THIS WEEK
IN HISTORY
October
8 - 14th
October 11, 1945 is the 50th anniversary of the first escape of
a man-made object from the Earth's atmosphere. That object was
a WAC Corporal rocket that was sent into space from the White
Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico. The rocket reached a height
of 43.5 miles. This was a new world record at the time. The rocket
had a flight time of 7.5 minutes and ended up crashing 3,500 feet
from its launch pad. 
On
October 14, 1947, fighter pilot Captain Chuck Yeager broke the
sound barrier, which means that he was able to fly a rocket plane
faster than the speed of sound. Up until that time, many pilots
believed that man was not meant to fly faster than the speed of
sound. Fighter pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier when
flying the Bell X-1 rocket plane "Glamorous Glennis". This accomplishment
is known as the world's first supersonic flight.
3. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the African-American civil rights
leader, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 14, 1964.
His acceptance speech was given at a ceremony the following December
in Oslo, Norway. Dr. King donated the award, which was thought
to be worth $54,600 to the civil rights movement. 
On October 12, 1492 Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer,
arrived in the New World! On August 2, 1492 Columbus set sail
from the Spanish port called Palos. He had 120 men and three ships
under his command. The ships names were the Pinta, the Nina, and
Santa Maria. He landed on Watling Island in the Bahamas on October
12, 1492. He went on to travel to Cuba after landing in the Bahamas.
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