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Pan Am Boeing 707-121, similar to the one destroyed in the accident

On December 8, 1963, Pan Am Flight 214 crashed near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 crew and passengers. Flight 214 had originated at Isla Verde International Airport in San Juan, flying to Friendship Airport near Baltimore, and then took off for Philadelphia. The crash was Pan Am's first fatal accident with the Boeing 707-121, which it had introduced to its fleet five years earlier. An investigation by the Civil Aeronautics Board concluded that the probable cause of the crash was a lightning strike that had ignited fuel vapors in one of the aircraft's fuel tanks, causing an explosion that destroyed the left wing. The exact manner of ignition was never determined, but the investigation increased awareness of how lightning can damage aircraft, leading to new regulations. The crash also led to research into the safety of several types of aviation fuel and into ways of changing the design of aircraft fuel systems to make them safer in the event of lightning strikes. (Full article...)

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On this day

August 17

Richard Wagner

1668 – An earthquake struck the North Anatolia region, killing over 8,000 people.
1876 – The premiere of Götterdämmerung by Richard Wagner (pictured) closed the first Bayreuth Festival.
1914 – World War I: Ignoring orders to retreat, Hermann von François led a successful counterattack defending East Prussia at the Battle of Stallupönen and scored the first German victory in the Eastern Front.
1943 – World War II: The Royal Air Force began a strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany's V-weapon programme by attacking the Peenemünde Army Research Center.

Matthew Boulton (d. 1809)
Gene Stratton-Porter (b. 1863)
Margaret Hamilton (b. 1936)
Gerri Major (d. 1984)

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Today's featured picture

NGC 3324 is an open cluster in the southern constellation Carina, located northwest of the Carina Nebula at a distance of 9,100 ly (2,800 pc) from Earth. The two are often confused as a single object, and together have been nicknamed the "Gabriela Mistral Nebula" due to its resemblance to the Chilean poet. NGC 3324 was first catalogued by James Dunlop in 1826. This infrared photograph by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows a young, star-forming region in the western section of NGC 3324 known as the "Cosmic Cliffs".

Photograph credit: NASA

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