This Day in History April 23, 1984

I remember this well--maybe not the exact date, but this was a big deal when I was in school.  On this in 1984, Margaret Heckler, President Reagan's secretary of health and human services, announced the discovery of AIDS.  I am so glad that science has come so far in treating this horrible disease, but I remember the scare and misconceptions concerning this disease.

For more info:
http://famousdaily.com/history/scientists-find-aids-virus.html

This Day in History April 8, 1820

I am so intrigued by today's feature.  A 23-year-old Frenchman, Olivier Voutier, was on board the ship Estafette.  They happened to dock at a small island (Melos) that had been a part of the old Ottoman empire.  He and his friends went into the village looking for antiques.  A farmer happened to be digging for rocks to use in the wall he was building.  And one of the most famous statues was found--Venus de Milo.  They found the upper half of the statue first.  He paid the farmer to keep digging, and eventually three pieces that fit together were found.  The missing arms were never found.  Eventually, the statue was transferred to the Louvre.  It is estimated to be from 150 B.C. to 100 B.C.

For more info:
http://www.examiner.com/article/venus-de-milo-found
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_milo
http://famousdaily.com/history/venus-de-milo-discovered-on-melos.html

This Day in History February 18, 1930

Although Pluto has been reclassified and no longer is called a planet, it was on this date in 1930, that Percival Lowell discovered the mysterious "Planet X."  It had been suspected by this scientist for a decades, but it was finally observed on this date in an observatory in Arizona.  

A survey went out requesting a name for this new planet, and it was and 11-year-old girl in England who proposed the name "Pluto."  Although there was no reason behind the name, it stuck if for no other reason than it had the initials "P-L" which referred back to the scientist who discovered it.

Once my daughter began going to school, I discovered that this was no longer a planet, and that seemed so strange.  When you have grown up with the idea of nine planets and now were down to eight, it just has never seemed right.  And I have heard that one day, it may be reclassified yet again as a planet, and this would be even more difficult to understand.  As far as I'm concerned, just call it a planet and have done with it!

For more information:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/whyweexplore/Why_We_23.html

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pluto-discovered

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto

http://famousdaily.com/history/pluto-the-ninth-planet-of.html

This Day in History December 25, 1643

I, Aotearoa [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

I did not realize this was named Christmas Island because of when it was discovered.  That's right, this little island was first discovered on this date in 1643.  It is a territory of Australia, and Captain William Mynors was the one who first saw it and named it. 

For more information:

http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/christmas/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Island