Spring is here, the blossom is out and the sun is (sort-of) shining in these parts. In the spirit of fresh starts and new beginnings, we begin another week with a collection of trivia to brighten up your Monday.
On This Day – April 17th 1970 – Apollo 13 Returns safely to Earth after an oxygen tank explodes
Apollo 11 was scheduled to become the USA’s third moon landing, following on from those of Apollo 11 and 12. During the third day of the missions journey to the moon, Mission Control requested that the crew stir the oxygen tanks to try and identify an issue with a malfunctioning pressure sensor. The crew duly flicked the switch on and off again a few seconds later (I didn’t realise they worked in IT!) Around a minute and a half afterwards, there was a large bang and temporary loss of power.
This led to the now famous and often misquoted message from mission commander Jim Lovell “Houston, we’ve had a problem”. Once it was determined that there was a problem with the oxygen system, the crew which, in addition to Lovell, comprised Command Module pilot Jack Swigert and Lunar Module pilot Fred Haise, moved into the Lunar module which was used as a lifeboat whilst preparations were made to loop the ship around the moon for a return journey to Earth.
The crew and control worked together to fashion a makeshift CO2 scrubber, enabling the cartridges from the Command Module to be used in the Lunar Module, which had never been designed to support three crewmembers for such an extended period of time.
The flight and the fate of the crew drew the attention of the world and millions of people tuned in to watch the astronauts splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The story has been told in numerous books, films and TV programmes but the most remembered is the 1995 Ron Howard movie starring Tom Hanks.
Read more here .
Also on this day
1387 – The characters in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” start their pilgrimage to Canterbury
1907 – Ellis Island processes 11,747 immigrants to the US, its largest daily total
1960 – Car crash in Chippenham, UK, kills Eddie Cochran and injures Gene Vincent
1969 – Sirhan Sirhan convicted of the murder of Robert F Kennedy
2014 – NASA’s Kepler space telescope confirms the discovery of an Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of another star
Arrivals
1918 – William Holden, US actor (Sunset Boulevard, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Wild Bunch)
1929 – James Last, German musician and bandleader
1940 – Billy Fury, British singer and actor (Halfway to Paradise, That’ll be the Day (movie))
1955 – Pete Shelley, British musician (The Buzzcocks)
1957 – Nick Hornby, British author and srcreenwriter (High Fidelity, About a Boy)
Departures
1790 – Benjamin Franklin, US polymath, politician and founding father
1997 – Chaim Herzog, Israeli soldier, politician and former president
1998 – Linda McCartney, US photographer, musician and activist
2014 – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombian writer and Nobel Laureate
2018 – Barbara Bush, former First Lady of the United States
The Funnies:
Recipe of the day: Ham and Vegetable Bake
Another recipe from BBC Food which is tasty and ideal for busy weeknights.
Ingredients
· 900g/2lb frozen cauliflower or broccoli, or a mix of both
· 1 tbsp butter
· 1 medium onion , sliced
· 2 tbsp plain flour
· 400ml/14fl oz milk (any variety)
· 200g/7oz mature cheddar , coarsely grated
· 1 tsp mustard (optional)
· 300g/10½oz shredded gammon or ham (see recipe tips)
· salt and black pepper
Method
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Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
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A third fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Add the cauliflower and/or broccoli and return to the boil. Once it’s boiling, remove from the heat and drain well.
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Melt the butter in a large saucepan and gently fry the onion for 3–4 minutes, or until softened but not coloured. Stir in the flour and cook for around 30 seconds before slowly adding the milk a little at a time. Cook for 4–5 minutes, or until thickened, stirring constantly. Add two-thirds of the cheese, the cooked gammon or ham and the mustard, if using. Simmer very gently for 1–2 minutes, or until the cheese melts. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
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Scatter the vegetables over a shallow ovenproof dish and pour the sauce over the top. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
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Bake for around 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top and bubbling. Serve immediately.
Quote of the Day:
“The trouble was that he was talking in philosophy but they were listening in gibberish.” (Small Gods)
– Sir Terry Pratchett
Comic of the Day:
Mouseover: “The E’s wedding invitation definitely used the word LOVE more times than was strictly necessary.”
Image Credit: xkcd: Linguistics Gossip
Explain XKCD: explain xkcd
Inspirobot Always Controversial, Occasionally Inspirational Quote of the Day:
If you missed @repairatrooper ’s extremely safe, crumple-zone equipped Spark! from Friday, find it here:
( Spark! Pro Series - April 14th, 2023 )
