Milestones: May 1, 2024

May 1, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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FRONTIER INTO SPACE — THE GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER, which marks its 65th birthday today, officially opened and was named on May 1, 1959. The project began with an announcement from Sen. J. Glenn Beall that the federal government would establish a “Space Projects Center.” Although originally land was designated in Greenbelt, Maryland, the National Aeronautics and Space Act stipulated that the Naval Research Laboratory’s Project Vanguard was being legally transferred to the “Beltsville Space Center.” NASA, on May 1, 1959, formally named the new facility after Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard, (1882-1945) an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who was credited with designing and building the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket. The Goddard Space Flight Center was formally dedicated 22 months later, on March 16, 1961, also in commemoration of the 35th anniversary of Goddard’s first liquid-propellant rocket launch.

The March 16, 1926 launch was an accomplishment which Goddard’s biographer, Milton Lehman, called “a feat as epochal in history as that of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk.”

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EARLY ASTRONAUT— ONE OF NASA’S EARLY ASTRONAUTS, SCOTT CARPENTER, shared a birthday (born May 1, 1925) with the Goddard Space Flight Center. Carpenter was one of the original seven astronauts for NASA’s Project Mercury. Trained as a Navy pilot during the final days of WWII, he also served in Korea. Before NASA selected him in 1959, Carpenter had also been a test pilot and intelligence officer. He was John Glenn’s backup pilot on the first Mercury mission to orbit Earth in 1962. Later that year, he flew into orbit himself aboard the Aurora 7. Carpenter also was the first astronaut to eat solid food in space.

Carpenter’s earth reentry from the four-hour flight was particularly suspenseful. Because of some serious technical difficulties, he landed 250 miles off course from the rendezvous point with the recovery ship USS Intrepid. At first, feared dead, he was discovered alive and well on a life raft situated near the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the USS Intrepid rescued him.

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DEPRESSION-ERA BOON — THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING WAS OFFICIALLY DEDICATED on May 1, 1931, with U.S. President Herbert Hoover presiding from the White House, where he ceremoniously pressed a button that illuminated the building. The actual switch-flicker was on site in New York. The Empire State Building was conceived as part of an “architectural” contest between two major automakers —Walter Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation and John Jakob Raskob of General Motors —to see who could erect the taller building. At the time, the Chrysler building was already under construction; it would become a 1,046-foot skyscraper to which many New Yorkers would look in order to get their bearings. Wanting to win, Raskob formed a coalition of well-known investors, including former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith, who selected Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates as the architectural firm. When it was completed, the new Empire State Building stood at 102 stories and 1,250 feet high (1,454 feet, counting the lightning rod).

It was the world’s tallest building for the next four decades until the newly-constructed World Trade Center briefly took that honor.

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CONTROVERSIAL FILM — “CITIZEN KANE,” one of the greatest movies in film history, debuted at RKO Palace Theater on May 1, 1941. The film, by a young Orson Welles, whose horror program “War of the Worlds,” had shocked radio audiences, had already proven controversial. Although “Citizen Kane” had received favorable reviews during a screening three months earlier, a prominent Hollywood gossip columnist named Hedda Hopper took umbrage with the movie, particularly with Orson Welles’ portrayal of Charles Foster Kane, who was based on the real-life newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Airing her grievance about the film to Hearst himself, Hopper ignited a smear campaign to suppress “Citizen Kane.” Rumor had it that the movie’s depiction of a character based on his companion, Marion Davies, particularly angered Hearst, who had elevated the showgirl to become a popular Hollywood actress.

However, Welles responded by threatening to sue Hearst for trying to suppress “Citizen Kane.” While it was a box office failure, the movie grew more appreciated in posterity.

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AVOIDING GLUTEN PRODUCTS — MAY 1 BEGINS CELIAC DISEASE AWARENESS MONTH, established with the goal of educating the public about this insidious illness that makes the simple eating of wheat and other gluten-containing products hazardous to a growing number of people. Observed since 1987, Celiac Disease Awareness Month is the chance for patients of this gastroenterological illness to share the importance of maintaining a completely gluten-free diet to avoid the destruction of stomach tissue and the small intestine. Celiac patients cannot safely eat wheat, barley, rye and some oat products without becoming ill, but some of these ingredients can be found outside of baked products, including in soy sauce and beer. A wider variety of gluten-free products are available in most supermarkets, including boxed and frozen pastas, and even Oreo cookies.

Maintaining a strict gluten-free diet includes speaking to one’s clergyperson about the need to have available gluten-free Communion hosts, particularly for people with high sensitivity.

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BATMAN AND ROBIN — THE CRIME-FIGHTING BATMAN MADE HIS debut with DC Comics issue #27 (Detective Comics) on May 1, 1939. The product of cartoonist Bob Kane, Batman is the alter-persona of the millionaire Bruce Wayne, who as a child had been orphaned when his parents were murdered in front of him. Bruce adopts a young man who was also orphaned, Dick Grayson and they become crime-fighting partners Batman and Robin. DC Comics’ website describes him: “Batman does not have any metahuman abilities. Instead, he relies on his sharp mind and disciplined body, as well as his extensive combat and detective training. A master of virtually every form of martial arts, a brilliant tactician and a genius-level forensic scientist, Bruce also has access to his family’s fortune, which he’s used to create a near-limitless supply of advanced technology for his war on crime.”

Batman would become a popular 1960s TV comedy, starring Adam West in the title role, with Burt Ward as Robin, and a full billing of guest stars as villains Joker (Caesar Romero) Riddler (Frank Gorshin and John Astin), Penguin (Burgess Meredith) among others.

See previous milestones, here.