R-16 explosion Mishaps of the Space Age
1960: R-16The "R-16," a new Soviet two-stage rocket, underwent a test in Tyuratam, Russia in October. Under pressure to demonstrate that the Soviets possessed operational intercontinental ballistic missiles, Soviet Field Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin arrived to personally oversee the rocket's launch. Problems developed before the test, but Nedelin ordered it to continue, refusing to drain the rocket of its propellant and make repairs, as workers suggested. Read More...
For 10 days, Richard Johnson lay curled up on his D.C. Jail bunk in soiled bedding, his body ravaged with AIDS. He urinated in milk cartons that were left on the floor of his cell because he was too weak to walk to the toilet. He was incontinent.
Before he died, other inmates on work detail refused to clean his urine and feces-filled cell, hoping the odor would force the medical staff to respond. Read More...
Michael Ruane's first-rate recapitulation of the Titanic's Washington connections ["Some Titanic stories hit closer to home," Metro, April 8] left out two memorials to that tragic event in the nation's capital.
Most familiar is Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's Titanic Memorial, unveiled in 1931, which stands in Washington Channel Park at Fourth and P streets SW.
Less well-known is Daniel Chester French's Butt-Millet Memorial Fountain, erected in 1913 just south of the White House at Executive Avenue and Ellipse Drive. Read More...
