one of his inventions that didn’t stick had to do with trimming down the alphabet. In his version, there was no C, J, Q, W, X, or Y.

Startling Fact About Benjamin Franklin: He Liked To Take Air Baths In The Nude

In Franklin’s time, cold baths were considered to be good for health. But Franklin found them uncomfortable. Instead, he liked to take “air baths.”

“I have found it much more agreeable to my constitution to bathe in another element, I mean cold air,” he explained in a letter. “With this view, I rise early almost every morning, and sit in my chamber without any clothes whatever, half an hour or an hour, according to the season, either reading or writing.”

Benjamin Franklin Enjoyed Discussing Philosophy Over Drinks

Benjamin Franklin founded a group known as the Junto in 1727. Initially consisting of 12 members with different backgrounds, the group would meet in taverns, have a drink, and discuss philosophical matters. Eventually, Franklin would also start to discuss social issues of the time.

“Our debates were to be under the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute or desire of victory,” he wrote. “[To] prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were after some time made contraband, and prohibited under small pecuniary penalties.”

At these meetings, Franklin would come up with some of his best civic ideas like founding a public hospital, a lending library, the first American volunteer fire department, and even the University of Pennsylvania.

The Remains Of 10 People Were Later Found In His Basement

From 1757 to 1775, Franklin lived in a four-story home on 36 Craven Street in London. And when it was renovated into a museum in 1998, construction workers made a disturbing discovery — human remains.

At first, it seemed as though there was only a thigh bone sticking out of the dirt floor. But after the authorities were called, officials found a whopping 1,200 pieces of human remains belonging to 10 people, including six children. The remains were all more than 200 years old.

Fortunately, the reason these skeletons were stashed in Franklin’s house wasn’t as grisly as it may seem. Franklin had allowed William Hewson, a former anatomy student, to use his basement for practice. It’s unclear whether Franklin knew the young man was working on cadavers.

SOURCE: https://allthatsinteresting.com/benjamin-franklin-facts

The very first U.S. one-cent coin debuted in 1787, before the U.S. Mint was formed.

This coin was called a Fugio cent, and it served as the first official circulation coin of the United States.

Ben Franklin designed the coin.

The only year the Fugio cent appeared in circulation was in 1787.

In 1793, the U.S. Mint introduced the large cent.

These early pennies were huge… practically the size of a half dollar! 

Large cents were in circulation until 1857, and there were several designs throughout the years.

In 1856, the U.S. Mint introduced the small cent.

The small cent coin was the first U.S. penny made in a size that is similar to the pennies of today.

The Flying Eagle design was the first to appear on a small cent.

In the United States, the one-cent coin is not officially called a penny.

Even though most of us refer to the U.S. one-cent coin as a “penny,” the coin is technically called a “cent” in the United States.

Yep, the U.S. Mint officially named the coin a “cent.” And the U.S. Treasury officially called it a “one cent piece.”

It was during the Colonial period (when people used a mixture of coins from other countries) that a coin known as the British penny became popular. It was in 1857 that Congress asked the U.S. Mint to make the one-cent coin smaller.

The penny is not the lowest face value coin ever produced in the U.S.

From 1793 to 1857, the U.S. produced half cents. These coins are quite scarce today!

Other coins with denominations the U.S. used to make that we haven’t used in many years include:

the 2-cent piece

the 3-cent piece

the half-dime

Abe Lincoln was the first real person to have their face appear on a U.S. coin.

His face appeared for the very first time when the penny was redesigned in 1909.

The 1909 Lincoln penny also marks the first time that a U.S. president appeared on a U.S. coin.

Lincoln’s face is the only one on a U.S. coin that looks to the right.

All other portraits of people on U.S. coins face to the left.

Some U.S. pennies stick to a magnet, while others do not.

The 1943 steel penny does stick to a magnet. (More than 1 billion of these coins were made.)

The few 1943 copper penny error coins that were made don’t stick to a magnet. (Approximately 40 were made and only 27 are known to exist.)

Some 1944 pennies were accidentally made from steel, and these do stick to a magnet. (Only 30 or so exist today.)

The most valuable U.S. penny is a 1943 cent that’s worth $1.7 million.

Of all the modern-era pennies (those made since the introduction of small cents in 1856), the 1943-D copper Lincoln penny is the one with the highest value. It was accidentally made on a copper planchet that was intended for 1942 pennies — instead of being made on the steel blanks used for 1943 pennies. Only one of them exists!

Copper pennies from 1944 to 1946 were made of shell casings.

The public didn’t much like the 1943 steel pennies. They were often mistaken for dimes, they rusted pretty quickly, and they just didn’t look like the copper pennies everyone knew.

In 1944 the U.S. Mint began striking pennies from copper blanks made from reclaimed ammunition shell casings. They continued doing so through 1946. They look virtually identical to regular copper pennies.

The odds of finding a wheat penny today are about 1:200.

You would need to search through approximately 200 pennies in your pocket change and/or in coin rolls from the bank to find at least one Lincoln wheat cent.

In the case of these mid-1960s pennies, you can’t tell a Philadelphia penny from a Denver penny from a San Francisco penny. If you come across 1965, 1966, or 1967 pennies with no mint mark, that’s totally normal.

The 1974 silver penny is actually made of aluminum.

More than 1.58 million of the 1974 aluminum pennies were struck — merely as a test. At the time, the U.S. Mint was experimenting with different materials to reduce the cost of making pennies.

There were no 1974 aluminum Lincoln cents released into circulation, as the 1974 aluminum penny was immediately recalled for melting.

The majority of them were destroyed — including hundreds that were given to members of Congress and other officials.

However, not all of the coins were returned. There is a small number of unaccounted 1974 aluminum pennies that are still out there today!

It is illegal to own a 1974 aluminum penny.

1974 aluminum Lincoln cents are considered government property. They are, therefore, illegal to own.

Some 1992 pennies have the wrong design.

The U.S. Mint was in the process of reducing the spacing between the letters “A” and “M” in “AMERICA” for circulating 1993 pennies. But somehow a few 1992 and 1992-D Close AM pennies were struck and released by accident.

These rare pennies show virtually no gap between the bases of the letters “A” and “M.” These extremely rare 1992 pennies are worth thousands of dollars.

Most Lincoln Memorial pennies are pretty common (especially in circulated condition), and they are easily found in pocket change these days.

National One Cent Day occurs every year on April 1st.

Approximately $62 million worth of pennies are lost in circulation each year.

That’s a lot of pennies removed from circulation!

How are they “lost?”

They’re either dropped on the ground (while paying for items at outdoor events or drive-thru windows), tossed (into fountains, trash, or the ground), lost (in sofa cushions, car seats, etc), or saved (in coin collections, piggy banks, and coin jars).

It is illegal to melt U.S. pennies.

It is currently illegal in the United States to melt pennies. Anyone who melts pennies to profit from the metal could serve up to 5 years in prison and pay as much as $10,000 in fines.

By the way, it’s also illegal to export U.S. coins for the purpose of melting them.

However, if legislation should pass to end production of the one-cent coin, it would likely become legal to melt pennies in the United States after that.

Travelers may legally carry up to $5 in pennies out of the United States.

You shouldn’t clean your pennies, but if you must… here’s how.

If you really want to clean your dirty pennies, the best way is to use this 2-step method:

First, smear ketchup on the penny. Then, take a toothbrush and lightly scrub the penny — working the ketchup into all of the fine areas, and rinse the penny under warm water. Most likely, your penny will look dull and have a pinkish color at this point.

Second, combine baking soda and a little bit of water — to form a paste. Rub this mixture all over the penny with your fingers. Doing so should bring the shine back to it! (You could also dunk your penny in bowl containing 1 part baking soda and 4 parts vinegar — instead of making the baking soda paste.)

This 2-step cleaning method can strip away dirt and grime from coins — and it works especially well on pennies.

However, it completely strips away the coin’s original patina, making it a worthless coin in the eye of collectors!

It costs 2.06 cents to make each U.S. penny.

So, for every penny the U.S. Mint makes… we, the taxpayers, effectively lose one cent!

Source:  https://coins.thefuntimesguide.com/us-penny-facts/

The Columbia disaster, the breakup of the U.S. space shuttle orbiter Columbia on February 1, 2003, that claimed the lives of all seven astronauts on board just minutes before it was to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Columbia, which had made the shuttle program’s first flight into space in 1981, lifted off for its 28th mission, STS-107, on January 16, 2003. STS-107 was a flight dedicated to various experiments that required a microgravity environment. The crew was comprised of commander Rick Husband; pilot William McCool; mission specialists Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, and Laurel Clark; and payload specialist Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut. As Columbia was reentering Earth’s atmosphere, it broke apart over Texas at approximately 9:00 am Eastern Standard Time at an altitude of 40 miles, showering debris across southeastern Texas and southern Louisiana. The disintegration of the craft was recorded by television cameras and U.S. Air Force radar. Its major components and the remains of the crew were recovered over the following month.

The destruction of Columbia followed by almost exactly 17 years the loss of Challenger in a launch accident on January 28, 1986. Ironically, the cause of the Columbia catastrophe soon was determined to be launch-related as well. Films showed that a piece of insulating foam broke loose from the external propellant tank and struck the leading edge of the left wing approximately 81 seconds after liftoff. Bits of foam had detached in past missions without serious mishap, and, at the time of the Columbia launch, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engineers did not think that the foam carried enough momentum to cause significant damage. In fact, as demonstrated in post-accident tests, the foam was capable of punching a large hole in the reinforced carbon-carbon insulation tiles that protected the shuttle’s nose and wing leading edges from the extreme heat of atmospheric reentry. Although some engineers had wanted ground-based cameras to take photos of the orbiting shuttle to look for damage, the request did not get to the right officials.

During Columbia’s atmospheric reentry, hot gases penetrated the damaged tile section and melted major structural elements of the wing, which eventually collapsed. Data from the vehicle showed rising temperatures within sections of the left wing as early as 8:52 am, although the crew knew of their situation for perhaps only a minute or so before vehicle breakup. Subsequent investigation by NASA and the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board uncovered a number of managerial shortcomings, in addition to the immediate technical reason (poor manufacturing control of tank insulation and other defects), that allowed the accident to happen.

The most palpable result of the accident was a grounding of the remaining three shuttles—Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour (the last built to replace Challenger)—until NASA and its contractors could develop means to prevent similar accidents, which included kits for repairs in orbit.

Assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) in Earth orbit was suspended after the Columbia accident until shuttle flights could resume. Limited research on the ISS was conducted by rotating two-person crews launched in Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The shuttle did not return to space until the STS-114 mission, which launched on July 26, 2005.

I found these segments from a site called Ranker:

https://www.ranker.com/list/space-shuttle-columbia-disaster/michelle-nati

The team on the ground knew Columbia’s astronauts would not make it home and faced an agonizing decision – should they tell the crew that they would die upon re-entry or face suffocating due to depleted oxygen stores while still in orbit? 

In the end, it was decided it was best for them not to know. On his blog, former shuttle project manager Wayne Hale revealed that Jon Harpold, Director of Mission Operations, told him:

You know, there is nothing we can do about damage to the TPS. If it has been damaged, it’s probably better not to know. I think the crew would rather not know. Don’t you think it would be better for them to have a happy, successful flight and die unexpectedly during entry than to stay on orbit, knowing that there was nothing to be done until the air ran out?

This was not the first time foam had broken off in space flights. In fact, it had happened several times before (and without incident), so much so that it was referred to as “foam shedding.” NASA engineers dismissed the problem of foam shedding as being of no great urgency.

When a NASA engineering manager, Don L. McCormack Jr., told Mission Management Team member Linda Ham of his concerns about the issue, he was told by her that it was “no issue for this mission.”

After the horrific crash, Columbia’s debris field stretched from Central Texas to Western Louisiana. A team of more than 25,000 professionals and volunteers searched an area of 2.3 million acres to recover everything possible that remained from Columbia. Due to the large area and extensive number of fragments, pieces are still being found to this day. 

More than 14 years later, only about 84,000 pieces – or 40% – of Columbia have been recovered and are still being studied. 

Today is the 37^th anniversary of the Challenger explosion that killed all 7 astronauts aboard. I found the following information on the Britannica website:

The primary goal of shuttle mission 51-L was to launch the second Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-B). It also carried the Spartan Halley spacecraft, a small satellite that was to be released by Challenger and picked up two days later after observing Halley’s Comet during its closest approach to the Sun.

The Crew

Greatest visibility among the crew went to teacher-in-space Christa McAuliffe of Concord, New Hampshire, the winner of a national screening begun in 1984. McAuliffe was to conduct at least two lessons from orbit and then spend the following nine months lecturing students across the United States. The goal was to highlight the importance of teachers and to interest students in high-tech careers. Other members of the crew were commander Francis (Dick) Scobee, pilot Michael Smith, mission specialists Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, and Ronald McNair, and Hughes Aircraft engineer Gregory Jarvis.

Challenger disaster: icy conditions on day of launch

The mission experienced trouble at the outset, as the launch was postponed for several days, partly because of delays in getting the previous shuttle mission, 61-C (Columbia), back on the ground. On the night before the launch, central Florida was swept by a severe cold wave that deposited thick ice on the launch pad. On launch day, January 28, liftoff was delayed until 11:38 am. All appeared to be normal until after the vehicle emerged from “Max-Q,” the period of greatest aerodynamic pressure. Mission Control told Scobee, “Challenger, go with throttle up,” and seconds later the vehicle disappeared in an explosion just 73 seconds after liftoff, at an altitude of 46,000 feet. Tapes salvaged from the wreckage showed that the instant before breakup Smith said “Uh-oh,” but nothing else was heard. Debris rained into the Atlantic Ocean for more than an hour after the explosion; searches revealed no sign of the crew.

The incident immediately grounded the shuttle program. An intensive investigation by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and a commission appointed by U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan and chaired by former secretary of state William Rogers followed. Other members of the commission included astronauts Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride, test pilot Chuck Yeager, and physicist Richard Feynman. What emerged was an appalling pattern of assumptions that the vehicle could survive minor mishaps and be pushed even further. The ill-fated launch brought to the fore the difficulties that NASA had been experiencing for many years in trying to accomplish too much with too little money.

The immediate cause of the accident was suspected within days and was fully established within a few weeks. The severe cold reduced the resiliency of two rubber O-rings that sealed the joint between the two lower segments of the right-hand solid rocket booster. (At a commission hearing, Feynman convincingly demonstrated the loss of O-ring resiliency by submerging an O-ring in a glass of ice water.) Under normal circumstances, when the shuttle’s three main engines ignited, they pressed the whole vehicle forward, and the boosters were ignited when the vehicle swung back to center. On the morning of the accident, an effect called “joint rotation” occurred, which prevented the rings from resealing and opened a path for hot exhaust gas to escape from inside the booster. Puffs of black smoke appeared on the far side of the booster in a spot not visible to most cameras.

As the vehicle ascended, the leak expanded, and after 59 seconds an 8-foot stream of flame emerged from the hole. This grew to 40 feet and gradually eroded one of three struts that secured the booster’s base to the large external tank carrying liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for the orbiter engines. At the same time, thrust in the booster lagged slightly, although within limits, and the nozzle steering systems tried to compensate. When the strut broke, the booster’s base swiveled outward, forcing its nose through the top of the external fuel tank and causing the whole tank to collapse and explode. Through ground tracking cameras this was seen as a brief flame licking from a concealed spot on the right side of the vehicle a few seconds before everything disappeared in the fireball. Even if the plume had been seen at liftoff, there would have been no hope for crew escape, because the shuttle orbiter could not survive high-speed separation from the tank until the last seconds of the boosters’ two-minute burn.

Challenger disaster: remains of the crew

Challenger broke up in the explosion, but the forward section with the crew cabin was severed in one piece; it continued to coast upward with other debris, including wings and still-flaming engines, and then plummeted to the ocean. It was believed that the crew survived the initial breakup but that loss of cabin pressure rendered them unconscious within seconds, since they did not wear pressure suits. Death probably resulted from oxygen deficiency minutes before impact.

The boosters also survived the fireball and righted themselves to continue flying, something totally unexpected. Range safety officers finally detonated their charges 30 seconds later to prevent them from overflying land. After the accident, NASA immediately began work on a redesigned solid booster for future launches.

Challenger disaster: recovered main engines

An intensive salvage operation was organized to retrieve as much of the wreckage as possible and the bodies of the crew. The task was complicated by the force of the explosion and the altitude at which it occurred, as well as the separate paths taken by the boosters.

The Rogers Commission report, delivered on June 6 to the president, faulted NASA as a whole, and its Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and contractor Morton Thiokol, Inc., in Ogden, Utah, in particular, for poor engineering and management. Marshall was responsible for the shuttle boosters, engines, and tank, while Morton Thiokol manufactured the booster motors and assembled them at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Rogers Commission heard disturbing testimony from a number of engineers who had been expressing concern about the reliability of the seals for at least two years and who had warned superiors about a possible failure the night before 51-L was launched. One of the Rogers Commission’s strongest recommendations was to tighten the communication gap between shuttle managers and working engineers. In response to this implied criticism that its quality-control measures had become slack, NASA added several more checkpoints in the shuttle bureaucracy, including a new NASA safety office and a shuttle safety advisory panel, in order to prevent such a “flawed” decision to launch from being made again.

Aside from these internal fixes at NASA, however, the Rogers Commission addressed a more fundamental problem. In NASA’s efforts to streamline shuttle operations in pursuit of its declared goal of flying 24 missions a year, the commission said, the agency had simply been pushing too hard. The shuttle program had neither the personnel nor the spare parts to maintain such an ambitious flight rate without straining its physical resources or overworking its technicians.

This judgment cut to the core of the way in which the national space program had been conducted in the shuttle era. Indeed, the Challenger accident merely focused attention on more deeply seated problems that had existed for as long as 15 years. From the time it was approved by Pres. Richard Nixon in 1972, the shuttle had been conceived as a “do-everything” vehicle for carrying every kind of space payload, from commercial and scientific satellites to military spacecraft to probes bound for the outer planets. NASA’s fleet of conventional “expendable” rockets such as the Delta and Atlas had been phased out in the shuttle era as a result and were being used primarily to reach polar orbits that the shuttle could not reach from Cape Canaveral.

Although this reliance on the shuttle was the officially stated national space policy, the Department of Defense had begun to retreat from relying exclusively on the shuttle even before the Challenger accident. Concerned that shuttle launch delays would jeopardize the assured access to space of high-priority national security satellites, the Air Force in 1985 began a program of buying advanced Titan rockets as “complementary expendable launch vehicles” for its own use.

Other, less powerful groups came forward after the Challenger accident to express their long-standing unhappiness with exclusive reliance on the shuttle for their access to space. Among those calling for a “mixed fleet” of shuttles and expendable launchers were scientists whose missions now faced long delays because the shuttle had become the only existing means of carrying their spacecraft.

By July, when NASA announced that the shuttle would not be ready to fly again until 1988, there was still no decision from Congress or the White House as to whether another orbiter would be built to replace Challenger. Proponents argued that another vehicle—perhaps two more—would be needed to meet the launch needs of the 1990s, which would include construction of NASA’s international space station, a permanent facility in Earth orbit.

In mid-August Pres. Ronald Reagan announced that construction of a replacement shuttle orbiter (later named Endeavour) would begin immediately. When the shuttle resumed service, however, it would no longer be in the business of launching satellites for paying customers but would be devoted almost exclusively to defense and scientific payloads. The Reagan administration had long had the goal of stimulating a private space launch industry, and now, with the removal of a heavily subsidized competitor from the market, three different companies stepped forward within a week’s time to announce plans for operating commercial versions of the Delta, Titan, and Atlas/Centaur launchers.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/event/Challenger-disaster