Hirschi Law Group PLLC

August 25 - 31

This Week in History 
Where No Man Has Gone  

Saturn August 25, 1981 - The Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Saturn. Eight years later on this same day in 1989, it made its closest approach to Neptune, the outer most planet in our Solar System. Originally launched on August 20, 1977, the mission of Voyager 2 was to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Voyager 2 has been in operation for over 34 years, continuously receiving commands and transmitting data back to the Deep Space Network. Currently Voyager 2 is approximately 8,883,248,670 miles from Earth. Data transmitted from Voyager 2 takes 13.23 hours traveling at the speed of light to reach home. Voyager 2's sister-craft, Voyager 1, is the farthest man made object in the universe from Earth, currently 10,949,168,700 miles away, traveling at a speed of 38,200 miles per hour. You can follow Voyager 2's travels on Twitter.  

 
Long Winded      

 

August 28, 1957 - U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, a vehement opponent of racial desegregation, began a filibuster to prevent the Senate from voting on the Civil Rights Act of 1957. A filibuster is a parliamentary procedure designed to extend debate and delay a vote on a particular bill. Under Senate rules any Senator, or group of Senators, may extend debate indefinitely unless a vote for cloture is passed, which requires 60 votes. Thurmond's filibuster lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes and was the longest ever conducted by a single Senator. During his filibuster Thurmond discussed a variety of irrelevant and obscure topics including his grandmother's biscuit recipe.  

 

Something to Scream About 

 

Scream Painting August 31, 2006 - Norwegian police recovered Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream, which had been stolen two years earlier from the Munch Museum in Oslo by two masked gunmen. Police also recovered Munch's Madonna, which had been stolen at the same time. Both paintings suffered damage that has since been repaired. During his life Munch created four versions of The Scream in various media. Another version of the painting was stolen from Norway's National Gallery in 1994 at the start of the Lillehammer Olympics.  

 
"For my own part, I declare I know nothing whatever about it, but looking at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?"

 

-- Vincent van Gogh

Side Note

Both Voyager spacecrafts carry gold-plated audio-visual discs in the event that either craft is ever found by intelligent life forms. The discs carry photos of the Earth and its life forms; a range of scientific information; spoken greetings from various leaders; and a medley of Earth's sounds. Pretty much everything Aliens would need to know about our planet before invading.

Mars Attacks!

 

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