A First Day Cover from Sept 9, 1969 commemorating the Apollo 11 moon landing. There’s a post stamp from the July 20 moon landing & a beautiful 10 cent stamp featuring Neil Armstrong stepping down upon the lunar surface. So many great space-themed stamps were designed by the USPS during the space age.

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins & Buzz Aldrin. In Feb 1968, NASA announced 5 potential landing sites for A11’s Lunar Lander, ‘Eagle’. These 5 spots were chosen following research by 5 unmanned lunar orbital missions & Surveyor landing missions. Among these 5 potential spots, 2 were in the Sea of Tranquility. In May ‘69, Apollo 10 flew within 9.3 miles of A11’s future landing site in Tranquility & deemed it acceptable.

3 peas in a pod. Frank Borman sits in the commander’s seat to the left, with William Anders to the right & Michael Collins in the middle during flight simulator training for Apollo 8. Mr. Collins developed a back injury in 1968 which led to James Lovell replacing him on the 1st crewed flight to orbit the moon. All was not lost for Mike though as he was bumped back to Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin for the first human landing on the moon. Not too bad of a second assignment.

IRA Burns Dublin Custom House

The Customs House on fire.

May 25 1921, Dublin–Fighting during the Irish War of Independence had so far been on a smaller scale: ambushes, assassinations, and the like. Éamon De Valera, President of the Dáil, pushed strongly for a higher-profile engagement, over Michael Collins’ objections. At 1 PM on May 25, the IRA stormed the Custom House in Dublin and began making preparations to burn the building. However, before they could finish and evacuate the building, British Auxiliaries arrived and began firing at the IRA inside, who quickly set the building on fire. The IRA quickly ran out of ammunition and could not hold out for long in a burning building, and at least 80 IRA members were arrested. Fire brigades were also held up by the IRA and arrived too late to save the building, which burned to the ground. The Irish tried to claim the burning of the Custom House as a propaganda victory, but the capture of so many men was a serious blow.

This took place against the backdrop of the previous day’s elections, called for in both Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which had first formalized the partition of the island. Apart from the four seats reserved for Trinity College, the Southern Irish seats were uncontested and swept by Sinn Féin, who would not take their seats in a parliament they had not agreed to and did not recognize. In the north, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) took two-thirds of the vote and three-quarters of the seats, with the remainder split between Sinn Féin and the remnants of the Irish Parliamentary Party. The Government of Ireland Act 1920 had not included all of Ulster to secure such a Unionist majority in the north, but had also included a large Catholic minority simply to give Northern Ireland a larger region on the map.

Sources include: Michael Hopkinson, The Irish War of Independence.

#OTD in 1922 – De Valera and Collins agree to a pact whereby a national coalition panel of candidates will represent the pro- and anti-Treaty wings of Sinn Féin throughout Ireland in the forthcoming general election.

#OTD in 1922 – De Valera and Collins agree to a pact whereby a national coalition panel of candidates will represent the pro- and anti-Treaty wings of Sinn Féin throughout Ireland in the forthcoming general election.

As in the Irish elections, 1921 in the south, Sinn Féin stood one candidate for every seat, except those for the University of Dublin and one other; the treaty had divided the party between 65 pro-treaty candidates, 57 anti-treaty and 1 nominally on both sides. Unlike the elections a year earlier, other parties stood in most constituencies forcing single transferable vote elections, with Sinn…

View On WordPress

#OTD in 1918 – Almost the entire leadership of Sinn Féin are arrested. 150 were arrested on the night of 16–17 May and taken to prisons in England.

#OTD in 1918 – Almost the entire leadership of Sinn Féin are arrested. 150 were arrested on the night of 16–17 May and taken to prisons in England.

During the last year of the First World War, on the night of 17/18 May, over 70 leading members of Sinn Fein were arrested under the terms of the Defence of the Realm Act. The arrests had been made following the discovery of a supposed plot on the part of Sinn Féin to help Germany enter Ireland. This “German Plot” is generally believed to have been used as an excuse to intern the leaders of Sinn…

View On WordPress

The Ultimate Tribute To The Fallen Heroes Who Took Us To The Moon

“From 1964 through 1967, T-38 Talon training accidents killed Theodore Freeman,Charles Basset, Elliot See, and Clifton Williams. Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom,Ed White, and Roger Chaffee all perished in 1967’s launchpad fire. The tragic lessons learned helped ensure the safe return of all subsequent Apollo crewmembers. All 24 astronauts that journeyed to the Moon — including 12 moonwalkers — survived.”

A great many people gave not just their full efforts, but also their lives, in the endeavor to take humanity beyond the bounds of Earth’s gravitational pull. Even today, only 24 people have done it, and 10 of them remain alive today.

Featuring a fitting tribute for Memorial Day plus an outstanding art piece to memorialize Michael Collins, this is a set of stories worth remembering.

We were sorry to learn of the passing of Apollo 11 astronaut and command module pilot Michael Collins at age 90. Collins served as Director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum from 1971-1978. He gave President Ford a tour of the exhibits following the museum’s dedication on July 1, 1976. Watch footage of the tour here: https://youtu.be/uffSS-XcAcQ

Image: Museum Director Michael Collins Giving President Gerald R. Ford and Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller a Tour of the National Air and Space Museum, 7/1/1976 (National Archives Identifier 45644211)

thebiscuiteternal:

ziggy-scardust:

wickedwitch-of-the-left:

otto-woods:

weaver-z:

How the media depicts the Apollo 11 mission:

Actual quotes from the Apollo 11 mission:

also according to michael collins when the three of them were discussing what neil armstrong should say when he first stepped on the moon, collins suggested armstrong say “Oh, my God, what is that thing?”  and then scream and cut out his mic.

all you’ve done is convince me that michael collins was one of the funniest men alive tbh

Michael Collins is a HILARIOUS SPACE ANGEL and I will shout this from the rooftops every time this post comes up on my dash. He showed up at my school in Boston for an event and the first thing he said was “I just learned what the state bird of Massachusetts is. It’s the upraised middle finger.” He followed up with “Buzz and Neil were bickering like an old married couple the whole time. It was nice to get some peace and quiet while they were on the surface. Forget being the farthest from all humanity, I just wanted to be the farthest from those two.”

Oh and let’s not forget his long and distinguished post-astronaut career in the State Department and as the director of the Smithsonian.

Reblogging again in memory of Collins’ passing today. Godspeed spaceman.