29 August

Interior of the cathedral in Brasilia,
capital of Brazil

Seven years ago, on 29 August 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and indeed a large part of the US Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida. It left more than 1 800 people dead and more than  $80 billion in damage.

On this day in 1842, Portugal recognized the Independence of Brazil, after a bitter war of independence following Dom Pedro I being declared Emperor of Brazil on 12 October 1822.  The country became a republic in 1889 and is today the largest country in South America and the 5th largest in the world.

A little more than a century later, in 1949, the Soviet Union became the second country to test an atomic weapon - a 22 kiloton device nickknamed 'First Lightning'. I do wish the US and Russia never started the nuclear arms race and were not subsequently joined by the other countries who developed those weapons of mass destruction...

Today also marks something more upbeat, but which was part of another race between the US and the then USSR: the space race.  On this day in 1965,  the Gemini V spacecraft returned to Earth with the two American astronauts Charles Conrad and Gordon Cooper, after orbiting the Earth for more than a week - a record at the time.  Just 4 years later, man would land on our Moon. 

The death of Leonardo da Vinci by Ingres

Finally, two birthdays; the famous French neoclassical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was born on 29 August 1780. He shared a birthday with among others Henry V, King of England (1387).

28 August

Today's entries are mainly political and scientific. Way back, on 28 August 1619,  Ferdinand II was  elected emperor of the Imperium Romanum Sacrum, the Holy Roman Empire. 

More than two centuries later, the Slavery Abolition Act of  1833 enacted by the British Parliament outlawed slavery in the British Empire, thus liberating around 700 000 people. 

And talking about empires and spheres of influence, on 28 August 1867  the United States took possession of the tiny Midway Atoll (only slightly more than 6 km² ) in the North Pacific Ocean.  A century later the Battle of Midway (1942)  became an important naval milestone of World War II when the US  Navy defeated a Japanese attack.

Another empire collapsed on 28 August 1991, when  Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party of the then Soviet Union.  On the same day, the Ukraine declared its independence from the USSR.

Here, courtesy of the British Library,
is the original score of Herschel's Symphony No 15   

On this date in 1789 William Herschel, the German-born British astronomer who was also a prolific composer, discovered one of my favourite moons in the Solar System - Saturn's beautiful Enceladus. Herchel is, of course, perhaps best known as the astronomer who discovered the planet Uranus in 1781. Currently we are learning more about Enceladus and other moons in the Saturn system via the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Cassini mission.  

The first issue of Scientific American magazine was published on 28 August 1845.  It is now the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the US with