This day in History – July 3

Jul 03, 2022 News

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Compiled by Zena Henry

Kaieteur News – A loose bolt caused the largest rocket explosion in history
You may have heard about the ‘space race’, a 20th century competition by two cold war rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union regarding advancements in space exploration. On July 3, 1969, the Soviet Union’s dreams of a moon rocket went up in smoke and fire on the launch pad as the largest explosion of any rocket in history.

The Soviet N1 rocket booster was a giant rocket meant to carry objects or people beyond Earth orbit, basically to the moon. Its first stage is the most powerful single stage of any rocket ever made, and that includes the American counterpart, the Saturn V.

The 5-stage monster N1 rockets were 344 feet tall and almost 56 feet in diameter. Weighing in at over 6 million pounds, they were designed for a payload of 200,000 pounds into low earth orbit or 58,000 pounds past earth orbit.

The heavy lift rockets were expected to carry out reconnaissance of possible landing spots on the moon and then carry manned flights there. Unfortunately for the Soviet space programme, all four attempted launches resulted in failure, with the launch of July 3, 1969, resulting in a giant explosion that also destroyed the launch pad. Investigation showed that a loose bolt was sucked into an oxygen pump causing the rocket motors to automatically shut down and the rocket to fall from its maximum lift off of nearly 200 meters.

It took a year and a half just to rebuild the launch pad, putting the Soviets far behind in the “space race.” When the United States successfully landed on the moon and returned the crew safely in July of 1969, the Soviet space programme was given other priorities.

The four failed launch attempts of the N1 would be their only missions, and no more would be built. (History Headlines)

Guyana commenced HCFC phase out to meet 2030 deadline
Guyana on July 3, 2010 hosted its first local National Stakeholders Meeting on the phasing out of Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) under the Montreal Protocol. The seminar was held at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Boardroom and benefited from contributions by then Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud, Chief Hydrometeorological Officer (ag), Bhaleka Suelall, Artie Dubrie of the United Nations Environment Programme, among others.

Guyana was slated for US$85,000 from United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to develop and implement the HCFC Phase-Out Management Plan contributing to the freezing of HCFC by 2013 and ultimately meeting total phase out of HCFC by 2030.

The Agriculture Minister had said at the time that, “we are” living in an era of adverse effects of Climate Change and it is incumbent on all to play their part in addressing the issue.

He said that the Phase-Out Programme was one of many initiatives being piloted to address the issue.
Dubrie pointed out that, “we are the guardians of the planet” and as such all must work together hence the invitation of persons from both the public and private sector to work toward the phasing-out of HCFCs which would be a lot more difficult than that of CFCs since the burden was primarily on the air conditioning and refrigeration industry.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer, is an international treaty designed to protect the Ozone Layer by phasing out the production of a number of substances believed to be responsible for ozone depletion. Parties to this Protocol (including Guyana) agreed to set year 2013 as the time to freeze the consumption and production of HCFCs.

They agreed to start reducing its consumption and production in 2015. The HCFCs are interim CFCs replacements, used as refrigerants, solvents, blowing agents for plastic foam manufacture, and fire extinguishers.

Initially, the Protocol set the deadline to phase out HCFCs in 2040 for developing countries including Guyana, at the 19th Meeting of Parties held in September 2007 in Montreal, the member countries agreed to accelerate the phase out date to 2030.

Legendary comedian and actor Andy Griffith died
American actor Andy Griffith, whose portrayal of a small-town sheriff made “The Andy Griffith Show” one of television’s most enduring shows, died at his North Carolina home at the ripe age of 86. “At approximately 7 a.m., July 3, 2012, Andy Griffith passed away at his home on Roanoke Island, Dare County, North Carolina,” county Sheriff J.D. Doughtie said in a written statement.

Griffith created another memorable character, the folksy defense lawyer in “Matlock” in the 1980s and 1990s, but it was his role as Sheriff Andy Taylor on the “The Andy Griffith Show” in the 1960s that gave him a place in television history. The show depicted life in the friendly, slow-moving fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina, which was widely believed to have been based on Griffith’s own hometown, Mount Airy, in that state.

There was little crime to fight in Mayberry so the stories centered on the sheriff and his interactions with the quirky townspeople. “The basic theme of our show was love,” Griffith said in a 2003 interview with CNN. “All the characters loved each other. And all the actors loved each other, too.” The show, a situation comedy, was an entertaining diversion for viewers to the social and political upheavals of the 1960s.

“It was at a point where America was really in turmoil,” executive producer John Watkin had told USA Today. “‘The Andy Griffith Show’ and Mayberry represented in some sense this kind of idealised view of what America was. It contains such a heart, such a sense of community.” Some said Griffith’s Mayberry was too sanitised with none of the strife generated by the anti-war and civil rights protests of the time. In fact, there were no regular black characters on the show. “We tried in every way to get that to happen but we were unable to do it,” Griffith told USA Today in discussing Mayberry’s all-white population.

Griffith was born June 1, 1926, and had ambitions of being a preacher. At the University of North Carolina, he earned a degree in dramatic arts in 1949 and started performing in singing groups.
Matlock was an American mystery legal drama television series created by Dean Hargrove, the guy who created the similar mystery drama series Perry Mason. (Reuters)

Egypt’s first democratically election president ousted from office
On July 3, 2013, Egyptian President, Mohamed Morsi, was removed from office just a year after being the country’s first democratically elected president. In what has been described as a coup d’etat, Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led a coalition to remove the President of Egypt, from power and suspended the Egyptian constitution of 2012.

The move came after the military’s ultimatum for the government to “resolve its differences” with protestors during widespread national protests against the new government to address particular woes highlighted in his first 100 days in office.

The military arrested Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood leaders and declared Chief Justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court Adly Mansour as the interim president of Egypt. The announcement was followed by demonstrations and clashes between supporters and opponents of the move throughout Egypt.

There were mixed international reactions to the events. Most Arab leaders were generally supportive or neutral, with the exception of Qatar and Tunisia who strongly condemned the military’s actions. The US avoided describing the action as a coup. Other states either condemned or expressed concern over the removal of Morsi. And due to the regulations of the African Union regarding the interruption of constitutional rule by a member state, Egypt was suspended from that union. There has also been debate in the media regarding the labelling of these events.

It has been described by Western mainstream media as a coup or as a revolution by proponents. Ensuing protests in favour of Morsi were violently suppressed culminating with the dispersal and massacre of pro-Morsi sit-ins on 14 August, 2013, amid ongoing unrest; journalists and several hundred protestors were killed by police and military force.

Muslim Brotherhood members claim 2,600 people were killed. Human Rights Watch documented 904 deaths, describing it as crimes against humanity and “one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.” In 2019, the former president collapsed and died while on trial in a Cairo, six years after the military ousted him. His cause of death was reported as heart attack.

 

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