Good News in History, May 20

60 years ago today, Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias announced the discovery of the cosmic microwave background. A sufficiently sensitive radio telescope will detect a faint background glow that is almost uniform and is not associated with any star, galaxy, or other object, which when announced provided foundational evidence for the Big Bang as physicists saw it. READ more… (1964)

In 1964, physicist Robert H. Dicke and collaborating astrophysicists at Princeton University were preparing to search for microwave radiation with a radiometer called a Holmdel Horn antenna. Just 60 km (37 mi) away, at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Wilson and Penzias were working on the same project with the same instrument.

The latter two were experimenting in the detection of extremely faint radio waves and used a variety of methods to eliminate all interference that might affect their antenna readings. They found that after all Earth-bound interference was removed, a low, steady, mysterious noise persisted in their receiver. This residual noise was 100 times more intense than they had expected, was evenly spread over the sky, and was present day and night.

A call from Bell Labs to Princeton surprised Dicke, who hung up the phone and told his team: “Boys, we’ve been scooped.” A meeting between the two research groups determined that the antenna temperature was indeed due to the microwave background. Penzias and Wilson received the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery.

In the Big Bang cosmological models, during the earliest periods, the universe was filled with an opaque fog of dense, hot plasma of sub-atomic particles. As the universe expanded, this plasma cooled to the point where protons and electrons combined to form neutral atoms of mostly hydrogen.

Unlike the plasma, these atoms could not scatter thermal radiation by Thomson scattering, and so the universe became transparent. Known as the recombination epoch, this decoupling event released photons to travel freely through space – sometimes referred to as relic radiation

MORE Good News on this Day:

• Levi Strauss received a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets (1873)
• Amelia Earhart began the world’s first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, taking off in Newfoundland and landing the next day in a pasture in Ireland (1932)
• Romania conducted its first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections (1990)
• The US Supreme Court struck down a Colorado law that would have banned any state jurisdiction from taking action to protect the rights of gay citizens (1996)
• East Timor became independent from Indonesian rule (2002)

81 years ago today, the skeleton of the Luttra Woman, or Hallonflickan (Raspberry woman) was discovered in a bog near Luttra, Sweden. Hers are the oldest set of female remains ever found in the country, and they offered a glimpse into the Neolithic Era times and travails.  

Because her stomach contents showed that raspberries had been her last meal and she was estimated to have been a teenager or young adult at the time of her death. Furthermore, she had been tied up, and no illness or fatal trauma had been detected on her skeleton; suggesting she had been executed or sacrificed.

The strontium signature of one of her teeth was analyzed and the results indicated that she was probably born and grew up in Scania, the southernmost region of Sweden around 4,000 BCE.

454 years ago today, Belgian Cartographer Abraham Ortelius published the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first world atlas. It consisted of a collection of uniform map sheets and supporting text bound to form a book for which copper printing plates were specifically engraved, and got pretty much all the shapes of all the continents horribly wrong except Africa which is remarkably accurate. It turns out there was a Golden Age of Netherlandish Cartography, and it’s reckoned Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was its overture.

Ortelius traveled extensively throughout his life, all across Europe. He was a guild member in Antwerp trading in books, manuals, maps, and more, and he eventually put together the atlas at the urging of his friend. To do so he used 53 maps, and attributed all of his reproductions of them to 83 authors, whom he diligently named. The first edition was published in Latin, with Dutch, French, and German editions to follow, along with 17 additional maps after the Theatrum was met with great commercial interest from the upper classes of Europe.

This launched the Golden Age of Netherlandish Cartography, taking advantage of the two hundred years during which the Dutch dominated world trade, and visited every corner of the earth. For roughly a century, from 1570 to 1670, the maps, charts, and globes issued during this period, at first mainly in Antwerp and later in Amsterdam, are distinguished not only by their accuracy according to the knowledge of the time, but also by their richness of ornamentation.

From both national and international perspectives, early modern Netherlandish cartographers, geographers, explorers, and navigators played a highly significant historical role – who helped revolutionize and shape cartographic, geographic, geodetic, surveying, navigational, hydrographic, cosmographic, and astronomical knowledge of the modern-day world as we know today. (1570)

Happy Birthday to Cher, who turns 78 today. The actress, dancer, and singer has sold over 100 million records.

The ‘Goddess of Pop’, with her distinctively resonant contralto voice, reached the top of the charts in 1965 with the Sonny & Cher hit, I Got You Babe, and in her solo career with four No.1 singles, Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves, Half-Breed, Dark Lady, and Believe.

Her music won a Grammy, her fashion style won our attention, but she’s also earned an Emmy, 3 Golden Globes, and an Oscar—for Best Actress in Moonstruck. Cher is the only artist with a No.1 single on a Billboard chart in six consecutive decades, from the 60s to the 2010s.

The superstar got involved in helping save an elephant stuck in an Islamabad zoo under terrible conditions, as GNN reported, and the Smithsonian Channel just debuted a documentary about the 4-year effort to save Kaavan. Called, Cher & the Loneliest Elephant, it shows film of her November visit to the animal’s new home, serenading him with lines from the song My Way.

Adding to a list of her philanthropic contributions (she paid for a shipment of water to the people of Flint, Michigan), Cher and a charity supergroup spawned a UK top-ten single last November called Stop Crying Your Heart Out, an Oasis cover, with all proceeds supporting children in need.

Yesterday Cher announced on Twitter that an official biopic of her life is in the works, with Universal Studios employing Eric Roth as scriptwriter (Forrest Gump), and the “Mamma Mia!” producers. WATCH her sing My Way to an elephant… (1946)

And, on this day in 1908, the beloved actor Jimmy Stewart was born. Any number of his movies are included among the greatest American films of all time, particularly Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; It’s a Wonderful Life; Harvey; and the Hitchcock-directed Rear Window, and Vertigo. Known for his distinctive drawl and down-to-earth persona, he often portrayed middle-class men struggling in crisis. Equally at home in Westerns, thrillers, biographies, and family films, he also had keen comedic timing, as seen in The Philadelphia Story, for which he won his only Oscar among five nominations.

Married for 45 years, he also won honors in war—as a World War II pilot and Vietnam War veteran—rising to the rank of Brigadier General in the Air Force. He sacrificed 5 years in the prime of his acting career to serve his country. Not only that, he had been offered a safe post, as all celebrities were (because their death would be a huge blow to the nations’s morale), but he refused and instead flew more than a dozen dangerous bombing missions. WATCH a tribute, or see his personality shine during his 1980 acceptance speech…

And, 108 years ago today, the first Norman Rockwell painting appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. The oil on canvas, Boy with Baby Carriage (or ‘Home Duty’), was an instant success. Although he got his start at age 18 when he was hired as a staff artist for Boys’ Life magazine, it was this illustration that propelled Rockwell on the road to financial and artistic success, and popular acclaim. When he got the cover, he crooned: “Two million subscribers and then their wives, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, friends. Wow!” he said, when the possibility of a Post cover arose. He accomplished the coveted feat at the age of twenty-two.

Among the best-known of Rockwell’s works are the Four Freedoms, a series that illustrated President Franklin Roosevelt’s vision for why America would fight in WWII. Born in New York City, and living most of his life in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the artist produced more than four thousand original works in his lifetime. He also wrote an autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator, and is noted for his 64-year relationship with the Boy Scouts. Rockwell passed away in 1978 at the age of 83. (1916)

Happy 89th Birthday to Uruguay’s Jose Mujica—the ‘World’s most humble president’.

The 40th president of Uruguay became legendary for giving 90 percent of his salary to the poor, choosing to live on his austere farm (instead of the presidential palace), and using an old VW Beetle to get around town. He left office in March, 2015 due to his country’s one-term limit for presidents. (1935)

Happy 75th Birthday to children’s author Mary Pope Osborne, best known for her award-winning Magic Tree House series.

With more than 55 different stories in the time-travel adventure series, the chapter books written for readers ages 6–10 have sold more than 134 million copies worldwide in 35 languages. An advocate and supporter of children’s literacy, the Oklahoma native is also coauthor of the companion Magic Tree House Fact Trackers series with her husband, playwright Will Osborne, and her sister Natalie. WATCH a 2017 video about the 25th anniversary of Magic Tree House… (1949)

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