On This Day, Febuary 23rd

On Febuary 23rd, 1945, the U.S. raises its flag during the battle of Iwo Jima and the photo taken of that moment becomes one of the most iconic photos in American history. During the battle, marines took it upon themselves to raise the flag at the highest point of the area witch happened to be a hill. The marines hoisted the flag while a war photographer captured the iconic image, forever immortalizing it as part of the American culture and history.

At the time, this photo spread like wildfire, appearing in newspapers and magazines everywhere along with other forms of media. The image helped boost American morale during the war drastically and encouraged the war torn nation to continue fighting and press onward until they won. The image was quickly turned into propaganda posters, encouraging the nations youth and populace to enlist for their country. The victory and flag raising at Iwo Jima also signified the beginning of the end for the war that had raged on for almost five years at that point. Later that same year, the war would end on both fronts, with the surrender of Germany and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This photo may have been the pushing factor of morale needed at the time as the war had been going on for a long time, and most of the American people wanted the war to be over more than anything. Having this newfound morale boost it pushed everyone to continue and end it. 

Today, this image still circulates around history books and movies all over the world as a testament to America's perseverance during the war and ultimate victory. The image might even be considered the most iconic image in American history. Many American people find inspiration in this image, inspiration to keep fighting and going no matter the situation, it doesn't have to be war, but whatever you may be going through, keep going and preservere, you will survive and get through it.

On this day Fabuary 1st 2003

On February 1st 2003, the Columbia space shuttle exploded over Texas, killing all seven crew members aboard the shuttle. The shuttle disintegrated at about 231,000 feet above ground and pieces of debris were found all over the state. The explosion was caused by heat panels on the left wing being damaged or missing entirely, this caused heat to enter the wing and break it apart, the rest of this shuttle soon followed. Two people in a search helicopter were also killed while looking for debris. The seven crew members were confirmed dead when their remains were found amongst the debris.

The world was watching as Columbia exploded. Most people nearby had reported hearing the booming sound and seeing the debris fall down to earth that morning. For a while, people suspected foul play, such as terrorism, or as some kind of sabotage act. It was later revealed however that the issue that caused the explosion was a constant problem for the mission, and partially contributed to the constant delay of the mission for about two years, as the mission was originally supposed to launch on January 11th of 2001. The family of the seven crew members were devastated of course, and NASA had to quickly scramble to figure out what went wrong and learn from it. Which they eventually did figure out, and took extra precautions on future missions to prevent this issue from happening again.

Today, NASA still remembers and honors those who died on the Columbia that day, saying that the crew members "Gave their lives for the discovery and exploration of the cosmos.". NASA also takes extreme precautions even now to ensure that this never happens again. However, in space missions like this, the smaller variable can cause something to go catastrophically wrong, but they still try to be extra sure with almost all aspects of these missions.