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Apollo 9

Apollo 9.
Apollo 9 (March 3–13, 1969) was the third crewed mission in the United States Apollo program. Launched by a Saturn V rocket and flown in Low Earth Orbit, the mission flight-qualified the Lunar Module, showing that its crew could fly it independently, then rendezvous and dock, as would be required for Apollo 11, the first crewed lunar landing. Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart tested systems and procedures critical to landing on the Moon. A spacewalk tested the extravehicular life support backpack. McDivitt and Schweickart, entering the lunar module through the docking tunnel, became the first humans to pass between spacecraft without going outside them, two months after Soviet cosmonauts spacewalked to transfer between Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5. Apollo 9, a complete success, was followed by Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for Apollo 11.

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Ethiopian historiography

Ethiopian historiography.
Ethiopian historiography embodies the ancient, medieval, early modern and modern disciplines of recording the history of Ethiopia. Ethiopian historical writing can be traced back to the Kingdom of Aksum (c. AD 100 – c. 940). The writing of history became an established genre in Ethiopian literature during the early Solomonic dynasty (1270–1974), when written histories were usually in the form of royal biographies, dynastic chronicles, hagiographic literature and universal histories in the form of annals. These reinforced the genealogical traditions of Ethiopia's rulers, who claimed descent from Solomon. Modern Ethiopian historiography was developed by native Ethiopians and by Hiob Ludolf (1624–1704), the German orientalist. The traditionalist Heruy Wolde Selassie (1878–1938) employed Western historiographic methods. Historiography of the 20th century focused largely on the Abyssinian Crisis of 1935 and the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.

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Coffin Stone

Coffin Stone.
The Coffin Stone is a large sarsen stone at the foot of Blue Bell Hill near Aylesford in the south-eastern English county of Kent. Now lying prone on the ground, the stone is a rectangular slab that measures 4.42 metres (14 ft 6 in) in length, 2.59 metres (8 ft 6 in) in breadth, and about 0.61 metres (2 ft) in width. Another large slab now rests on it, and two smaller stones are nearby. The megalith lies on the eastern side of the River Medway, not far from the chambered long barrows of Little Kit's Coty House and Kit's Coty House constructed in the fourth millennium BCE, during Britain's Early Neolithic period. An archaeological excavation of the site led by Paul Garwood in 2008 and 2009 found that the Coffin Stone was only placed in its present location in the 15th or 16th centuries. The archaeologists found no evidence of a chambered long barrow at the site. In the 1830s it was reported that local farmers found human bones near the stone.

Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945)

Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945).
The bombing of Tokyo during the early hours of 10 March 1945 by the U.S. Army Air Forces was a devastating firebombing raid on the Japanese capital city. Bombs dropped from 279 Boeing B-29 Superfortresses burned out much of eastern Tokyo. More than 90,000 Japanese, mostly civilians, were killed and one million left homeless, making it the single most destructive air attack of World War II. The Japanese air and civil defenses proved inadequate, and only 14 American aircraft and 96 airmen were lost. The previous, generally unsuccessful, air raids on Japan had focused on industrial facilities. This was the first major firebombing raid against a Japanese city, and the tactics used became a standard part of the American strategic bombing campaign until the end of the war. The attack is commemorated at two official memorials, several neighborhood memorials and a privately run museum.