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The Internet began as the ARPANET, back in early 1969. Funded by the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, hence the name). ARPANET was designed to let researchers communicate and share information with each other. Also high in the design goals was this: The network should be able to survive even if part of it was physically destroyed. This was 1969, remember, and the threat of nuclear attack was still on everyone's mind. Basically, then, the idea was this: Build a network for researchers around the United States to use in their day-to-day activities and, in the process, make sure that blowing up a machine in one location doesn't stop the network from functioning. Four ARPANET sites were established as test locations: the University of Utah, the Stanford Research Institute, and two University of California sites, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. In September 1969, the ARPANET was switched on. Compared with the coverage of Woodstock and the first moon landing only a few weeks before this, the new network didn't get a whole lot of press. Who cared? A few years later, many people did. Over a thousand watched ARPANET'S first public demonstration in the fall of 1972, and that, effectively, is when the whole idea of a national-even international-network began to take hold. Everyone started developing reasons why they needed to be part of it, and what such a network could do for them. This isn't to say, mind you, that ARPANET was ever implemented with this goal in mind. From its beginnings, it was apparently designed to be small, with only a few key research sites participating.
ARPANET lasted until 1990 and splitted into two networks - MILNET for military affairs and ARPANET for researchers..
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In Britain the common name for a medicinal preparation of acetylsalicylic acid, but in many other countries a registered trade name for proprietary brands of the same substance. Salicylic acid is found in nature in the sap of certain willows (Salix), in oil of wintergreen (a very old remedy for rheumatism), and in the flowers of meadow sweet (Spiraea ulmaria). Its original name was spiraeic acid, and its acetyl derivative was called 'aspirin' from the elements a(cetyl) and spir(&e&). It was first isolated, by Charles F. Gerhardt in 1853, and its medicinal properties were discovered by Heinrich Dresser in 1899. It is now manufactured synthetically as a white crystalline powder soluble in ether and alcohol but only slightly so in water. It is used to relieve pain, to reduce fever, and as an anti-rheumatic. Its action, for long a mystery, was discovered in the 1960s to be chiefly negative or inhibitory, preventing the development of some undesirable physical states. The usual dose is from 5 to 15 grains, but if taken in excess it is an irritant poison. Symptoms of poisoning include asthma, deafness, noises in the ears (tinnitus), conjunctivitis, abdominal pain, ulceration, haemorrhage, and diarrhoea. Treatment requires immediate hospitalization, where stomach-washes and the intravenous administration of fluids can be given.
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American rocket developed in 1946 and 1947 by the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. The rocket was about 19 feet long and weighed 1,665 pounds. An Aerobee reached a height of 180 miles. These rockets were still used in the late 1960's for soundings in space.
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Almedia, Francisco de (1450 - 1510) First viceroy of Portuguese India. After some adventurous years fighting the moors, Almeida was apppointed viceroy in 1505. He lost no time in establishing new trading and defense posts in COCHIN (Kerala State), Ceylon (Sri-Lanka), and Sumatra. Lourenco, Almeda's sons, was killed and to avenge his death Almeida proceeded to burn and pillage a number of ports. He finally destroyed a power combined Egyptian and Indian fleet off Diu. Superseded as viceroy by Afonso d'Albuquerque, Almedia at first refused to acknowledge his recall, and imprisoned his successor. When he did eventually set off, he landed on the site of present day Cape Town to replenish his supplies of water, and was killed in a fight with a party of Hottentos.
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An American second-stage rocket used to launch spacecraft. An innovation with the Agena was that it could be stopped and started again in the space. It was used in the Thor-Agena combination for launching small satellites, and more powerfully in the Atlas-Agena combination. In that form it could lift a 5,000-pounds payload into a 300-mile earth orbit. The Mariner spacecraft was sent to Venus and the Rangers to the moon by this vehicle.
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The chief river of South America. It is the second longest river in the world, after the Nile, and the larget in volume of water. it runs for 3,900 miles from the foothills of the Andes in Peru eastward through Brazil, and into the Atlantic on the north side of the island of Marajo. Vincente Pinzon is credited with being the first to see the Amazon when he reached the coast of Brazil in 1500. The first European to navigate the river was Spanish explorer Fancisco de Orellana who followed the course of the Amazon from the mouth of the Napo River to the Atlantic Ocean in 1541. Itwas Orlellana's encounter with warrior women resembling the Amazons (warrior maidens of Greek and Roman mythology) that gave the river its name.
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The eleventh highest mountain in the world. It stands in the Himalaya in north central Nepal, and reaches a height of 26,504 feet. It was first clibed in 1950 by a nine-man french expediation led by Mourice Herzog. |
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ANDERS, WILLIAMS A. (born 1933)
One of the three astronauts in Apollo 8 who orbited the moon and returned safely to earth. His two colleagues were Frank Borman (the commander) and James A. Lovell, Jr. The mission lasted from December 21 to 27th 1968, the spacecraft remaining in the lunar orbit for 20 hours. |
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Trade name for an underwater breathing apparatus used by skin-divers. The Auga-Lung was designed by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan and was first tested by Cousteau in 1943. It consists of a mouthpiece attached by means of a rube to one or more compressed air tanks on the diver's back. A valve attached to the tanks ensures that the diver receives the exact amount of air he needs. A second tube carries the exhaled air out into the water. Each tank normally holds about 40 to 60 minutes' worth of air, and a pressure gauges shows the amounts of air left in the tank. By freeing the diver from dependence on an air supply from the surface, the Aqua-Lung represented a major advance in underwater exploration. |
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A term used to describe divers who live and work under the sea. The French diver Jacques-Yves Cousteau, inventor of the Aqua-Lung, pioneered this submarine activity. In the 1962, he set up the world's first under water habitant, Conshelf I. Conshelf I was anchored 33 feets underwater, and two aquanauts lived and worked there for a week. |
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ARMSTRONG, NEIL A. (BORN 1930)
United States astronaut who was the first man to set foot on the moon. This took place on July 20th 1969, after the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle had touched down on the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong, with fellow Apollo 11 astronauts Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. and Michael Collins, returned safely to earth on July 24th 1969, after an eight days voyage. Armstrong became an astronaut in 1962 and made his first spaceflight aboard Gemini 8 in 1966. |
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American Intercontinental Ballistic Missile with a surface-to-surface range of 9,000 miles and a thrust of 367,000 pounds. The 75-foot Atlas was adapted for launching spacecraft. It was used to launch various artificial satellites and was tested 91 times before boosting astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. into the first American orbit of the earth in 1962. |
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A T S (APPLICATIONS TECHNOLOGY SATELLITE)
An American 700-pound artificial satellite used for testing advanced equipment for weather, communications, and navigation satellites for the future. The ATS series was initiated in the late 1960's and early 1970's. |
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The world's second largest ocean. The Atlantic is some 31,530,000 square miles in area, excluding gulfs and bays, and covers more than a fifth of the earth's surface. At its wides point, between Florida and Spain, it is 4,150 miles wide. The deepest spot in the Atlantic is Milwaukee Deep, off Puerto Rico, which is 27, 498 feet below the surface. Phoenician mariners may have sailed in the Atlantic as long ago as 600 B.C., but it was not until the A.D. 1400's that the Europeans overcame their fear of this great mass of water, and set out to explore it. The first European to cross the Atlantic was Christopher Columbus in 1492. |
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Instrument used by ancient astronomers to measure the altitude of heavenly bodies, from which latitude and time can be calculated. It consists of a metal disk suspended from a frame. The disk is equipped with sights and graduations for measuring elevation. The astrolabe was superseded by the sextant in the 1700's. |
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