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What Happened Today in History?

Posted by Kronos Profile 04/07/25 at 12:12PM History See more by Kronos
1567 CE, July 24

Abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots. After failing to quash a rebellion of Scottish peers, Mary was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle and forced to abdicate in favor of her one-year-old son. More

1847 CE, July 24

Pioneer Day. Completing a treacherous thousand-mile exodus, an ill and exhausted Brigham Young and fellow members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints arrived in Utah’s Great Salt Lake Valley. The Mormon, as they were commonly known, pioneers viewed their arrival as the founding of a Mormon homeland. hence Pioneer Day. More

1911 CE, July 24

American archeologist Hiram Bingham reaches the ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru. Although widely credited with being the first westerner to reach the site, other reports indicate other Europeans had seen it before Bingham, but he was the one who revealed it to the world at large. Local Peruvians, including the expedition's guide, Melchor Arteaga knew of the site. Nine years before Bingham's expedition, Agustin Lizárraga, a local farmer searching for new land for agriculture with some family members came upon Machu Pichu and carved an inscription on a wall in the Temple of the Three Windows that said: "Agustín Lizárraga, July 14th 1902". More

A Comment by Loy

Your avatar
Loy • 04/08/2025 at 03:36PM • Like 1 Profile

Love the new UI - it is fun to be able to easily look up specific days, years and months throughout history. I must control me ADHD 😳🙂

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Have you ever seen a fireball? In astronomy, a fireball is a very bright meteor -- one at least as bright as Venus and possibly brighter than even a full Moon. Fireballs are rare -- if you see one you are likely to remember it for your whole life. Physically, a fireball is a small rock that originated from an asteroid or comet that typically leaves a fading smoke trail of gas and dust as it shoots through the Earth's atmosphere. It is unlikely that any single large ground strike occurred -- much of the rock likely vaporized as it broke up into many small pieces. The featured picture was captured last week from a deadwood beach in Cape San Blas, Florida, USA. Piece it Back Together: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day

Photo by Jason Rice

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Can some supernovas explode twice? Yes, when the first explosion acts like a detonator for the second. This is a leading hypothesis for the cause of supernova remnant (SNR) 0509-67.5. In this two-star system, gravity causes the larger and fluffier star to give up mass to a smaller and denser white dwarf companion. Eventually the white dwarf's near-surface temperature goes so high that it explodes, creating a shock wave that goes both out and in -- and so triggers a full Type Ia supernova near the center. Recent images of the SNR 0509-67.5 system, like the featured image from the Very Large Telescope in Chile, show two shells with radii and compositions consistent with the double detonation hypothesis. This system, SNR 0509-67.5 is also famous for two standing mysteries: why its bright supernova wasn't noted 400 years ago, and why no visible companion star remains.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Nebulas are perhaps as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as perhaps cats are for getting into trouble. Still, no known cat could have created the vast Cat's Paw Nebula visible toward the constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius). At 5,700 light years distant, Cat's Paw is an emission nebula within a larger molecular cloud. Alternatively known as the Bear Claw Nebula and cataloged as NGC 6334, stars nearly ten times the mass of our Sun have been born there in only the past few million years. Pictured here is a recently released image of the Cat's Paw taken in infrared light by the James Webb Space Telescope. This newly detailed view into the nebula helps provide insight for how turbulent molecular clouds turn gas into stars. Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

About 1,300 images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft's wide angle camera were used to compose this spectacular view of a familiar face - the lunar nearside. But why is there a lunar nearside? The Moon rotates on its axis and orbits the Earth at the same rate, about once every 28 days. Tidally locked in this configuration, the synchronous rotation always keeps one side, the nearside, facing Earth. As a result, featured in remarkable detail in the full resolution mosaic, the smooth, dark, lunar maria (actually lava-flooded impact basins), and rugged highlands, are well-known to earthbound skygazers. To find your favorite mare or large crater, just follow this link or slide your cursor over the picture. The LRO images used to construct the mosaic were recorded over a two week period in December 2010.

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