Significant Number Factoid Friday – Today The Number Is Twenty-Five 25

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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It’s been a while since I did a number factoid.

My only excuse is the time it takes to compile these, which I haven’t managed to find for a few months, so if you missed them my apologies.

However, there is one today, so if you like this sort of thing I hope you enjoy.

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The Number 25

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In religion

• In the Bible the number twenty-five is of cardinal importance in Ezekiel’s Temple Vision (Ezekiel 40-48).
• Twenty-five is also seen near God’s throne in heaven. God’s throne, plus the thrones of the twenty-four elders, makes for 25 total. (Revelation 4:1-4)
• Twenty-five pictures ‘grace upon grace.’ Redemption (20) plus grace (5) also equals 25. (John 1:14, 16-17)
• Levites were to begin serving at age 25 in assisting with sacrifices — which were a physical type of forgiveness and redemption for the people.
• Jehoshaphat, considered one of the best kings to rule the Kingdom of Judah, reigned for 25 years (872 – 848 B.C.).

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• In Islam, there are twenty-five prophets mentioned in the Quran.

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In mathematics

• 25 is a square number, being 5² = 5 × 5.
• 25 is the smallest square that is also a sum of two squares: 25 = 3² + 4². Hence it often appears in demonstrations of the Pythagorean theorem.

• 25 percent is equal to 1/4.
• Within base 10 one can readily test for divisibility by 25 by seeing if the last two digits of the number match 25, 50, 75 or 00.
• In base 30, 25 is a 1-automorphic number (displayed as the numeral ‘P’ or ‘R’ dependant on the chosen digit set), and in base 10 a 2-automorphic number.

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In science and technology

• Atomic Number of Manganese (Mn) = 25  (25 protons & 25 electrons)
• It is part of the name of LSD-25 molecule
• 25 is the usual TCP port for SMTP.
• 25 is the per-second frame rate of the PAL video standard
• And probably most significant of all, the internet or world wide web turned 25 this year!

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In space

• Open Cluster M25 (also known as Messier Object 25 or IC 4725) is an open cluster in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745 and included in Charles Messier’s list in 1764.
• NGC 25 is a lenticular galaxy situated in the Phoenix constellation
• The Sun rotates once in 25 days near the poles and about 30 days near its equator.
• 25 is the number of days approximately that takes the sun to do a complete rotation on itself.

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In politics

• William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his assassination in September 1901, six months into his second term. McKinley led the nation to victory in the Spanish–American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry, and maintained the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of inflationary proposals. He was also the last President to have served during the Civil War.

• The Twenty-fifth Amendment (Amendment XXV) to the United States Constitution deals with succession to the Presidency and establishes procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, as well as responding to Presidential disabilities. It supersedes the ambiguous wording of Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution, which does not expressly state whether the Vice President becomes the President, as opposed to an Acting President, if the President dies, resigns, is removed from office or is otherwise unable to discharge the powers of the presidency. The Twenty-fifth Amendment was adopted on February 23, 1967.
• 25 is the minimum age of candidates for election to the United States House of Representatives.
• 25 is the (critical) number of Florida electoral votes for the 2000 U.S. presidential election
• 25 is the number of the French department Doubs

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In books, music, movies and TV

• “25” is a song by Veruca Salt from their 1994 album American Thighs.
• “25th Floor” is a song by Patti Smith Group from their 1978 album Easter.
• Twenty Five is the name of a 2006 George Michael compilation celebrating 25 years in the music business (1981–2006).
• “In the Year 2525 (Exordium et Terminus)” is a 1969 hit song by the American pop-rock duo of Zager and Evans. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
• The 25th Hour is a MGM film (1967) with screen-play by Henri Verneuil based on C. Virgil Gheorghiu’s novel.
• Not forgetting our old friend, “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century”

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In sport

• Twenty-five is the value of the outer bullseye on a dart board.
• Twenty-five is the size of the full roster on a Major League Baseball team for most of the season, except for regular-season games on or after September 1, when teams may expand their roster to no more than 40 players.
• In baseball, the number 25 is typically reserved for the best slugger on the team. Examples include Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Mark Teixeira.

• The number of points needed to win a set in volleyball under rally scoring rules (except for the fifth set), so long as the losing team’s score is two less than the winning team’s score (i.e., if the winning team scores 25 points, the losing team can have no more than 23 points).
• In U.S. college football, schools that are members of NCAA Division I FBS are allowed to provide athletic scholarships to a maximum of 25 new football players (i.e., players who were not previously receiving scholarships) each season.
• In the NBA the number 25 jersey has been retired by the Boston Celtics for K. C. Jones; by the Cleveland Cavaliers for Mark Price; by the Los Angeles Lakers for Gail Goodrich; and by the Washington Wizards for Gus Johnson (the team was then known as the Baltimore Bullets).
• In the NHL the number 25 jersey has been retired by the  Winnipeg Jets for Thomas Steen.

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In automotive and transportation

• In the United States 25 is the designation of United States Interstate 25, a freeway that runs from New Mexico to Wyoming.
• In Britain M25 is the designation of the London Orbital motorway.

• And in Russia Municipal Okrug 25, until March, 2010, was the name of Knyazhevo Municipal Okrug in Kirovsky District of Saint Petersburg.

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• The Carlsson C25 Supercar
• Carlsson’s first supercar, the C25, made its debut at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. With a limited run of 25 units, the C25 is powered by a twin-turbocharged V12 engine that generates 753 hp (562 kW) and 848 ft·lbf (1,150 N·m) of torque. Estimated acceleration from 0–100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.7 seconds and top speed is 219 mph. (355 km/h).

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• Donkervoort Prototype J25
• Under the code name J25, Donkervoort developed – right before its 25 year jubilee – a completely new car. This model went a step further in its styling than its predecessors the S8 and D8. The, for that period, very modern lines and a number of details, such the little doors and nose used, were derived from the D20. The J25 was also the first Donkervoort to be produced with 270 bhp.

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• Infiniti G25
• Infiniti debuted the G25 sedan at the 2010 Paris Auto Show. The G25 is powered by a 2.5 L V6 VQ25HR producing 218 hp (163 kW) and 187 lb·ft (254 N·m) of torque. The G25’s JDM relative, the Nissan Skyline 250 GT Sedan which features the same engine, had been on sale for several years already.

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• BMW R25
• The 1951 the 250cc R25 single was BMW’s first postwar single-cylinder motorcycle with a rear suspension.

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• Yamaha R25
• The Yamaha R25 is the first motorcycle by Yamaha in the 250cc segment. It is a 2-cylinder, liquid cooled motorcycle, using an advanced fuel injection system. It also has a tubular chassis with telescopic front suspension.

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• C25 Standard RV
• The C25 is a traditional motorhome with the self-contained features you expect, including most with a power generator in the USA.

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• David Brown DB25 Tractor
• David Brown developed the 25hp and 30hp engine, and so the DB25 and DB30 tractors came into existence, lasting from 1953-58. The petrol/TVO models were known as the David Brown 25C and 30C, while they called the diesel versions 25D and 30D. They are still collected and restored by enthusiasts today.

 

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J25 Steam Engine

The NER Class P1 (LNER Class J25) was a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotives of the North Eastern Railway in Great Britain. Class P1 was a development of Class P, having a boiler four inches longer, and a firebox six inches longer. To accommodate these, the wheelbase was increased by nine inches. The cylinder stroke was also increased by two inches.

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In militaria

• B-25 Mitchell
• Named in honor of General Billy Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation, the B-25 Mitchell was an American twin-engined medium bomber manufactured by North American Aviation that saw service over four decades. By the end of its production, nearly 10,000 B-25s in numerous models had been built.
• It was used by many Allied air forces, in every theater of World War II, as well as many other air forces after the war ended, including The Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, Dutch Air Force, Soviet Air Force, China Air Force, Brazilian Air Force,  and by the Free French.

• However, the incident for which the B-25 is perhaps best known is one that happened in America. At 9:40 on Saturday, 28 July 1945, a USAAF B-25D crashed in thick fog into the north side of the Empire State Building between the 79th and 80th floors.
• Fourteen people died – eleven in the building and the three occupants of the aircraft including the pilot, Colonel William Smith.
• Betty Lou Oliver, an elevator attendant, survived the impact and a subsequent uncontrolled descent in the elevator.
• Partly as a result of this incident, Towers 1 and 2 of the World Trade Center were designed to withstand an aircraft impact. However, this design was based on an impact by a Boeing 707 aircraft in common use in the late 1960s and early 1970s, not the larger Boeing 767, two of which, (American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175), struck the towers on September 11, 2001, resulting in their eventual collapse.

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• Boeing VC-25
• The Boeing VC-25 is the United States Air Force designation for a military version of the Boeing 747 airliner. The A-model (VC-25A) is the only variant of the VC-25.
• The VC-25 is most famous for its role as Air Force One, the call sign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States. The two aircraft currently in U.S. service are highly modified versions of Boeing’s 747-200B, with tail numbers 28000 and 29000.
• Although the Air Force One designation technically applies to the aircraft only while the President is aboard, the term is commonly applied to the VC-25s more generally.
• They often operate in conjunction with Marine One helicopters that ferry the President to airports in circumstances where a vehicle motorcade would be inappropriate.

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• MIG-25
• The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 is a supersonic interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft that was among the fastest military aircraft to enter service.
• It was designed by the Soviet Union’s Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau. The first prototype flew in 1964, and the aircraft entered into service in 1970.
• It has a top speed of Mach 2.83 (as high as Mach 3.2, but at risk of significant damage to the engines), and features a powerful radar and four air-to-air missiles.
• When first seen in reconnaissance photography, the large wing planform suggested an enormous and highly maneuverable fighter. This was during a period of time when U.S. design theories were also evolving towards higher maneuverability due to combat performance in the Vietnam War.
• The capabilities of the MiG-25 were better understood in 1976 when Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko defected in a MiG-25 to the United States via Japan. It turned out that the weight of the aircraft necessitated large wings.
• Production of the MiG-25 series ended in 1984 after completion of 1,190 aircraft. A symbol of the Cold War, the MiG-25 flew with Soviet allies and former Soviet republics, remaining in limited service in Russia and several other nations.
• It is the second fastest and second highest-flying military aircraft ever fielded after the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft.

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• USS Terry (DD-25)
• Launched on 21 August 1909 and commissioned on 18 October 1910, the USS Terry (DD-25) was a modified Paulding-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I, and later in the United States Coast Guard, designated CG-19. She was the first ship named for Edward Terry.
• During WWI USS Terry patrolled along the Atlantic coast escorting merchantmen bound for Europe. In January 1918, Terry put to sea for operations with the destroyer force based at Queenstown, Ireland where she escorted convoys through the submarine-infested waters surrounding the British Isles.
• In December 1918, Terry returned to the United States, and after 11 months of extremely limited service, she was decommissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard on 13 November 1919.
• She remained there until she was transferred to the Coast Guard on 7 June 1924. Based in New York, she served as part of the Rum Patrol, until 18 October 1930, when she was returned to the Navy and restored on the Navy list in a decommissioned status, listed as a “vessel to be disposed of by sale or salvage.” On 2 May 1934, Terry was sold for scrapping. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 June 1934.

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• USS Salt Lake City (CL/CA-25)
• Launched on 23 January 1929 and commissioned on 11 December 1929, the USS Salt Lake City (CL/CA-25) was a Pensacola-class heavy cruiser sometimes known as “Swayback Maru” or “Old Swayback”. She had the (unofficial) distinction of having taken part in more engagements than any other ship in the fleet. She was also the first ship to be named after Salt Lake City, Utah.
• From August–October 1942, Salt Lake City was in the south Pacific to support the campaign to seize and hold Guadalcanal. She escorted Wasp during the landings of 7–8 August and subsequent operations.
• Surviving two atomic bomb blasts, she was decommissioned on 29 August and laid up to await ultimate disposal. She was sunk as a target hull on 25 May 1948, 130 mi (110 nmi; 210 km) off the coast of southern California
• Salt Lake City received 11 battle stars for her World War II service, and a Navy Unit Commendation for her actions during the Aleutian Campaign.

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• USS Potomac (AG-25)
• The USS Potomac (AG-25), formerly USCGC Electra, was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidential yacht from 1936 until his death in 1945.
• On 3 August 1941, she played a decoy role while Roosevelt held a secret conference to develop the Atlantic Charter.
• She is now preserved in Oakland, California, as a National Historic Landmark.

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• USS Copeland (FFG-25)
• The USS Copeland (FFG-25), the first ship of that name in the US Navy, was the seventeenth ship of the Oliver Hazard Perry-class of guided-missile frigates. She was named for Rear Admiral Robert W. Copeland (1910–1973).
• Copeland was launched on 26 July 1980, and commissioned on 7 August 1982.
• Decommissioned and stricken on 18 September 1996, she was transferred to Egypt the same day as Mubarak (F911). After the 2011 revolution the ship was renamed to remove the former ruler’s name. The ship is currenty named Alexandria (F911) and remains in active service with the Egyptian Navy.

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• USS Bainbridge
• The nuclear powered USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25/CGN-25) was initially classed as a guided missile destroyer leader in the United States Navy, and later re-designated as a guided missile cruiser in 1975.
• In 1966–67, 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972–73, USS Bainbridge was involved Vietnam War combat operations, as well as voyages to Australia, the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea.
• In 1982 she won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award.
• After receiving her final nuclear refueling overhaul in 1983–85, Bainbridge operations included counter-drug smuggling patrols in the Caribbean, several deployments to northern European waters and four Mediterranean cruises including combat operations off Libya.
• During 1994 she was deployed to support UN resolutions that became part of Operation Sharp Guard, enforcing sanctions against the Former Republic of Yugoslavia and Bosnia.
• Finally deactivated in October 1995, Bainbridge was decommissioned in September 1996 and towed to Bremerton, Washington in mid-1997 where she was put in dry dock to begin “recycling,” the process by which nuclear-powered warships are scrapped.

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• USS Somerset (LPD-25)
• The USS Somerset (LPD-25), a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, is the fifth ship of the United States Navy of that name; in this case in honor of Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
• The name honors the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 whose actions prevented terrorist hijackers from reaching their intended target, forcing the airplane to crash in Stonycreek Township in Somerset County, PA, on September 11, 2001. In the words of Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England, “The courage and heroism of the people aboard the flight will never be forgotten and USS Somerset will leave a legacy that will never be forgotten by those wishing to do harm to this country.”
• Some 22 tons of steel from a crane that stood near Flight 93’s crash site have been used to construct Somerset’s stemhold.
• She was launched on 14 April 2012, and was christened three months later, on 28 July.

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• HMS Medway
• HMS Medway was the first purpose-built submarine depot ship constructed for the Royal Navy. She was built by Vickers Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness during the late 1920s. The ship served on the China Station before the Second World War and was transferred to Egypt in early 1940.
• Ordered to evacuate Alexandria in the face of the German advance after the Battle of Gazala in May 1942, Medway sailed for Lebanon at the end of June, escorted by a light cruiser and seven destroyers.
• Despite her strong escort, she was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine on 30 June.

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• HMS Warwick (D-25)
• HMS Warwick (D-25) was an Admiralty ‘W’ class destroyer built in 1917.
• She saw service in both the First and Second World Wars, before being torpedoed and sunk in February 1944.

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• T-25 Tank
• The T25 Medium Tank was a prototype tank that was produced by the United States during World War II.
• It had an armament consisting of a 90 mm anti-tank gun, two .30 MGs, one mounted coaxially and one in the bow, and a .50 Browning M2 mount on top of the turret. The vehicle had a crew of five, a weight of 35,100 kg, used the same 474 hp, GAN V8 engine as the earlier T23, and had a top speed of 48 km/h.
• The T25 was developed with a variant which itself was virtually the same, the only difference was that the T25 was built with horizontal volute spring suspension, and the variant T25E1 had the torsion bar suspension later adopted for use in the M26. Only 40 T25 and T25E1 prototypes were built.

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• M25 “Three Shot Bazooka”
• Bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless antitank rocket launcher weapon, widely fielded by the United States Army. Also referred to as the “Stovepipe”, the innovative bazooka was among the first-generation of rocket propelled anti-tank weapons used in infantry combat.
• Featuring a solid rocket motor for propulsion, it allowed for high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warheads to be delivered against armored vehicles, machine gun nests, and fortified bunkers at ranges beyond that of a standard thrown grenade or mine. The Bazooka also fired a HESH round, effective against buildings and tank armour.
• The universally-applied nickname arose from the M1 variant’s vague resemblance to the musical instrument called a “bazooka” invented and popularized by 1930s U.S. comedian Bob Burns.
• The M25 “Three Shot Bazooka” was an experimental tripod mounted rocket launcher with overhead magazine circa 1955.

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• Remington R-25
• The Remington R-25 is a hi-tech hunting rifle that uses the direct-impingement gas system, where gas is ported down a tube into the action and the bolt carrier is cycled via the gas blowing the carrier off the tube.
• The upper and lower receivers are made from aluminum forgings, and the handguard is turned aluminum, all impervious to the weather; climate changes will have no effect on accuracy or bedding.
• Additionally, the R-25 has a Mossy Oak Treestand coating, so if you aren’t careful in the woods, you may spend some time hunting for the rifle you set down while doing something else.
• The magazine holds four rounds, a prudent choice since the purpose of the R-25 is hunting.

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• Glock 25
• The Glock 25 in low-recoil .380 AUTO was introduced in 1995 in Germany. This small-dimension firearm was developed for markets where civilian personnel are not allowed to possess handguns featuring military calibers.
• In the USA, the G25 .380 AUTO is reserved for law enforcement agencies only.

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• Zastava P25
• The Zastava P25, manufactured by Zastava Arms of Serbia and nicknamed the Dark Lady, is a blowback-operated, single-action, semi-automatic pocket pistol chambered in .25 ACP.
• The pistol frame is made of aluminum alloy and the barrel is made of alloy steel, while the handgrips are usually made of walnut or polymer materials.
• The P25 is aimed extensively at the civilian market as a self-defense weapon due to its concealability, but is somewhat less favorable compared to the M57, M88 and CZ 99 pistols due to its small caliber.

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• A&K SR-25
• The A&K SR-25 Full Metal AEG is very accurate and a good  range for this type of weapon It is semi and full auto capable and has a 300rd High Capacity magazine and fast rate of fire
• This airsoft sniper rifle is built like a tank, with a full metal upper and lower receiver and a full metal rail system. The A&K SR-25 performs better than almost all other SR-25 AEGs on the market, and includes more accessories than any other SR-25 AEG.

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• K-25
• K-25 is a former uranium enrichment facility of the Manhattan Project which used the gaseous diffusion method. The plant is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on the southwestern end of the Oak Ridge Reservation.

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In other stuff

• Illinois is the 25th largest state in America.
• Nashville, Tennessee is the 25th largest city in the United States by size of population.
• South Africa is the 25th largest Country in the world by area.
• France is the 25th richest country in the world, based on Gross Domestic Product (PPP) Per Capita 2009-2013.
• There are 25 cents in a quarter.

• A ‘Pony’ is British slang for £25.
• Christmas Day is December 25
• 25 is the number of years of marriage marked in a silver wedding anniversary.
• 25 is the name of the national card game of Ireland related to the classic Spanish game of ombre. It was played under the name maw by the British King James I and was later called spoil five from one of its principal objectives. From it derives the Canadian game of forty-fives.
• Pachisi, which is Hindi for 25, is the name of the national board game of India.

• “twentyfive”, is a design studio in the Czech Republic
• 25 is the total number of playable characters in Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
• “25 boy” (read as “two-five boy”), in Cantonese Chinese, is a slang term meaning “traitor” as used in the Chinese movie Over the Edge.
• 25 random things about me, an Internet meme utilizing Facebook’s Notes feature
• 25 is the usual minimum age for car rental in most countries.
• “Under 25″ provides a common cut-off point for designating youth.
• The year 25 BC was a leap year.
• 25 Burgers opened its first Location in Bound Brook NJI in the Spring of 2009, serving 25 Choices of Fresh Made to Order Gourmet Burgers in a Clean and Friendly Environment.

 

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Significant Number Factoid Friday – Today The Number Is Ten 10

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Welcome to another significant number factoid Friday.

Today’s significant number is Ten, one of the most important and widely used of all the numbers.

This is just a small selection of what Ten gets up to, but there’s still a lot of stuff in here so brace yourselves for a long read.

Enjoy.

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The Number Ten 10

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In religion

• The number 10 is used 244 times in the Bible.
• The 10th word of the King James Version of Genesis is “earth”
• The number ten signifies perfection; it is the combination of the number seven which embraces all created things, and the trinity of the Creator.
• The Bible records 10 generations between Adam and Noah, and 10 generations between Noah and Abraham.
• The 10th Book of Enoch Archangel Uriel warns Noah about Flood.
• Noah waited 10 months for the water to recede after the Flood.
• The Ten Commandments of Exodus and Deuteronomy are considered a cornerstone of Judaism and Christianity.

• Ten Plagues were inflicted on Egypt in Exodus 7-12, sent by God by the intermediary of Moses: the water changed into blood, there were plagues of frogs, midges, big flies, then a plague on the animals, an epidemic of ulcer and tumours, hail and thunder, grasshoppers, three days of darkness, and finally the death of the firstborn in each Egyptian family.
• People traditionally tithed one-tenth of their produce. The practice of tithing is still common in Christian churches today, though it is disputed in some circles as to whether or not it is required of Christians.
• In Deuteronomy 26:12, the Torah commands Jews to give one-tenth of their produce to the poor (Maaser Ani). From this verse and from an earlier verse (Deut. 14:22) there derives a practice for Jews to give one-tenth of all earnings to the poor.
• There are said to be Ten Lost Tribes of Israel (those other than Judah and Benjamin).
• The Beast of the Revelation has ten horns each with ten diadems. (Rv 13, 1)
• There were ten nations whose hostility towards Israel was constant. (Ps 83,7-9)
• God moved back the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz by ten degrees as a sign that He was going to deliver Hezekiah from his mortal sickness and the city where he was. (Is 38,1-8)
• Christ’s parable of the 10 virgins (5 wise & 5 foolish) in Matthew 25.1-13 symbolizes our 5 inner & outer senses.
• Christ healed 10 lepers in a village, but only one turned back to thank him and with a loud voice glorified God. (Luke 17.12)
• The Holy Spirit descended on the apostles ten days after the Ascension of Jesus.
• Jews observe the annual Ten Days of Repentance beginning on Rosh Hashanah and ending on Yom Kippur.
• In Judaism, ten men are the required quorum, called a minyan, for prayer services.

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In mathematics

• 10 Squared equals 100
• 10 Cubed equals 1000
• 10 Factorial or 10! equals 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 x 10 = 3,628,800
• A Decagon is a polygon of 10 sides.
• 10 is the base of the decimal system.
• Ten is the sum of the first three prime numbers, of the four first numbers (1 + 2 + 3 + 4), of the square of the two first odd numbers and also of the first four factorials (0! + 1! + 2! + 3!).
• Magic square of 10:

1 4 2 3
2 3 1 4
3 2 4 1
4 1 3 2

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In science

• 10 is the Atomic Number of Neon (Ne).
• There are 10 hydrogen atoms in butane, a hydrocarbon.
• Primates have 10 fingers.
• The human foot has 10 toes.
• There are 10 spacetime dimensions in some superstring theories.

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In space

• Messier object M10, a magnitude 6.4 globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus.

• The New General Catalogue object NGC 10, a magnitude 12.5 spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor.

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• Apollo 10 was the fourth manned mission in the United States Apollo space program. It was an F type mission, its purpose being a “dry run” for the Apollo 11 mission, testing all of the procedures and components of a Moon landing without actually landing on the Moon itself.
• The mission included the second crew to orbit the Moon and an all-up test of the lunar module (LM) in lunar orbit. The LM came to within 8.4 nautical miles (15.6 km) of the lunar surface during practice maneuvers.

• According to the 2002 Guinness World Records, Apollo 10 set the record for the highest speed attained by a manned vehicle at 39,897 km/h (11.08 km/s or 24,791 mph) during the return from the Moon on May 26, 1969.
• Due to the use of their names as call signs, the Peanuts characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy became semi-official mascots for the mission. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz also drew some special mission-related artwork for NASA.

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In politics

• John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth President of the United States (1841–1845). A native of Virginia, Tyler served as a state legislator, governor, U.S. representative, and U.S. senator before being elected Vice President in 1840. 
• He was the first to succeed to the office of President on the death of the incumbent, succeeding William Henry Harrison. 
• Tyler’s opposition to federalism and emphatic support of states’ rights endeared him to his fellow Virginians but alienated him from most of the political allies that brought him to power in Washington. 
• His presidency was crippled by opposition from both parties, and near the end of his life he would side with the South in its secession from the United States.

• Virginia is the tenth state in the Union.
• Canada is made up of 10 Provinces:  Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. There are also three territories, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon. (The major difference between a Canadian province and a territory is that provinces are jurisdictions that receive their power and authority directly from the Constitution Act, 1867, whereas territories derive their mandates and powers from the federal government.)

• Number 10 Downing Street is the official residence of the British Prime Minister.

• The tenth French department is Aube.
• There are 10 regions in Ghana.

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In sport

• In the Olympics, 10 is the highest score for a gymnastic event, attained by Nadia Comaneci in 1976, and Mary Lou Retton in 1984.
• The Decathlon is a 10-event athletic contest consisting of 100-meter, 400-meter, and 1500-meter runs, 110-meter high hurdles, javelin & discus throws, shot put, pole vault, high jump, and long jump.
• In ten-pin bowling, 10 pins are arranged in a triangular pattern and there are 10 frames per game.

• In American football, the end zones are 10 yards deep.
• In baseball, 10 is the minimum number of players on the field at any given time during play (including the batter).
• In basketball the top of the rim is 10 feet from the floor.
• In standard full-court basketball, there are 10 players on the court (5 on each team).
• In cricket, 10 is the number of wickets required to be taken by the bowling side for the batting side to be bowled out.
• In gridiron football, 10 is the number of yards the offense must advance to maintain possession in a single set of downs—four in American and three in Canadian.
• In rugby union, the starting fly-half wears the 10 shirt.

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• The jersey number 10 has been retired by several North American sports teams in honor of past playing greats or other key figures:
• In Major League Baseball by the Chicago Cubs for Hall of Famer Ron Santo; the Cincinnati Reds for Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson; the Kansas City Royals for manager Dick Howser; the Minnesota Twins for manager Tom Kelly; the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals) first for Rusty Staub and later for Hall of Famer Andre Dawson; the New York Yankees for Hall of Famer Phil Rizzuto; the St. Louis Cardinals for manager Tony La Russa; the Atlanta Braves have announced they will retire the number for Chipper Jones on June 28, 2013.

Chipper Jones Atlanta Braves batting autographed photograph

• In the NBA the Boston Celtics for Jo Jo White; the Chicago Bulls for Bob Love; the Detroit Pistons for Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman; the Miami Heat for Tim Hardaway; the New York Knicks for Hall of Famer Walt Frazier; the Philadelphia 76ers for Maurice Cheeks; the Seattle SuperSonics (now the Oklahoma City Thunder) for Nate McMillan; the Washington Wizards for Hall of Famer Earl Monroe, who played for the team in its past incarnation as the Baltimore Bullets.

Dennis Rodman

• In the NFL the Atlanta Falcons for Steve Bartkowski; the Minnesota Vikings for Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton.
• In the NHL the Carolina Hurricanes for Hall of Famer Ron Francis; the Detroit Red Wings for Hall of Famer Alex Delvecchio; the Montreal Canadiens for Hall of Famer Guy Lafleur; the first NHL incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets for Hall of Famer Dale Hawerchuk. 

 

Dale Hawerchuk

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In books, music, TV and movies

• Ten has appeared in the titles of many songs including
• “Ten Long Years” by B.B. King and Eric Clapton; 
• “Perfect Ten” by The Beautiful South; 
• “Ten Cent Pistol” by The Black Keys; 
• “Clock Strikes Ten” by Cheap Trick; 
• “Eight By Ten” by Ken Dodd; 
• “Ten Years Gone” by Led Zeppelin; 
• “Ten Ton Hammer” by Machine Head; 
• “Ten Cents A Dance” Richard Rodgers performed perhaps most famously by Ella Fitzgerald; 
• “Force Ten” by Rush; 
• “Ten with a Two” Willie Nelson; 
• “Ten Foot Pole” by ZZ Top; 
• “Ten Green Bottles” Traditional British children’s song, very much similar in theme to the US “99 Bottles Of Beer”; 
• and “Ten Feet Tall” by XTC.

• “Ten lords a-leaping” is the gift on the tenth day of Christmas in the carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas”

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• On TV there have been:
• A series on HBO entitled “1st & Ten” which aired between December 1984 and January 1991.
• A series on ESPN and ESPN2 entitled 1st and 10 which launched on ESPN in October 2003 to 2008 and moved to ESPN2 from 2008 to present.
• A 1977 short documentary film “Powers of Ten” depicts the relative scale of the Universe in factors of ten (orders of magnitude).
• A game show on CBS called “Power of 10”, where the player’s prize goes up and down by either the previous or next power of ten.
• and, “Ten Chances” is one the pricing games on “The Price is Right”.

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• Movies with “10” in their titles include, 
• “10”; 
• “10 Things I Hate About You”; 
• “10 to Midnight”; 
• “The Whole Ten Yards”; 
• “10 Items or Less”; 
• “Ten Little Indians”; 
• “10 Rillington Place”; 
• “The 10th Victim”; 
• “3:10 to Yuma”; 
• “The Ten”; 
• and, “The Ten Commandments”

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In militaria

• To reduce something by one-tenth is to decimate. (In ancient Rome, the killing of one in ten soldiers in a cohort was the punishment for cowardice or mutiny; or, one-tenth of the able-bodied men in a village as a form of retribution, thus causing a labor shortage and threat of starvation in agrarian societies.)

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• USS Annapolis (PG-10)
• The first USS Annapolis (PG-10/IX-1) was a gunboat in the United States Navy. She was named for Annapolis, Maryland.
• She took part in the Spanish-American War and later was sent to the Far East and then central American waters.

 

USS Annapolis 1896

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• USS Maine (BB-10)
• USS Maine (BB-10), the lead ship of her class of battleships, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the 23rd state.
• She was launched on 27 July 1901 and during WWI operated along the east coast where she trained engineers, armed guard crews, and midshipmen.
• Later Maine operated with ships of the Atlantic Fleet until 15 May 1920, when she decommissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard.

USS Maine BB-10 1902

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• USS Bridgeport (AD-10/ID-3009)
• The USS Bridgeport (AD-10/ID-3009) was a destroyer tender used by the United States Navy during World War I and the years after. 
• Originally she had been built in 1901 at Vegesack, Germany as SS Breslau of the North German Lloyd lines as a steel-hulled passenger and cargo steamship.
• Interned at New Orleans, Louisiana at the outbreak of World War I, Breslau was seized in 1917 by the United States after her entry into the war and commissioned into the Navy as USS Bridgeport. 
• Originally slated to be a repair ship, she was reclassified as a destroyer tender the following year. Bridgeport completed several transatlantic convoy crossings before she was stationed at Brest, France, where she remained in a support role after the end of World War I. After returning to the United States in November 1919, she spent the next five years along the East Coast and in the Caribbean tending destroyers and conducting training missions.
• She was decommissioned in November 1924 and placed in reserve at the Boston Navy Yard.

USS Bridgeport (AD-10)

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• USS L-10 (SS-50)
• The USS L-10 (SS-50) was an L-class submarine of the United States Navy. She was assigned to the Atlantic Submarine Flotilla and operated along the United States East Coast until April 1917 developing new techniques or undersea warfare.
• Following the United States’s entry into World War I, she was used to protect Allied shipping lanes to Europe.
• She was decommissioned at Philadelphia on 5 May 1922

USS L-10 (SS-50)

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• USS Barnegat (AVP-10)
• The second USS Barnegat (AVP-10), operated from 1941 to 1946, was the lead ship of her class of small seaplane tenders built for the United States Navy just before and during World War II. 
• First operating in the North Atlantic she provided not only tender services but salvage and logistic support as well. 
• Later she participated in Operation Torch, the Allied landings in French North Africa.
• From June 1943–May 1944 she transferred to the South Atlantic, reporting for duty with Fleet Air Wing (FAW) 16. Her arrival coincided with the opening shots of a local German submarine “blitz” against coastal shipping; the day before, the German U-boat U-513 had torpedoed the steamer SS Venetia.
• She was decommissioned on 17 May 1946.

USS Barnegat (AVP-10)

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• USS Yorktown (CV-10)
• The USS Yorktown (CV/CVA/CVS-10) is one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. She is named after the Battle of Yorktown of the American Revolutionary War, and is the fourth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name. Initially to have been named Bon Homme Richard, she was renamed Yorktown while under construction to commemorate USS Yorktown (CV-5), lost at the Battle of Midway in June 1942.
• Yorktown was commissioned in April 1943, and participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation.
• Decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, she was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). She was recommissioned too late to participate in the Korean War but served for many years in the Pacific, including duty in the Vietnam War, in which she earned five battle stars. 
• Late in her career she served as a recovery ship for the Apollo 8 space mission, was used in the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! which recreated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and in the science fiction film The Philadelphia Experiment.
• Yorktown was decommissioned in 1970 and in 1975 became a museum ship at Patriot’s Point, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. 
• She is a National Historic Landmark.

 

CVS-10 USS Yorktown

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• USNS Bridge (T-AOE-10)
• USNS Bridge is the fourth ship in the Supply class of fast combat support ships and the second ship in the Navy named after Commodore Horatio Bridge.

USNS Bridge (T-AOE 10)

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• USS Sampson (DDG-10)
• The USS Sampson (DDG-10), named for Admiral William T. Sampson USN (1840–1902), was a Charles F. Adams-class guided missile destroyer launched on 21 May 1960 commissioned on 24 June 1961.
• She was tasked with operations in the Atlantic and Caribbean and the Mediterranean. 
• Sampson was decommissioned on 24 June 1991 exactly 30 years after commissioning.

USS Sampson DDG-10

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• USS Tripoli (LPH-10)
• The USS Tripoli (LPH-10), is an Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship launched on 31 July 1965. She was named for the Battle of Tripoli Harbor.
• She took part in three tours during the Vietnam war and has more recently operated in the Middle East. 
• She was decommissioned in 1995.

USS Tripoli LPH10

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• USS Juneau (LPD-10)
• The USS Juneau (LPD-10) is an Austin-class amphibious transport dock, and the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the capital of Alaska. 
• The ship entered service on 12 July 1969, and participated in the Vietnam War, was command ship for the response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, transported troops to the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Storm, and was part of the attempted US response to Cyclone Nargis. 
• Juneau was decommissioned in 2008, and is part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet.

USS JUNEAU LPD-10 P

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• USS Warrior (MCM-10)
• The USS Warrior (MCM-10) is an Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship launched on 8 December 1990, and was commissioned on 7 April 1993. 
• The Avenger-class ships were designed to have very low acoustic and magnetic signatures to avoid detonating mines. While most modern warships have steel hulls, the Avengers have wooden hulls with an external coating of fiberglass. They are equipped with sophisticated mine-hunting and classification sonar as well as remotely-operated mine neutralization and disposal systems.
• On 26 February 2013, 7th Fleet announced that the USS Warrior would be transferred from 5th Fleet in Bahrain to 7th Fleet in Sasebo Japan to replace the USS Guardian, which had recently been decommissioned after running aground in the Philippines.

USS Warrior MCM 10

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• USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10)
• The USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) which is currently being built by Austal USA, is scheduled to be completed and delivered to the Navy in August of 2015 and will be an Independence-class littoral combat ship of the United States Navy. 
• The ship is named after former United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot along with eighteen other people during the 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona.
• Gabrielle Giffords will be the 15th U.S. naval ship to be named for a woman by the United States Navy. But the name choice has been controversial, with two retired U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps officers criticizing the trend of naming ships for political reasons.

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• Lockheed Model 10 Electra
• The Lockheed Model 10 Electra was a twin-engine, all-metal monoplane airliner developed by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in the 1930s to compete with the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2. 
• It was used both in civilian and military roles.
• The aircraft gained considerable worldwide notoriety when a highly modified version was flown by Amelia Earhart on her ill-fated around-the-world expedition in 1937.

Lockheed Martin model-10 Electra

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• McDonnell Douglas DC-10
• The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is a three-engine widebody jet airliner, capable of carrying a maximum 380 passengers, and used for medium to long-haul flights. Its most distinguishing feature is the two turbofan engines mounted on underwing pylons and a third engine at the base of the vertical stabilizer. 
• The model was a successor to McDonnell Douglas’s DC-8 for long-range operations, and competed in the same markets as the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, which has a similar layout to the DC-10.
• The DC-10 has had an eventful existence, as of January 2012, it has been involved in 56 aviation occurrences, including 32 hull-loss accidents, with 1,262 occupant fatalities. It has been involved in nine hijackings and criminal events resulting in 171 occupant fatalities.
• But despite its troubled beginnings in the 1970s, which gave it an unfavorable reputation, the DC-10 has proved a reliable aircraft, it’s initially poor safety record continuously improved as design flaws were rectified and fleet hours increased. The DC-10’s lifetime safety record is comparable to similar second-generation passenger jets as of 2008.

McDonnell Douglas DC10

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• Douglas F-10 Skyknight
• The Douglas F-10 Skyknight was a United States twin-engine, mid-wing jet fighter aircraft manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company in El Segundo, California.
• It was designed as a carrier-based all-weather aircraft and saw service with the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps.
• While it never achieved the fame of the North American F-86 Sabre, it did down several Soviet-built MiG-15s as a night fighter over Korea with only one air-to-air loss of its own against a Chinese MiG-15.
• The Skyknight was the only Korean war fighter that also flew in Vietnam (as also did the Douglas A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft). EF-10Bs served in the electronic countermeasures role during the Vietnam War until 1969. The U.S. Marine Corps retired its last EF-10Bs in 1970. Some aircraft continued flying as testbeds for Raytheon until the 1980s.

F-10B Skyknight (F3D-2)

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• Jianjiji-10 Fighter Aircraft
• The Jianjiji-10 Fighter Aircraft 10 (J-10) “Vigorous Dragon” was part of the development of an indigenous Chinese multi-role fighter equivalent to the Mirage 2000 operated by Taiwan. It is a replacement for the obsolescent Q-5 and J-7 and armed with much improved weapons.
• The J-10 is reportedly similar to the American F-16 and a cancelled Israeli fighter based on the F-16 called the Lavi. Although Israel denies transferring any unauthorized technology, it is known Israeli companies supplied assistance in J-10 development.
• Pakistan also reportedly provided one of its F-16s to China for study, and several Russian engineers who worked on the J-10 indicated a Lavi prototype was located in Chengdu’s facilities.
• The resulting design, very similar to the Lavi externally, features a delta wing with canards mounted just aft of the cockpit.

Jianjiji-10 Fighter Aircraft

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• Smith & Wesson Model 10
• The Smith & Wesson Model 10, previously known as the Smith & Wesson .38 Hand Ejector Model of 1899, the Smith & Wesson Military & Police or the Smith & Wesson Victory Model, is a revolver of worldwide popularity. 
• It was the successor to the Smith & Wesson .32 Hand Ejector Model of 1896 and was the first Smith & Wesson revolver to feature a cylinder release latch on the left side of the frame like the Colt M1889. 
• In production since 1899, it is a six-shot double-action revolver with fixed sights. Over its long production run it has been available with barrel lengths of 2 in (51 mm), 3 in (76 mm), 4 in (100 mm), 5 in (130 mm), and 6 in (150 mm). Barrels of 2.5 inches (64 mm) are also known to have been made for special contracts.
• Some 6,000,000 of the type have been produced over the years, making it the most popular centerfire revolver of the 20th century.

Smith and Wesson model 10

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• Colt model 10 Double Eagle
• The Colt Double Eagle is a double-action / single action, semi-automatic pistol manufactured between 1989 and 1997. It was available in standard full-size, as well as in more compact versions, features a decocking lever, and was chambered for several calibers. The family of models was known as the Series 90.
• The design of the Double Eagle was based on the Colt M1911 pistol. Magazines are single stack and are identical to magazines shipped with the M1911. Most of the Double Eagle models were available in stainless steel only, however the “Lightweight” Officer’s had an alloy frame and blued slide.
• The Double Eagle was chambered for several calibers but the most common are 10mm Auto asn well as the standard .45 ACP and 10mm Auto.

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Other stuff

• Deca- means 10 (Latin, Greek: deka).
• Decade is a period of 10 years.
• U.S. currency: One dime = 10 cents.
• Tin wedding anniversary celebrates 10 years of marriage.
• X is the Roman numeral for 10.
• The Passion Flower (Passiflora) has 10 petals.

• Each of the thirty six parts of the astrological Zodiacs is divides into ten degrees.
• In a standard deck of playing cards there are 10, numbered 1 thru 10, of all four suits.
• Counting from one to ten before speaking is often done in order to cool one’s temper.
• There are ten official inkblots in the Rorschach inkblot test.
• The traditional Snellen chart uses 10 different letters.
• Number of dots in a tetractys.

tetractys

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Significant Number Factoid Friday – Today The Number Is Twenty-One 21

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Today a number that many people like and hold to be ‘lucky’.

The Number 21

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In religion

• Number of the perfection by excellence, 3 x 7, according to the Bible.
• 21 represents the harmony of the creation.
• Mary, mother of Jesus, lived 21 years after the death Jesus
• There were 21 years between the presentation of Jesus to the Temple at 12 years old and his death at 33 years old.
• In the same day, Jesus appears in 21 different places in Palestine to confirm in His Resurrection.
• The word angel is pronounced 21 times by Jesus, always to the plural.
• The words Flood and star are used 21 times in the Bible.
• In the Revelation, the word “capacity” (capacity of decision or to act, by opposition to “power”) is used 21 times.

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In mathematics

21 is a Triangular, Octagonal, Fibonacci, and Motzkin Number.

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In science & technology

• The Chemical Element Scandium has an atomic number of 21.
• There are 21 amino-acids.
• 21 is the standard TCP/IP port number for FTP connections

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In space and aviation

• Messier 21 or M21
• Messier 21 or M21 (also designated NGC 6531) is an open cluster of stars in the constellation of Sagittarius. It was discovered and catalogued by Charles Messier on June 5, 1764.
•  It is tightly packed but contains about 57 stars. A few blue giant stars have been identified in the cluster, but Messier 21 is composed mainly of small dim stars. With a magnitude of 6.5, M21 is not visible to the naked eye; however, with the smallest binoculars it can be easily spotted on a dark night.

 

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• Expedition 21
• Expedition 21 was the 21st long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition began on 30 September 2009, with Frank de Winne becoming the first ESA astronaut to command a space mission.

• The handover between Expedition 20 and Expedition 21 required three Soyuz vehicles being docked to the station at the same time, the first time this has occurred.
• Soyuz TMA-16 brought the final members of Expedition 21 to the ISS, along with space tourist Guy Laliberté. Laliberté returned to Earth on Soyuz TMA-14 with two members of Expedition 20 on 11 October 2009.
• Nicole P. Stott was the last ISS expedition crew member to fly on the Space Shuttle. She returned to Earth aboard STS-129 in November 2009.

Expedition 21 crew portrait (from the left) are Flight Engineers Nicole Stott, Frank De Winne and Roman Romanenko. Pictured on the back row (from the left) are Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev, Commander Jeffrey Williams and Flight Engineer Robert Thirsk. Image credit: NASA

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• Luna 21
• Luna 21 (Ye-8 series) was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 21. The spacecraft landed on the Moon and deployed the second Soviet lunar rover (Lunokhod 2). The primary objectives of the mission were to collect images of the lunar surface, examine ambient light levels to determine the feasibility of astronomical observations from the Moon, perform laser ranging experiments from Earth, observe solar X-rays, measure local magnetic fields, and study mechanical properties of the lunar surface material.

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• Number 21
• Number 21 is the name of the plane alleged flown by Gustave Whitehead two years before the Wright brothers’ flight

 

 

In politics

• 21^st President of the United States
• Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was the 21st President of the United States (1881–85). He became President after the assassination of President James A. Garfield.
• Born in Fairfield, Vermont, Arthur grew up in upstate New York and practiced law in New York City. He devoted much of his time to Republican politics and quickly rose in the political machine run by New York Senator Roscoe Conkling.
• Appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant to the lucrative and politically powerful post of Collector of the Port of New York in 1871, Arthur was an important supporter of Conkling and the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party.
• In 1878 the new president, Rutherford B. Hayes, fired Arthur as part of a plan to reform the federal patronage system in New York. When James Garfield won the Republican nomination for President in 1880, Arthur was nominated for Vice President to balance the ticket by adding an eastern Stalwart to it.
• After just half a year as vice president, Garfield was assassinated and Arthur unexpectedly became the 21st President of the united states.
• To the surprise of reformers, Arthur took up the reform cause that had once led to his expulsion from office. He signed the Pendleton Act into law, and enforced its provisions vigorously.
• Suffering from poor health, Arthur made only a limited effort to secure renomination in 1884; he retired at the close of his term. As journalist Alexander McClure would later write, “No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as Chester Alan Arthur, and no one ever retired … more generally respected, alike by political friend and foe.”

Chester A Arthur, 21st President of the United States of America

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• 21^st Amendment
• The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, thereby ending Prohibition.

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• 21^st State
• Illinois – the ‘Land of Lincoln’ – was the 21st state to join the United States.
• Abraham Lincoln moved to Illinois when he was 21 and he met his future wife – Mary Todd – in Springfield when she was 21.
• Illinois currently has 21 electoral votes in the US Presidential Election.

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• Canada – Pier 21
• Pier 21 was, from 1928 to 1971, was the place where immigrants entered Canada. It was called the “Gateway to Canada.”

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• France – King Louis XVI
• 21 was a significant number in the life of French King Louis XVI
• On January 21, 1770, Louis XVI became engaged;
• On June 21, 1770, he got married;
• On January 21, 1782, he promulgated the suspension of a tax;
• On January 21, 1784 an enormous obelisk of snow was raised for him on the place Louis XV;
• On June 21, 1791,  Louis XVI was arrested;  and,
• On January 21, 1793, he goes up to the scaffold.
• Finally, the 5 letters of his first name added to XVI gives 21.

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• Japan-China
• The Twenty-One Demands were a set of demands which were sent to the Chinese government by the Japanese government of Okuma Shigenobu in 1915.

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• Poland
• The 21 Demands of MKS led to the foundation of Solidarity in Poland.

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In folklore, legends and mythology

• The Mayan Calendar
• December 21^st 2012, according to some interpretations of the Mayan calendar was the predicted date of an apocalyptic event: ‘The planets are aligned the sun will activate, let the deluge come’.
• It turned out to be bollocks though (see also this post)

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• Ghost Ship 21
• A ghost ship, also known as a phantom ship, is a ship with no living crew aboard. It may be a ghostly vessel in folklore or fiction, such as the Flying Dutchman, or a real derelict found adrift with its crew missing or dead, like the Mary Celeste. The term is sometimes also used for ships that have been decommissioned but not yet scrapped.
• There have been many examples throughout history, for example,
• Undated: The Caleuche is a mythical ghost ship which, according to local folklore and Chilota mythology, sails the seas around Chiloé Island, Chile, at night.
• 1738 onwards: The Palatine Light, a ship who lost half her crew running aground off Rhode Island, possibly being lured there and pillaged by the locals. Said to appear every December.
• 1748 onwards: The Lady Lovibond is said to have been deliberately wrecked on Goodwin Sands on 13 February and to reappear off the Kent coast every fifty years.
• 1786 onwards: The Ghost Ship of Northumberland Strait, a burning ship seen regularly between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.
• 1795 onwards: The Flying Dutchman, a ship manned by a captain condemned to eternally sail the seas, has long been the principal ghost ship legend among mariners and has inspired several works.
• 1813 onwards: After the American schooner Young Teazer was sunk in an explosion during the War of 1812, a burning apparition known as the “Teazer Light” has been reported off Maine.
• 1858 onwards: The Eliza Battle, a paddle steamer that burned in 1858 on the Tombigbee River in Alabama, is purported to reappear, fully aflame, on cold and windy winter nights to foretell of impending disaster.
• 1878 onwards: An apparition has been reported where the HMS Eurydice sank off the Isle of Wight. Witnesses include a Royal Navy submarine in the 1930s and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, in 1998.
• 1872 or 1882: The Iron Mountain riverboat, according to legend, mysteriously disappeared while travelling the Mississippi River and left the barges it was towing adrift. In reality, the ship sank in 1882 near Vicksburg after running aground, and its fate was never mysterious.
• 1928: The København was last heard from on December 28, 1928. For two years following its disappearance sightings of a mysterious five-masted ship fitting its description were reported in the Pacific Ocean.
• Historically attested
• 1855: HMS Resolute was discovered drifting off the coast of Baffin Island. It had been one of four vessels from Edward Belcher’s search expedition for John Franklin that had been abandoned the previous year when it was trapped in pack ice in Viscount Melville Sound. The ship drifted some 1,200 miles (1,900 km) before it was found, freed from the ice.
• 1872: Amazon (later renamed Mary Celeste). In 1872 the Mary Celeste, perhaps the most historically famous derelict, was found abandoned between mainland Portugal and the Azores archipelago. It was devoid of all crew, but largely intact and under sail, heading toward the Strait of Gibraltar. While Arthur Conan Doyle’s story “J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement” based on this ship added some strange phenomena to the tale (such as that the tea found in the mess hall was still hot), the fact remained that the last log entry was 11 days prior to the discovery of the ship.
• 1884: In 1884 the Resolven was found abandoned between Baccalieu Island and Catalina, Newfoundland and Labrador, with its lifeboat missing. Other than a broken yard, it had suffered minimal damage. A large iceberg was sighted nearby. It has been claimed that none of the seven crew members or four passengers were accustomed to northern waters and it was suggested that they panicked when the ship was damaged by ice,[9] launched the lifeboat, and swamped, though no bodies were found. Three years later, Resolven was wrecked while returning to Newfoundland from Nova Scotia with a load of lumber.
• 1917: Zebrina, a sailing barge, departed Falmouth, England, with a cargo of Swansea coal bound for Saint-Brieuc, France. Two days later she was discovered aground on Rozel Point, south of Cherbourg, without damage except for some disarrangement of her rigging, but with her crew missing.
• 1921: The Carroll A. Deering, a five-masted cargo schooner, was found stranded on a beach on Diamond Shoals, North Carolina. The ship’s final voyage had been the subject of much debate and controversy, and was investigated by six departments of the US government, largely because it was one of dozens of ships that sank or went missing within a relatively short period of time. While paranormal explanations have been advanced, the theories of mutiny or piracy are considered more likely.
• 1931: The Baychimo was abandoned in the Arctic Ocean when it became trapped in pack ice and was thought doomed to sink, but remained afloat and was sighted numerous times over the next 38 years without ever being salvaged.
• 1933: A lifeboat from the 1906 wreck of the passenger steamship SS Valencia off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island was found floating in the area in remarkably good condition 27 years after the sinking. Sailors have also reported seeing the ship itself in the area in the years following the sinking, often as an apparition that followed down the coast.
• 1955: The MV Joyita was discovered abandoned in the Pacific. A subsequent inquiry found the vessel was in a poor state of repair, but determined the fate of passengers and crew to be “inexplicable on the evidence submitted at the inquiry”.
• 1959: A ghost submarine was found floating without a crew in the Bay of Biscay off northern Spain. It was later discovered that the empty sub was being towed by another vessel and the chain had snapped.
• 1969: The Teignmouth Electron was found adrift and unoccupied in the Atlantic Ocean. Investigation led to the conclusion that its sole crewmember, Donald Crowhurst, had suffered a psychiatric breakdown while competing in a solo around-the-world race and committed suicide by jumping overboard.
• 2003: The High Aim 6 was found drifting in Australian waters, 80 nautical miles (150 km; 92 mi) east of Rowley Shoals, with its crew missing. The derelict was subsequently scuttled.
• 2006: The tanker Jian Seng was found off the coast of Weipa, Queensland Australia in March. Its origin or owner could not be determined, and its engines had been inoperable for some time.
• 2006: In August the “Bel Amica” was discovered off the coast of Sardinia. The Coast Guard crew that discovered the ship found half eaten Egyptian meals, French maps of North African seas, and a flag of Luxembourg on board.
• 2007: A 12-metre catamaran, the Kaz II, was discovered unmanned off the coast of Queensland, northeast Australia in April.[18] The yacht, which had left Airlie Beach on Sunday 15 April, was spotted about 80 nautical miles (150 km) off Townsville, near the outer Great Barrier Reef on the following Wednesday. When boarded on Friday, the engine was running, a laptop was running, the radio and GPS were working and a meal was set to eat, but the three-man crew were not on board. All the sails were up but one was badly shredded, while three life jackets and survival equipment, including an emergency beacon, were found on board. A search for the crew was abandoned on Sunday 22nd as it was considered unlikely that anyone could have survived for that period of time.
• 2008: The abandoned 50 ton Taiwanese fishing vessel Tai Ching 21 was found drifting near Kiribati on 9 November. The ship had suffered a fire several days previously, and its lifeboat and three life rafts were missing. No mayday call was received, and the ship had last been heard from on 28 October. A search of 21,000 square miles (54,000 square km) of the Pacific Ocean north of Fiji by a US Air Force C-130 Hercules and a New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion found no trace of the Taiwanese captain or crew (18 Chinese, 6 Indonesians, and 4 Filipinos).
• 2012: The Ryou-Un Maru, a Japanese fishing vessel swept away by the March 2011 tsunami, was found floating adrift towards Canada after nearly a year at sea, no crew believed to be on board. The vessel was sunk on April 5, 2012 by the United States Coast Guard.

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In sports

• The jersey number 21 has been retired by several North American sports teams in honor of past playing greats or other key figures:
• In Major League Baseball: the Cleveland Indians, for Hall of Famer Bob Lemon, the Milwaukee Braves, for Hall of Famer Warren Spahn (the number continues to be honored by the team in its current home of Atlanta);  the Pittsburgh Pirates, for Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente (following his death in a plane crash while attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua);

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• In the NBA: the Atlanta Hawks, for Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins; the Boston Celtics, for Hall of Famer Bill Sharman; the Detroit Pistons, for Hall of Famer Dave Bing; the Sacramento Kings, for Vlade Divac; the Minnesota Timberwolves have not retired the number, but have not issued it since Kevin Garnett was traded from the team in 2007.

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• In the NHL: the Chicago Blackhawks, for Hall of Famer Stan Mikita; the Colorado Avalanche, for likely future Hall of Famer Peter Forsberg; the Pittsburgh Penguins, for Michel Brière; the Toronto Maple Leafs have a policy of not retiring numbers unless the player honored either died or suffered a career-ending incident while a member of the team. Other players whose numbers would otherwise be retired instead have their numbers enshrined by the team as “Honored Numbers”, which remain in circulation for future players. The number 21 is currently honored for Hall of Famer Börje Salming.

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• No NFL team has retired the number 21.

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• In basketball: 21 is a variation of street basketball, in which each player, of which there can be any number, plays for himself only (i.e. not part of a team); the name comes from the requisite number of baskets.
• In 3×3, a formalized version of three-on-three half-court basketball, the game ends by rule once either team has scored 21 points in regulation. Scoring is significantly different from traditional basketball rules, with free throws and baskets made from inside the three-point arc worth 1 point, and baskets made from outside the arc worth 2 points.
• In badminton, and table tennis (before 2001), 21 points are required to win a game.
• Eyeshield 21 is a Japanese anime about football.
• In the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series the number 21 has long been the car number for Wood Brothers Racing

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In books, music, tv and movies

• 21 is the sophomore album from British singer-songwriter Adele, recently acclaimed for her title song for the Bond movie Skyfall.
• Century 21 Television (producers of Sylvia and Gerry Anderson Supermarionation shows like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons).
• Cinema 21 is an independently-owned movie theatre in Portland, Oregon featuring art house films. Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97209 USA
• Cinema 21, is also the name of the largest cinema chain in Indonesia, established in the entertainment industry in 1987.
• “21” is the fact-based story about six MIT students who were trained to become experts in card counting and subsequently took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings.
• Wedding In Las Vegas is a docu-drama about a group of students who, using a wedding as a cover story, also defeat the casino’s Blackjack tables using card counting techniques.

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In militaria

• Mig-21
• The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was popularly nicknamed “balalaika”, from the aircraft’s planform-view resemblance to the Russian stringed musical instrument or olówek (English: pencil) by Polish pilots due to the shape of its fuselage.
• Early versions are considered second-generation jet fighters, while later versions are considered to be third-generation jet fighters.
• Some 50 countries over four continents have flown the MiG-21, and it still serves many nations a half-century after its maiden flight. The fighter made aviation records. At least by name, it is the most-produced supersonic jet aircraft in aviation history and the most-produced combat aircraft since the Korean War, and it had the longest production run of a combat aircraft (1959 to 1985 over all variants).

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• IAI Kfir F-21
• The Israel Aircraft Industries Kfir F-21 is an Israeli-built all-weather, multirole combat aircraft based on a modified French Dassault Mirage 5 airframe, with Israeli avionics and an Israeli-made version of the General Electric J79 turbojet engine.
• The Kfir entered service with the IAF in 1975, the first units being assigned to the 101st “First Fighter” Squadron. Over the following years, several other squadrons were also equipped with the new aircraft. The role of the Kfir as the IAF’s primary air superiority asset was short-lived, as the first F-15 Eagle fighters from the United States were delivered to Israel in 1976.
• The Kfir’s first recorded combat action took place on November 9, 1977, during an Israeli air strike on a training camp at Tel Azia, in Lebanon. The only air victory claimed by a Kfir during its service with the IAF occurred on June 27, 1979 when a Kfir C.2 shot down a Syrian MiG-21.
• Twenty-five modified Kfir C.1s were leased to the US Navy and the US Marine Corps from 1985 to 1989, to act as adversary aircraft in dissimilar air combat training (DACT). These aircraft, designated F-21A Kfir, had narrow-span canard foreplanes and a single small rectangular strake on either side of the nose which considerably improved the aircraft’s maneuverability and handling at low speeds.

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• Blücher 21 cm/45 (8.27″) SK L/45
• Used afloat only on the Armored Cruiser Blücher which was sunk at the World War I battle of Dogger Bank.  After her sinking, four reserve guns were given to the German Army.
• During World War II these guns were used as coastal artillery.  They were then supplied with a better ballistically shaped shell and with a larger propellant charge for increased range.
• Constructed of a tube, two layers of hoops and a jacket.  Used the Krupp horizontal sliding wedge breech block.  About 16 guns were made.

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• 21-K
• The 45 mm anti-aircraft gun (21-K) was a Soviet design adapted from the 45 mm anti-tank gun M1937 (53-K). This was a copy of a 3.7 cm (1.5 in) German weapon designed by Rheinmetall that was sold to the Soviets before Hitler came to power in 1933 that had been enlarged to 45 mm (1.8 in) in increase its penetrating power.
• It was used by the Soviet Navy to equip almost all of their ships from 1934 as its primary light anti-aircraft gun until replaced by the fully automatic 37 mm 70-K gun from 1942 to 1943.
• It was used in World War II and during the Cold War as the Soviets exported their World War II-era ships to their friends and allies.
• However it was not very effective as its slow rate of fire and lack of a time fuze required a direct hit to damage targets.

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• GAU-21 (M3M)
• The M3M was designated by the U.S. Navy as the GAU-21 in 2004 and is currently used by all services within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).
• An evolution of the M3 .50-caliber heavy machine gun, it produces a blistering 1,100 rounds per minute cyclic rate of fire through the use of open-bolt operation and a dual recoil buffer system. Operating independent of either electrical or hydraulic power sources, the M3M/GAU-21’s unique soft mount system enhances weapon accuracy and minimizes the firing vibration transmitted to the airframe.
• FN Herstal has been awarded a solesource U.S. Navy contract to produce the M3M .50 caliber machine guns under the Gun, Aircraft, Unit-21 (GAU-21) designation for Navy and Marine Corps rotary-wing assault aircraft.
• The FN GAU-21 (M3M) is a .50 caliber (12.7x99mm) single barrel rapid-fire machine gun suitable for rotary-wing aircraft applications providing defensive firepower ranging out to nearly 2000 meters.

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• BRNO 21
• BRNO is neither German nor Austrian (although it was once located in the Austro-Hungarian Empire), but they produced the BRNO model designation 21 and 22 as post-War sporting rifles.

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• GLOCK 21
• Almpst an American icon, the Glock 21 is a .45 caliber pistol. Countless law enforcement units swear by this superior pistol for more than just its above-average magazine capacity of 13 rounds.

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• SIG SAUER® P210®
• The SIG SAUER® P210®, the timeless pistol of the Swiss Army, is once again in production by SIG SAUER GmbH in Germany. This historic gun features the same precision and reliability as its ancestors, but also offers a number of modern improvements.
• The return of the SIG SAUER P210 Legend will now ensure that many more shooters will be able to enjoy one of the world’s most accurate and legendary firearms.

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• 21st Century Commander
• Internally, the 21st Century Commander is classic Colt. The stainless 4.25-inch barrel is rifled in the standard 1:16-inch left-hand twist. Each 21st Century Commander is serialized with a unique number that contains the letters “WC” for Wiley Clapp.

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• 21 Series Beretta
• The 21 Series Beretta pocket pistol (Bobcat) has the same dedication to advanced design, uncompromising quality and strict quality control that make the 92F, Cougar and Cheetah such international standouts.
• It has a user-friendly design, exclusive tip-up barrel allowing the user to easily load a round directly into the chamber or assisting in the safe clearing of the pistol by allowing a live round to be easily removed from the chamber and the bore quickly checked. Jamming and stovepiping problems are virtually eliminated by the open slide design shared by all small frame Berettas.
• Chambered for .22LR or .25ACP (6.35 mm), this compact, rugged small frame measures just 4.9 inches (125 mm) overall and weighs only 11.5 ounces (325 grams). It features a lightweight, alloy frame, blued steel slide, tip-up barrel, and double/single action. The Bobcat comes with a 7-round magazine for .22LR ammunition, or an 8 round magazine for .25 (6.35 mm)caliber cartridges.

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• Twenty-one Gun Salute
• Legend has it that Twenty-one guns are fired in U.S. national military salutes because the digits in 1776 add up to 21. However, despite the fact that the year 1776 is deeply significant to Americans and the total of its digits does add up to 21, the legend is untrue because the custom of the 21-gun salute antedates the American Revolution by at least several decades.
• Also interesting is the fact that, although we now view weaponry salutes as honors proudly bestowed by fighting men upon those of high rank or great achievement, saluting in days long ago was an act of submission; a tangible way of demonstrating that the one performing the action was voluntarily placing himself in the power of the one being saluted. Guns would be emptied a ritual number of times, or sails would be lowered, or spears would be pointed towards the ground, the significance being that those carrying out the act were saying “I yield to your authority, and as proof I’ve just rendered my weapon incapable of being used against you.”
• Over time the practice evolved into a custom honorary and ceremonial as well as practical. Today’s salute is far more a mark of respect than an act of submission.
• Cannons became part of weaponry salutes in the 14th century.  A just-emptied cannon was a useless piece of ordnance and so made a fine visible display of the lack of hostile intent. Warships took to firing honorary seven-gun salutes, with that number likely chosen for its astrological and biblical significance. Because those crewing cannons on land had access to far greater supplies of powder, they were able to fire three guns (a number chosen for its mystical significance) for every shot fired afloat, making the honorary salute by shore batteries 21 guns.
• Eventually, an understanding was reached that the international salute should be established as 21 guns.
• Today, the national salute of 21 guns is fired in honor of a national flag, the sovereign or chief of state of a foreign nation, a member of a reigning royal family, and the President, ex-President, and President-elect of the United States. It is also fired at noon of the day of the funeral of a President, ex-President, or President-elect; Washington’s Birthday; Presidents’ Day; and the Fourth of July. On Memorial Day, a salute of 21 minute guns (i.e., guns discharged at one-minute intervals) is fired at noon while the flag is flown at half staff.

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In other stuff

• We are currently living in the 21^st Century, which spans the years from 2001 to 2100;
• There are 21 letters in the Italian alphabet;
• 21 is the number representing the maturity and the responsibility for an individual;
• In most USA states 21 is the drinking age;
• In some countries 21 is the voting age;
• Cities on latitude 21 North include:  Aguascalientes, Cancún, and León, in Mexico; Jeddah, and Mecca in Saudi Arabia; Honolulu, Hawaii; Nagpur, Maharashtra, India; and Hanoi, Vietnam.
• Cities on latitude 21 South include: Francistown, Botswana; and Nuku’Alofa, Tonga.
• Cities on longitude 21 West include: Reykjavík, Iceland.
• Cities on longitude 21 East include: Warsaw, Poland; Pristina, Kosovo; and Skopje, Macedonia.21 is a card game, also called vingt-et-un (French for “twenty-one”), pontoon, or blackjack;
• Twenty One, was the name of a TV quiz show that ran from 1956 to 1958, most remembered for the scandal that the wins were fixed – it was remade in 2000;
• There are 21 spots on a standard cubical (six-sided) die (1+2+3+4+5+6);
• There are 21 trump cards of the tarot deck if one does not consider The Fool to be a proper trump card;
• In Israel, the number is associated with the profile 21 (the military profile designation granting an exemption from the military service);
• 21 grams is the weight of the soul, according to research by Duncan MacDougall;
• 21 is the designation of a US Highway connecting Wytheville, Virginia and Beaufort, South Carolina, a truncation of a route that once connected Cleveland, Ohio and Jacksonville, Florida, among other highways past and present;
• 21 is the number of the French department Côte-d’Or;
• In France XXI is a journal devoted to long-form journalism;
• ’21’ is a landmark New York restaurant perfectly positioned in midtown Manhattan;
• Forever 21 is an American chain of clothing retailers with branches in major cities in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East that offers trendy clothing and accessories for young women, men, and girls at low, affordable prices.

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Significant Number Factoid Friday – Today Number Six 6

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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By special request, today’s significant number is the number six. My thanks to John in Australia for the suggestion, turns out it was a very interesting choice. So let’s get started. Enjoy.

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The Number Six  6

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In religion

• Chapter One of Genesis, the first book in the Old Testament, tells us that the Creation was done over a six day period, and that man was created on day number 6. Moreover, six days were appointed to man for his labor, while one day is associated in sovereignty with the Lord God, as His rest.
• The serpent also was created on the sixth day.
• The Sixth Commandment relates to the worst sin – murder.
• The sixth clause of the Lord’s prayer treats of sin.
• There are six points on a Star of David.

Star of David

• There are six Orders of the Mishnah.
• Six symbolic foods are placed on the Passover Seder Plate.
• The Jewish holiday of Shavuot starts on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan.

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• In Islam there are Six articles of belief
• Fasting six days of Shawwal, together with the month of Ramadan, is equivalent to fasting the whole year

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• In Hindu theology, a trasarenu is the combination of 6 celestial paramanus (atoms)

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In mathematics

• Six is the first number which is neither a square number nor a prime number.
• Six is the largest of the four all-Harshad numbers.
• There are six basic trigonometric functions.
• A cube has six faces.

• A hexagon is a regular polygon with six sides.
• A hexahedron is a polyhedron with six faces, with a cube being a special case.
• S6, with 720 elements, is the only finite symmetric group which has an outer automorphism. This automorphism allows us to construct a number of exceptional mathematical objects such as the S(5,6,12) Steiner system, the projective plane of order 4 and the Hoffman-Singleton graph.
• Six similar coins can be arranged around a central coin of the same radius so that each coin makes contact with the central one (and touches both its neighbors without a gap), but seven cannot be so arranged. This makes 6 the answer to the two-dimensional kissing number problem. The densest sphere packing of the plane is obtained by extending this pattern to the hexagonal lattice in which each circle touches just six others.

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In science

• Six is the atomic number of carbon.
• A benzene molecule has a ring of six carbon atoms.
• The prefix “hexa-“ (Greek word for ‘six’) also occurs in the systematic name of many chemical compounds, such as “hexamethyl”.
• A hexamer is an oligomer made of six sub-units.
• Adenine is one of four bases that code for all life in deoxyribonucleic acid. Adenine’s molecular structure is based on a hexagonal ring bonded to a pentagonal ring.

• In the Standard Model of particle physics, there are six types of quark and six types of lepton.
• In statistical mechanics, the six-vertex model has six possible configurations of arrows at each vertex.
• The six-fold symmetry of snowflakes arises from the hexagonal crystal structure of ordinary ice.
• People with sexdactyly have six fingers on each hand.

• Six babies delivered in one birth are sextuplets.
• There are six tastes in traditional Indian Medicine called Ayurveda: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent. These tastes are used to suggest a diet based on the symptoms of the body.
• Phase 6 is one of six pandemic influenza phases.
• The cells of a beehive honeycomb are 6-sided.

• Insects have 6 legs.
• The measuring instrument called a sextant got its name because its shape forms one-sixth of a whole circle.

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In space

• The New General Catalogue object NGC 6 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Andromeda.
• Messier object M6, a magnitude 4.5 open cluster in the constellation Scorpius, also known as the Butterfly Cluster.

Messier object M6

• The gaseous planet Saturn has hexagonal clouds on its north pole discovered by Voyager 1 in 1977 and verified again in 2006 by the Cassini spacecraft, meaning this hexagon is a persistent structure on the scale of a planet.

Saturn’s hexagonal north pole clouds

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• Apollo 6
• Apollo 6, the final unmanned mission of the United States Apollo Program, was launched on April 4, 1968. It was an A type mission and the second test flight for the Saturn V launch vehicle, intended to demonstrate full lunar injection capability of the Saturn V with a nearly full simulated payload, and also the capability of the Command Module’s heat shield to withstand a lunar-speed re-entry.

Apollo program insignia

• The mission was not designed to go to the moon, but merely to achieve a trans-lunar speed toward an imaginary point in space nowhere near the moon, then turn around and return in about 10 hours.
• However, fuel line failures in several Saturn V second and third stage engines prevented it from achieving lunar injection, but it was able to get close to lunar return velocity by using the Apollo spacecraft’s engine, as was done on Apollo 4, the first Saturn V test. Despite the engine failures, the flight nonetheless provided NASA with enough confidence in the Saturn V to use it for manned launches.
• Launch video

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In politics

• Massachusetts was sixth to receive statehood on, Wednesday, February 6, 1788.
• The Sixth Amendment (Amendment VI) to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that sets forth rights related to criminal prosecutions. The Supreme Court has applied the protections of this amendment to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
• The sixth President of the United States of America was John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) who served from March 4, 1825 to March 4, 1829. His V.P. Was John C. Calhoun.

John Quincy Adams Sixth President of the United States of America

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• The sixth Prime Minister of Australia was Sir Joseph Cook, (7 December 1860 – 30 July 1947). A coal miner from Silverdale, Staffordshire, Cook emigrated to Lithgow, New South Wales during the late 1880s, and became General-Secretary of the Western Miners Association in 1887.
• He was a founding member of the Australian Labor Party, and was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as Member for Hartley in 1891.
• Later Cook switched to the Free Trade Party, and was a minister in the cabinet of Premier George Reid from 1894 to 1899. During Australia’s first federal election in 1901, Cook was elected unopposed to the federal seat of Parramatta, and served as the deputy to Reid, then Alfred Deakin, following the creation of the Commonwealth Liberal Party from Cook’s and Deakin’s parties.
• As leader of the Liberal Party, Cook became Prime Minister following the 1913 elections; but he only had a one-seat majority in the lower house and no majority at all in the upper house, so he repeatedly sought to obtain a double dissolution. The outbreak of World War I just before the September 1914 election led to a Labor victory. Following a split in the Labor party in 1916, Cook joined William Morris Hughes’ Nationalist Party of Australia, and following the Nationalist victory in the 1917 election, served as Minister for the Navy, then Treasurer under Hughes.
• In 1921 Cook resigned from the federal parliament, and was appointed Australian High Commissioner in London. During 1928 and 1929, he headed the Royal Commission into South Australia as affected by Federation. He died in Sydney in 1947.

Joseph Cook sixth Prime Minister of Australia

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• Australia has six states, Queensland (capital, Brisbane); New South Wales (capital, Sydney); Victoria (capital, Melbourne); Tasmania (capital, Hobart);        South Australia (capital, Adelaide); and Western Australia (capital, Perth). The Northern Territory (capital, Darwin), as the name implies, is classed as a ‘territory’, not a ‘state’.

Australia political map

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• The ‘Six Counties’ is a term used to describe Northern Ireland which consists of the six north-eastern counties of the island of Ireland. It was created when Ireland was partitioned in 1921.  After a campaign of terrorism, murder and bombing lasting almost thirty years the London government (of first Conservative John Major and later Labour Tony Blair) along with the Clinton administration brought about a ‘peace’ agreement that saw terrorists installed as part of the Northern Ireland government in Belfast. This was done during the 1990s and pre the 9/11 terrorists attacks on New York when Americans got first hand experience of what terrorism was all about. It is questionable if a post 9/11 American administration would have been so keen to participate in appeasing terrorism.

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In sport

• The National Basketball Association and National Hockey League have six divisions.
• The Original Six teams in the National Hockey League are Toronto, Chicago, Montreal, New York, Boston, and Detroit. They are the oldest remaining teams in the league, though not necessarily the first six; they comprised the entire league from 1942 to 1967.
• In American college football, there are six conferences that automatically qualify for Bowl Championship Series games.
• Six-man football is a variant of American or Canadian football, played by smaller schools with insufficient enrollment to field the traditional 11-man (American) or 12-man (Canadian) squad.
• In a football (soccer) game each side is allowed a maximum of three substitutes, making six in all.
• In ice hockey, six is the number of players per team, including the goaltender, that are on the ice at any one time, excluding penalty situations.
• In volleyball, six players from each team on each side play against each other.
• In some sports, six goals is known as a double-hat-trick, but is very hard to accomplish. A hat-trick in sport is the achievement of a positive feat three times or more during a game, or other achievements based on threes. The term was first used in 1858 in cricket to describe H H Stephenson’s feat of taking three wickets in three balls. A collection was held for Stephenson, and he was presented with a hat bought with the proceeds. The term was used in print for the first time in 1878 and was eventually adopted by many other sports including association football, water polo, and team handball, but did not become popular in North America until the mid-1940s in the National Hockey League.
• In American and Canadian football, a touchdown earns 6 points.
• In Australian Rules football, six points are received for a goal.
• In cricket there are six balls to an over, and a “six” or “sixer” is a shot in which the ball clears the boundary without bouncing, scoring six runs.
• In rugby union, the starting blindside flanker wears jersey number 6. (Some teams use “left” and “right” flankers instead of “openside” and “blindside”, with 6 being worn by the starting left flanker.)
• In most rugby league competitions (but not the European Super League, which uses static squad numbering), the jersey number 6 is worn by the starting stand-off half (Southern Hemisphere term) or five-eighth (Northern Hemisphere term).
• In football (soccer) AC Milan retired shirt number 6 belonging to their legendary center back and captain Franco Baresi in 1997.

• In Britain, Arsenal retired the number 6 shirt after their long serving center back and captain Tony Adams retired in 2002.

• In Major League Baseball: the Atlanta Braves, for manager Bobby Cox; the Boston Red Sox, for Johnny Pesky; the Detroit Tigers, for Hall of Famer Al Kaline; the Minnesota Twins, for Tony Oliva; the St. Louis Cardinals, for Hall of Famer Stan Musial; the San Diego Padres, for Steve Garvey.

#6 Stan Musial

• In the NBA: the Boston Celtics, for Hall of Famer Bill Russell; the Orlando Magic, for their fans (the “sixth man”); the Philadelphia 76ers, for Hall of Famer Julius Erving; the Phoenix Suns, for Walter Davis; the Sacramento Kings, also for their fans.

Hall of Famer Julius Erving

• In the NFL: the Kansas City Chiefs, for Warren McVea.

Warren McVea

• In the NHL: the Detroit Red Wings, for Larry Aurie; the Pittsburgh Penguins, for Ian Ackerman; the Toronto Maple Leafs, for Hall of Famer Ace Bailey (the Leafs have a unique policy of not retiring numbers unless the player honored either died or suffered a career-ending incident while a member of the team. Bailey suffered a fractured skull during a game in 1933; while he recovered and lived for nearly 60 years after the incident, he never played again. The Leafs would issue the number to Ron Ellis in 1968 at Bailey’s personal request, and Ellis wore it until his own retirement in 1981.)

Hall Of Famer Ace Bailey

• In NASCAR, the number 6 is currently owned by Roush Fenway Racing. Since the 2007 season, the first year in which Roush Racing was merged with the Fenway Sports Group that owns the Boston Red Sox, the Cup Series version of the car has been driven by David Ragan. From 1988 to 2006, Mark Martin drove the #6 in the Cup Series for what was then Roush Racing.

Roush Fenway Racing #6 car

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Cars and Bikes

• Yamaha YZF R6
• The Yamaha YZF R6 is a super sports bike, motorcycle manufactured by Yamaha Motor Company. The Yamaha comes with many sports bikes that are Yamaha R1, Yamaha FZ8, Yamaha R15 and Yamaha Vmax, Yamaha MT01 and more. The Yamaha YZF R6 is the one of the most advanced production in the 600cc segment from Yamaha. The Yamaha, bike manufacturer is flourishing in the Indian Market with the most stylish and delivers the best and advanced technology in India.

Yamaha YZF R6 Motorcycle

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• Audi S6
• Easily distinguishable by the row of LED running lights that graces both sides of its front bumper, Audi’s sport-inspired version of its A6 executive saloon, the S6, has much more than visual cues to separate it from its little brothers. This four-door, five-passenger luxury sport sedan comes standard with the six-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission with steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters, Audi’s quattro AWD and a 435-hp, 5.2-liter V10 designed by Lamborghini.

Audi S6

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• Mercedes 600
• During the resurgence of Germany from the rubble of WWII, after a tough post-war German automotive industry was recovering, and it was there that Mercedes Benz proposed making the car better representation of the world, whatever the cost. Work began in 1955 and after eight years of development the result was the Mercedes 600, also known as der Großer Mercedes, a car totally superlative in all respects. This was the car of choice of Presidents, Popes, dictators and billionaires.

Mercedes Benz 600 Pullman

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In books, music, television & movies

• Six Graves to Munich by Mario Gianluigi Puzo, perhaps better known for his novels about the Mafia, including The Godfather (1969), which he later co-adapted into a film by Francis Ford Coppola.
•  Six Days Of The Condor, a thriller novel by James Grady first published in 1974 by W.W. Norton, is a suspense drama set in contemporary Washington, D.C., and is considerably different from the 1975 film version, Three Days of the Condor starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway. It was followed by a second novel by Grady titled Shadow of the Condor, released in 1978.

• Hexameter is a poetic form consisting of six metrical feet per line.
• Six Degrees of Separation is a movie about an affluent New York couple find their lives touched, intruded upon, and compelled by a mysterious young black man who is never quite who he says he is.
• Six Days Seven Nights is a movie starring Harrison Ford and Anne Heche.  Robin Monroe, a New York magazine editor, and the gruff pilot Quinn Harris must put aside their mutual dislike if they are to survive after crash landing on a deserted South Seas island.
• Six Days in June is a documentary about the Six Day War.
• Sixth Sense starring Bruce Willis is a movie about a boy who communicates with spirits that don’t know they’re dead seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist.

• Number 6 (Teresa Palmer) is a character in the movie I Am Number Four (2011).
• The Six Million Dollar Man, was an extremely popular sci-fi television series from the 1970s about former astronaut Steve Austin  crippled in an airplane crash but rebuilt using bionic components that gave him super-human strength and speed.

• The Bionic Six are the heroes of the eponymous animated series.
• A group of six musicians is called a sextet.
• There are 6 semitones in a tritone.
• A standard guitar has 6 strings.
• Most woodwind instruments have 6 basic holes or keys (e.g., bassoon, clarinet, pennywhistle, saxophone); these holes or keys are usually not given numbers or letters in the fingering charts.
• Les Six (“The Six” in English) was a group consisting of the French composers Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre in the 1920s.
• Bands with the number six in their name include Six Organs of Admittance, 6 O’clock Saints, Electric Six, Eve 6, Los Xey (sei is Basque for “six”), Out On Blue Six, Six In Six, Sixpence None the Richer, Slant 6, Vanity 6, and You Me At Six.
• #6 is the pseudonym of American musician Shawn Crahan, when performing with the band Slipknot.
• “Six geese a-laying” were given as a present on the sixth day in the popular Christmas carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”.
• The concerti grossi Opus 3, organ concertos Opus 4 and Opus 7 (each) by Georg Frideric Handel.
• The sixth album by Dream Theater, Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence, was based around the number six: the album has six songs, and the sixth song — that is, the complete second disc — explores the stories of six individuals suffering from various mental illnesses.
• Six is the second album by Mansun released in 1998. It takes its name in part from the main character in the television series The Prisoner, and from A. A. Milne’s poetry book, Now We Are Six.
• Patrick McGoohan played prisoner number 6 in the mysterious British television series called The Prisoner, catchphrase “I am a man, I am not a number”.

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In militaria

• Carrier Air Wing Six
• Carrier Air Wing Six (CVW-6) was a United States Navy aircraft carrier air wing whose operational history spans from the years prior to World War II to the end of the Cold War, including participating in the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, and the Vietnam War.
• When the unit was named “Air Group Six” during its time on the Enterprise, it was the Navy’s only carrier-based air group to carry out three complete tours of duty during World War II.
• It was based on 15 different carriers during its operational lifetime. The lineage of Carrier Air Wing Six can be traced to the Enterprise Air Group, created on 1 July 1938, which included the following squadrons and aircraft:
• Bombing Six (VB-6) — 18 Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless dive bombers
• Fighting Six (VF-6) — 18 Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat fighter
• Scouting Six (VS-6) — 18 Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless dive bomber
• Torpedo Six (VT-6) — 18 Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber

Enterprise Air Group

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• Douglas DC-6
• The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, it was reworked after the war to compete with the Lockheed Constellation in the long-range commercial transport market.
• More than 700 were built and many still fly today in cargo, military and wildfire control roles.
• The DC-6 was known as the C-118 Liftmaster in United States Air Force service and as the R6D in United States Navy service prior to 1962, after which all U.S. Navy variants were also designated as the C-118.

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• Shenyang F-6
• The F-6 was a Chinese copy of the MiG-19S Farmer-C cannon-armed day fighter. From the late 1960s to the final batch in 1971, a total of more than 70 F-6s were reported delivered, equipping six squadrons at 3 bases, for both interceptor and attack duties. Some of the 1971 batch were late production F-6C version, featuring a prominent braking parachute housing at the base of the rudder.
• A few FT-6 two-seat trainers also appear to have been supplied. The FT-6 wasn’t certified for production until December 1973, so these examples must have been delivered after this date. It is also reported that 4 F-6 aircraft are fitted with ventral cameras for the reconnaissance role – whether these are export versions of the JZ-6 or local conversions is not known.

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• Beechcraft T-6 Texan II
• Developed from the Pilatus PC-9, the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II is a single-engined turboprop aircraft built by the Raytheon Aircraft Company (now Hawker Beechcraft). The T-6 is used by the United States Air Force for basic pilot training and by the United States Navy for Primary and Intermediate Joint Naval Flight Officer (NFO) and Air Force Combat Systems Officer (CSO) training. It has replaced the Air Force’s T-37B Tweet and is replacing the Navy’s T-34C Turbo Mentor.
• The T-6A is also used as a basic trainer by the Royal Canadian Air Force (CT-156 Harvard II), the German Air Force, the Greek Air Force, the Israeli Air Force (Efroni), and the Iraqi Air Force.

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• AT-6
• As well as being an initial trainer, the multirole Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 is capable of performing missions including: net-centric ISR with the ability for precise geo-registration, streaming video and datalinks, light attack including combat search and rescue (CSAR), close air support, forward air control and convoy escort, homeland defense (border security), port security, counter-narcotics operations and civil missions such as disaster area reconnaissance, search and rescue and firefighting. There are tandem HOTAS (hands on throttle and stick) controls fore and aft for pilot and instructor.
• Hawker Beechcraft showcased the AT-6 at the Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough International Airshow in the UK in 2010.

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• Fiat L6/40
• The Fiat L6/40 was a light tank used by the Italian army from 1940 and on through World War II. It was designed by Fiat-Ansaldo as an export product, and was adopted by the Italian Army when officials learned of the design and expressed interest. It was the main tank employed by the Italian forces fighting on the Eastern Front alongside the L6/40-based Semovente 47/32 self-propelled gun. L6/40s were also used in the North African campaign.
• The official Italian designation was Carro Armato (“armored tank”) L 6/40. This designation is understood as follows: “L” for Leggero (Italian: “light”), followed by the weight in tons (6) and the year of adoption (1940).

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• Ordnance QF 6 pounder
• The Ordnance Quick-Firing 6-pounder 7 cwt, or just 6 pounder, was a British 57 mm gun, their primary anti-tank gun during the middle of World War II, as well as the main armament for a number of armoured fighting vehicles.
• It was first used in North Africa in April 1942, and quickly replaced the 2 pounder in the anti-tank role, allowing the 25 pounder to revert to its intended artillery role.
• The United States Army also adopted the 6 pounder as their primary anti-tank gun under the designation 57 mm Gun M1.

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• The Six Gun
• Whilst not actually a firearm as such, the term ‘six gun’ or ‘six shooter’ is a general, if inaccurate, description of a revolver. The original name came from the fact that the majority of the early revolvers had a cylindrical bullet magazine that held six rounds of ammunition.

• However, modern revolvers come in a variety of capacities including 5 round, 6 round, 8 round and 10 round. An example being the Smith & Wesson Model 617 is a 10 round capacity .22LR revolver shown below.

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Six Million

• The Holocaust, also known by the Biblical word Shoah (which means calamity), was the mass murder or genocide of approximately six million Jews during World War II. Led by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, it was part of a program of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi Germany throughout German-occupied territory.
• Of the nine million Jews who had resided in Europe before the Holocaust, approximately two-thirds were killed. Over one million Jewish children were killed in the Holocaust, as were approximately two million Jewish women and three million Jewish men.
• Some scholars argue that the mass murder of the Romani and people with disabilities should be included in the definition, and some use the term “holocaust” to describe other mass murders, including those of Soviet prisoners of war, Polish and Soviet civilians, and homosexuals. Recent estimates based on figures obtained since the fall of the Soviet Union indicates some ten to eleven million civilians and prisoners of war were intentionally murdered by the Nazi regime.
• The persecution and genocide were carried out in stages. Various laws to remove the Jews from civil society, most prominently the Nuremberg Laws, were enacted in Germany years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentration camps were established in which inmates were subjected to slave labor until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where Germany conquered new territory in eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings. The occupiers required Jews and Romani to be confined in overcrowded ghettos before being transported by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, most were systematically killed in gas chambers. Every arm of Germany’s bureaucracy was involved in the logistics that led to the genocides, turning the Third Reich into what one Holocaust scholar has called “a genocidal state”.
• There are numerous Holocaust Memorials throughout the world, including in Jerusalem, Washington, and Berlin, Germany.

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• However, it was not the German Nazis, but the Croatian Ustase who were responsible for some of the most bloody and sadistic crimes carried out against the Orthodox population in Croatia. Some of their crimes so heinous that they even appalled the Nazis.
• The Ustaše committed their deeds in a bestial manner not only against males of conscript age, but especially against helpless old people, women and children. The number of the Orthodox that the Croats massacred and sadistically tortured to death has been estimated at approximately three hundred thousand.
• The legacy of the brutality of this genocidal campaign still affects the political situation in that part of Europe.

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• Think it could never happen again? Don’t be too sure. In 1994 in Rwanda, Africa somewhere in the region of one million people were murdered by the Interahamwe death squads in a genocidal campaign. Local officials assisted in rounding up victims and making suitable places available for their slaughter. Tutsi men, women, children and babies were killed in thousands in schools. They were also killed in churches with the collusion of some clergy. The victims, in their last moments alive, were also faced by another appalling fact, namely that their cold-blooded killers were people they knew – neighbors, work-mates, former friends, sometimes even relatives through marriage.

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Finally, other stuff

• There are said to be no more than ‘six degrees of separation’ between any two people on Earth.
• Extra-sensory perception is sometimes called the ‘sixth sense’.
• Six Cardinal Directions: north, south, east, west, up, and down.
• The number of sides on a cube, hence the highest number on a standard die.
• The highest number on one end of a standard domino.
• ‘Six’ is used as an informal slang term for the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, the one Ian Fleming’s fictious character James Bond works for.
• Six is the number of cans of soda or beer in a ‘six-pack’.
• A ‘six pack’ refers to the appearance of well developed stomach muscles.
• The term ‘six pack’ also refers to the number of fundamental flight instruments lumped together on a cockpit display.
• ‘Six Flags’ is the name of a series of amusement parks and theme parks.

• ‘Six of the best’ is a slang term for corporal punishment particularly in schools where the offending pupil was given six slaps with a cane.
• A ‘sixer’ is the name of the leader of the smallest group of Cub Scouts, traditionally consisting of six people.
• Six is the number of feet below ground level where a coffin is traditionally buried, thus also leading to the phrase ‘six feet under’ meaning that a person, or thing, or concept is dead.
• In the ancient Roman calendar, Sextilis was the sixth month. After the Julian reform, June became the sixth month and Sextilis was renamed August.
• Sextidi was the sixth day of the decade in the French Revolutionary calendar.
• ‘L’Hexagone’ is a French nickname for the continental part of Metropolitan France.
• A ‘hex nut’ is a nut with six sides, and a hex bolt has a six-sided head.
• On most phones, the 6 key is associated with the letters M, N, and O, but on the BlackBerry it is the key for J and K, and on the BlackBerry 8700 series and Curve 8900 with full keyboard, it is the key for F.
• The ‘6 meter band’ in amateur radio includes the frequencies from 50 to 54 MHz.
• 6 is the resin identification code used in recycling to identify polystyrene.
• In Astrology, Virgo is the 6th astrological sign of the Zodiac.
• There are six dots in a Braille cell.

• The Six Dynasties form part of Chinese history.
• 6 is a lucky number in Chinese culture.
• The unit of measurement used for the Great Pyramid was the inch and its sexagesimal multiples. The first multiple is the foot, 12 inches (2×6); and after this the rises are 18 (3 x 6), 24 (4×6), 30 (5 x 6), and 36 (6×6 or one yard).
• Natural time-spaces are also based on multiples of six, there are 12 months in a year, a day consists of 24 hours (4 x 6),  hours are 60 minutes (6×10), and minutes made up of 60 seconds (6×10).

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Significant Number Factoid Friday – 15 Fifteen

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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They’ve been ‘beautiful’,  they’ve been ‘big’  and they’ve been ‘unusual’.  Today we have another ‘significant’ number, fifteen, so-called because of their use and the beliefs surrounding it.

Enjoy.

 

15 Fifteen

The number fifteen is perhaps best known today because of Andy Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame statement.

 

Other facts about fifteen include,

• in mathematics fifteen is what is known as a triangular number, a hexagonal number, a pentatope number and the 4th Bell number;
• fifteen is the atomic number of phosphorus;
• 15 Madadgar is designated as an emergency number in Pakistan, for mobile phones, similar to the international GSM emergency number 112, if 112 is used in Pakistan, then the call is routed to 15;
• Passover begins on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan;
• in Spanish culture 15 is the age when a Hispanic girl celebrates her quinceañera;
• it is the number of days in each of the 24 cycles of the Chinese calendar;
• it is the number of guns in a gun salute to Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force Lieutenant Generals, and Navy and Coast Guard Vice Admirals;
• it is the number of checkers each side has at the start of a backgammon game;
• and it is the number corresponding to The Devil in tarot cards.

 

In sport,

• there are 15 players on the field in each rugby union team at any given time;
• in tennis, the number 15 represents the first point gained in a game;
• the jersey number 15 is worn by the starting fullback;
• the jersey number 15 has been retired by several North American sports teams in honor of past playing greats or other key figures: in Major League Baseball the New York Yankees, for Thurman Munson: in the NBA the Boston Celtics, for Hall of Famer Tom Heinsohn; the Dallas Mavericks, for Brad Davis; the Detroit Pistons, for Vinnie Johnson; the New York Knicks have retired the number twice, first for Dick McGuire, and then for Earl Monroe; the Philadelphia 76ers, for Hall of Famer Hal Greer; the Portland Trail Blazers, for Larry Steele: in the NHL: the Boston Bruins, for Hall of Famer Milt Schmidt: and in the NFL: the Green Bay Packers, for Hall of Famer Bart Starr; and the Philadelphia Eagles, for Hall of Famer Steve Van Buren.

 

In politics

• The 15^th President of the United States was Democratic Party candidate James Buchanan (1791–1868) who was in office from March 4, 1857 to March 4, 1861. His VP was John C. Breckinridge.
• He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor, and the last president born in the 18th century.

James Buchanan 15th President of the United States of America

 

• The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.

 

• Special Field Orders, No. 15 were military orders issued during the American Civil War, on January 16, 1865, by General William Tecumseh Sherman, commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi of the United States Army. They provided for the confiscation of 400,000 acres of land along the Atlantic coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida and the dividing of it into 40-acre parcels, on which were to be settled approximately 18,000 freed slave families and other Blacks then living in the area. Brig. Gen. Rufus Saxton, an abolitionist from Massachusetts who had previously organized the recruitment of black soldiers for the Union Army, was put in charge of implementing the orders. The orders had little concrete effect, as they were revoked in the fall of that same year by President Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln after his assassination.

 

Space Exploration

Apollo 15 was launched on July 26^th, 1971, and landed on July 30^th, 1971, at Hadley Rille. Splash Down was on August 7^th, 1971. The crew was David R. Scott, James B. Irwin and Alfred M. Worden. At the time, NASA called it the most successful manned flight ever achieved.

Apollo 15 was the ninth manned mission in the Apollo space program, the fourth to land on the Moon, and the eighth successful manned mission. It was the first of the longer “J Mission” expeditions to the moon, where the terrain was explored in some detail, and there was a much greater emphasis on science than had previously been possible.

The flight of Apollo 15 featured the first use of the Lunar Rover, which permitted Scott and Irwin to leave the Lunar Module “Falcon” behind and drive around over more than 27 kilometers of lunar ground.

The astronauts found and brought back the “Genesis Rock,”, a chunk of ancient lunar crust that has been extensively studied for clues about the origins of the moon and the Earth.

During the return flight aboard the Command Module “Endeavour,” Alfred Worden became the first man to perform a space walk outside of earth’s orbit as he went outside to retrieve some film from the side of the space craft.

Although the mission accomplished its objectives, this success was somewhat overshadowed by negative publicity that accompanied public awareness of postage stamps carried without authorization by the astronauts, who had made plans to sell them upon their return.

 

Militaria

F-15 Eagle

• The best known aircraft with this designation is the F-15 Eagle. It made its first flight in July 1972, and the first flight of the two-seat F-15B (formerly TF-15A) trainer was made in July 1973. The first Eagle (F-15B) was delivered in November 1974. In January 1976, the first Eagle destined for a combat squadron was delivered. The single-seat F-15C and two-seat F-15D models entered the Air Force inventory beginning in 1979.

F-15 Eagle

 

 

X-15

• The X-15 is perhaps the most ambitious aircraft ever created. It was built to push the limits of flight and explore the possibilities of space travel. During its research program the aircraft set unofficial world speed and altitude records of 4,520 mph (Mach 6.7 on Oct. 3, 1967, with Air Force pilot Pete Knight at the controls) and 354,200 ft (on Aug. 22, 1963, with NASA pilot Joseph Walker in the cockpit).
• In the course of its flight research, the X-15’s pilots and instrumentation yielded data for more than 765 research reports.
• The X-15 had no landing gear, but rather skidded to a stop in a 200 mph landing on skis. It had reaction controls for attitude control in space, and was a major step on the path toward space exploration. Much of what was learned on the X-15 was applied to the Space Shuttle.

The record breaking X-15

 

The AR-15

• With the exception of the Kalashnikov, the Armalite AR-15 is perhaps the best know assault rifle in the world. It is a lightweight, 5.56 mm, magazine-fed, semi-automatic rifle, with a rotating-lock bolt, actuated by direct impingement gas operation or long/short stroke piston operation. It is manufactured with the extensive use of aluminum alloys and synthetic materials.
• The AR-15 was first built by ArmaLite as a selective fire assault rifle for the United States armed forces. Because of financial problems, ArmaLite sold the AR-15 design to Colt. The select-fire AR-15 entered the US military system as the M16 rifle. Colt then marketed the Colt AR-15 as a semi-automatic version of the M16 rifle for civilian sales in 1963. The name “AR-15” is a Colt registered trademark, which refers only to the semi-automatic rifle.
• Unfortunately its characteristics also made it a favorite weapon of terrorist organizations.

AR15 assault rifle

15 Gun Salute

• A 15 gun salute is accorded to a 3-star General

 

 

The Plus 15 Skyway

The Plus 15 or +15 Skyway network in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is the world’s second most extensive pedestrian skywalk system, with a total length of 16 kilometers (9.9 miles) and 59 bridges. The system is so named because the skywalks are approximately 15 feet (approximately 4.5 metres) above street level. (Some Plus 15 skywalks are multi-level, with higher levels being referred to as +30s and +45s.)

The system was conceived and designed by architect Harold Hanen, who worked for the Calgary Planning Department from 1966 to 1969. It provides a pleasant alternative to the cold streets in the winters which can be harsh.

 

Plus 15 walkways, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

 

 

The 15 Puzzle

One of the most famous puzzles, the 15-puzzle (also called Gem Puzzle, Boss Puzzle, Game of Fifteen, Mystic Square and many others) is a sliding puzzle that consists of a frame of numbered square tiles in random order with one tile missing. The puzzle also exists in other sizes, particularly the smaller 8-puzzle. If the size is 3×3 tiles, the puzzle is called the 8-puzzle or 9-puzzle, and if 4×4 tiles, the puzzle is called the 15-puzzle or 16-puzzle named, respectively, for the number of tiles and the number of spaces. The object of the puzzle is to place the tiles in order (see diagram) by making sliding moves that use the empty space.

The 15 puzzle

 

 

And finally, The Church Choir

But one of the most unusual occurrences of the number concerns fifteen members of a church choir in Beatrice, Nebraska, due at practice at 7:20, were late on the evening of March 1, 1950.

• the minister, his wife and daughter were delayed while his wife ironed the daughter’s dress;
• another girl waited to finish a geometry problem for homework;
• one couldn’t start her car;
• two waited to hear the end of an exciting radio program;
• one mother and daughter were late because the mother had to call the daughter twice to wake her from a nap;

and so on.

All the reasons seemed ordinary. In total there were ten separate and quite unconnected reasons for the lateness of the fifteen persons.

It was rather fortunate that none of the fifteen arrived on time at 7:20, for at 7:25 the church building was destroyed in an explosion.

Life Magazine reported that the members of the choir wondered if their delay was “an act of God.”

The Mathematician Warren Weaver, in his book, ‘Lady Luck: The Theory of Probability’, calculates the staggering odds against chance for this event as about one in a million.

 

 

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