Alien was released on May 25, 1979 in the United States and September 6 in the United Kingdom. It was met with critical acclaim and box office success, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, three Saturn Awards (Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction for Scott, and Best Supporting Actress for Cartwright), and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, along with numerous other nominations. It has been consistently praised in the years since its release, and is considered one of the greatest films of all time. In 2002, Alien was deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2008, it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the seventh-best film in the science fiction genre, and as the thirty-third greatest film of all time by Empire magazine.
The success of Alien spawned a media franchise of films, novels, comic books, video games, and toys. It also launched Weaver’s acting career, providing her with her first lead role. The story of her character’s encounters with the Alien creatures became the thematic and narrative core of several sequels, prequels, and crossovers.
Posted onMay 25, 2026byJames|Comments Off on More Than A Name On A Wall – Statler Brothers
I saw her from a distance As she walked up to the wall In her hand, she held some flowers As her tears began to fall
And she took out pen and paper As to trace her memories She looked up to heaven And the words she said were these
She said, “Lord, my boy was special, and he meant so much to me And though I’d love to see him just one more time, you see All I have are the memories and the moments to recall So Lord, could you tell him, he’s more than a name on a wall?”
She said, “He really missed the family And being home on Christmas day And he died for God and Country In a place so far away”
“I remember just a little boy Playing war since he was three Lord, this time I know He’s not coming home to me”
She said, “Lord, my boy was special, and he meant so much to me And though I’d love to see him, but I know it just can’t be So I thank you for my memories and the moments to recall But Lord, could you tell him, he’s more than a name on a wall?”
Lord, could you tell him He’s more than a name on a wall?
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the civil war), it was expanded after World War I to include American casualties of any war or military action.
On May 15, 1941, the jet-propelled Gloster-Whittle E 28/39 aircraft flies successfully over Cranwell, England, in the first test of an Allied aircraft using jet propulsion. The aircraft’s turbojet engine, which produced a powerful thrust of hot air, was devised by Frank Whittle, an English aviation engineer and pilot generally regarded as the father of the jet engine.
DAYTON, Ohio — Messerschmitt Me 262A at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
Whittle, born in Coventry in 1907, was the son of a mechanic. At the age of 16, he joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) as an aircraft apprentice at Cranwell and in 1926 passed a medical exam to become a pilot and joined the RAF College. He won a reputation as a daredevil flier and in 1928 wrote a senior thesis entitled Future Developments in Aircraft Design, which discussed the possibilities of rocket propulsion.
From the first Wright brothers flight in 1903 to the first jet flight in 1939, most airplanes were propeller driven. In 1910, the French inventor Henri Coanda built a jet-propelled bi-plane, but it crashed on its maiden flight and never flew again. Coanda’s aircraft attracted little notice, and engineers stuck with propeller technology; even though they realized early on that propellers would never overcome certain inherent limitations, especially in regard to speed.
After graduating from the RAF college, Whittle was posted to a fighter squadron, and in his spare time he worked out the essentials of the modern turbojet engine. A flying instructor, impressed with his propulsion ideas, introduced him to the Air Ministry and a private turbine engineering firm, but both ridiculed Whittle’s ideas as impractical. In 1930, he patented his jet engine concept and in 1936 formed the company Power Jets Ltd. to build and test his invention. In 1937, he tested his first jet engine on the ground. He still received only limited funding and support, and on August 27, 1939, the German Heinkel He 178, designed by Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain, made the first jet flight in history. The German prototype jet was developed independently of Whittle’s efforts.
One week after the flight of the He 178, World War II broke out in Europe, and Whittle’s project got a further lease of life. The Air Ministry commissioned a new jet engine from Power Jets and asked the Gloster Aircraft Company to build an experimental aircraft to accommodate it, specified as E 28/39. On May 15, 1941, the jet-propelled Gloster-Whittle E 28/39 flew, beating out a jet prototype being developed by the same British turbine company that earlier balked at his ideas. In its initial tests, Whittle’s aircraft–flown by the test pilot Gerry Sayer–achieved a top speed of 370 mph at 25,000 feet, faster than the Spitfire or any other conventional propeller-driven machine.
As the Gloster Aircraft Company worked on an operational turbojet aircraft for combat, Whittle aided the Americans in their successful development of a jet prototype. With Whittle’s blessing, the British government took over Power Jets Ltd. in 1944. By this time, Britain’s Gloster Meteor jet aircraft were in service with the RAF, going up against Germany’s jet-powered Messerschmitt Me 262s in the skies over Europe.
Whittle retired from the RAF in 1948 with the rank of air commodore. That year, he was awarded 100,000 pounds by the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors and was knighted. His book Jet: The Story of a Pioneer was published in 1953. In 1977, he became a research professor at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He died in Columbia, Maryland, in 1996.
Posted onMay 15, 2026byJames|Comments Off on Peace Officers Memorial Day
Flags at half-staff today to honor fallen officers
Flags are to fly at half-staff today for Peace Officers Memorial Day. Gov. Rendell has ordered Pennsylvania flags at state facilities to be flown at half-staff, and President Obama directed the same for U.S. flags. “On this day, we pay tribute to the local, state, and federal law enforcement officers who provide a vital public service and, too often, pay the ultimate sacrifice to safeguard the rights and freedoms of our citizens,” Rendell said in a statement. “We honor them for their character, leadership, and courage.”
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy and Congress designated May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day. The calendar week in which May 15 falls is National Police Week.
Posted onMay 14, 2026byJames|Comments Off on Happy Birthday, George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. (May 14, 1944 – )
George Lucas is an Academy Award-nominated American film producer, screenwriter, director and chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the epic Sci-Fi franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones.
Posted onMay 10, 2026byJames|Comments Off on Transcontinental Railroad
On May 10, 1869, the ceremonial spike (actually more than one) was driven into the meeting point of the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad. That’s when it became the transcontinental railroad, and traveling across the country no longer meant months in a wagon or on a ship sailing around South America.
Posted onMay 8, 2026byJames|Comments Off on Counting the Cost Memorial
The “Counting the Cost” memorial, located at the American Air Museum in Duxford, England, is a 52-panel glass sculpture commemorating over 7,000 US aircraft lost during WWII operations from UK bases. The etched panels line the entrance ramp, visually representing the immense scale of losses with silhouettes of bombers and fighters.
Key Details of the Memorial:
Location: The memorial lines the ramped walkway leading to the entrance of the American Air Museum at Duxford.
Significance: The 7,031 etched aircraft represent the total number of USAAF 8th and 9th Air Force planes that went missing in operations from Britain, honors over 30,000 US airmen who died while flying from UK bases during World War II.
Design: It consists of 52 panels (divided into 43 on the left and 9 on the right) featuring aircraft silhouettes (in 1:240 scale) acting as a “missing in action” memorial.
Purpose: It serves as a visual, often unsettling reminder of the immense cost of war, acknowledging that each missing plane carried a crew of 8–10 men.
The end of World War II in Europe occurred with Germany’s unconditional surrender to the Allied forces, finalized on May 8, 1945, known as Victory in Europe (V-E) Day. Following Adolf Hitler’s suicide on April 30, 1945, and the fall of Berlin to Soviet troops, German forces surrendered to Western Allies in Reims on May 7 and to the Soviets in Berlin on May 8, ending nearly six years of war.
May 8th is officially recognized as “Motörhead Day” (or “Lemmy Day”), a global celebration of the iconic band and its late frontman, Lemmy Kilmister. Chosen because the date “The 8th of May” sounds similar to “Ace of Spades,” this day honors the band’s legacy with special events, music, and, as of 2025, the unveiling of a statue in his hometown.
Sir David Frederick Attenborough is an English broadcaster and naturalist.
He is best known for writing and presenting the nine Life series, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, which collectively form a comprehensive survey of animal and plant life on the planet. He is also a former senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s. He is the only person to have won BAFTAs for programs in each of black and white, colour, HD, and 3D.
Attenborough is widely considered a national treasure in Britain, although he himself does not like the term. In 2002 he was named among the 100 Greatest Britons following a UK-wide vote. He is the younger brother of director, producer and actor Richard Attenborough.
On the afternoon of May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland. Within 20 minutes, the vessel sank into the Celtic Sea. Of 1,959 passengers and crew, 1,198 people were drowned, including 128 Americans. The attack aroused considerable indignation in the United States, but Germany defended the action, noting that it had issued warnings of its intent to attack all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain.
Posted onMay 6, 2026byJames|Comments Off on The Hindenburg Disaster
On May 6,1937, the airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built and the pride of Nazi Germany, bursts into flames upon touching its mooring mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 passengers and crewmembers.
Posted onMay 5, 2026byJames|Comments Off on 1961 : The first American in space
From Cape Canaveral, Florida, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. is launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel into space. The suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere, was a major triumph for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
NASA was established in 1958 to keep U.S. space efforts abreast of recent Soviet achievements, such as the launching of the world’s first artificial satellite–Sputnik 1–in 1957. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the two superpowers raced to become the first country to put a man in space and return him to Earth. On April 12, 1961, the Soviet space program won the race when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched into space, put in orbit around the planet, and safely returned to Earth. One month later, Shepard’s suborbital flight restored faith in the U.S. space program.
NASA continued to trail the Soviets closely until the late 1960s and the successes of the Apollo lunar program. In July 1969, the Americans took a giant leap forward with Apollo 11, a three-stage spacecraft that took U.S. astronauts to the surface of the moon and returned them to Earth. On February 5, 1971, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, became the fifth astronaut to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 14 lunar landing mission.
Posted onMay 3, 2026byJames|Comments Off on 60th Anniversary of Twister on The Tonight Show
When Reyn Guyer invented the game Twister (originally called Pretzel), he wasn’t thinking of the unspoken taboo on touching other people’s bodies. He was concentrating on the novelty of a board game where the players become the playing pieces. He might have envisioned it as a family game. Either way, it was hard to market. Reviewers thought it was too risqué, and it was even called “sex in a box.”
But then an executive at Milton Bradley got the idea to give a game to Johnny Carson to play on The Tonight Show. Twister was still very new, and Carson tried it out with his guest Eva Gabor on May 3rd, 1966 (60 years ago tonight). They had a good time and plenty of laughs. That appearance not only introduced the public to Twister, it gave them permission to try it themselves. After all, it was played on broadcast TV! Never mind that The Tonight Show was the most risqué part of the TV schedule at that time. Sales took off the very next day, and Twister became a lasting hit. Read the history of Twister and how it took hold in American culture at Smithsonian.
Posted onApril 26, 2026byJames|Comments Off on Nuclear Disaster at Chernobyl
On April 26, 1986, the world’s worst nuclear power plant accident occurs at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Soviet Union. Thirty-two people died and dozens more suffered radiation burns in the opening days of the crisis, but only after Swedish authorities reported the fallout did Soviet authorities reluctantly admit that an accident had occurred.
The Chernobyl station was situated at the settlement of Pripyat, about 65 miles north of Kiev in the Ukraine. Built in the late 1970s on the banks of the Pripyat River, Chernobyl had four reactors, each capable of producing 1,000 megawatts of electric power. On the evening of April 25, 1986, a group of engineers began an electrical-engineering experiment on the Number 4 reactor. The engineers, who had little knowledge of reactor physics, wanted to see if the reactor’s turbine could run emergency water pumps on inertial power.
As part of their poorly designed experiment, the engineers disconnected the reactor’s emergency safety systems and its power-regulating system. Next, they compounded this recklessness with a series of mistakes: They ran the reactor at a power level so low that the reaction became unstable, and then removed too many of the reactor’s control rods in an attempt to power it up again. The reactor’s output rose to more than 200 megawatts but was proving increasingly difficult to control. Nevertheless, at 1:23 a.m. on April 26, the engineers continued with their experiment and shut down the turbine engine to see if its inertial spinning would power the reactor’s water pumps. In fact, it did not adequately power the water pumps, and without cooling water the power level in the reactor surged.
To prevent meltdown, the operators reinserted all the 200-some control rods into the reactor at once. The control rods were meant to reduce the reaction but had a design flaw: graphite tips. So, before the control rod’s five meters of absorbent material could penetrate the core, 200 graphite tips simultaneously entered, thus facilitating the reaction and causing an explosion that blew off the heavy steel and concrete lid of the reactor. It was not a nuclear explosion, as nuclear power plants are incapable of producing such a reaction, but was chemical, driven by the ignition of gases and steam that were generated by the runaway reaction. In the explosion and ensuing fire, more than 50 tons of radioactive material were released into the atmosphere, where it was carried by air currents.
On April 27, Soviet authorities began an evacuation of the 30,000 inhabitants of Pripyat. A cover-up was attempted, but on April 28 Swedish radiation monitoring stations, more than 800 miles to the northwest of Chernobyl, reported radiation levels 40 percent higher than normal. Later that day, the Soviet news agency acknowledged that a major nuclear accident had occurred at Chernobyl.
In the opening days of the crisis, 32 people died at Chernobyl and dozens more suffered radiation burns. The radiation that escaped into the atmosphere, which was several times that produced by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was spread by the wind over Northern and Eastern Europe, contaminating millions of acres of forest and farmland. An estimated 5,000 Soviet citizens eventually died from cancer and other radiation-induced illnesses caused by their exposure to the Chernobyl radiation, and millions more had their health adversely affected. In 2000, the last working reactors at Chernobyl were shut down and the plant was officially closed.
