logo

Video encyclopedia

Flashback calendar

Jet Man flies across English Channel on wing

In 2008, leaping from a helicopter at an altitude of 8,200 feet over Calais, France, Yves Rossy crossed the English Channel with a single jet-powered wing strapped on his back, wearing only a helmet and a flight suit for protection. Reaching speeds of over 125 miles per hour, he made the 22-mile flight to England in 13 minutes.

Biosphere 2 experiment starts

Biosphere 2 was built as an artificial, materially closed ecological system, or vivarium. Its crew were four men and four women. During their stay, the crew experienced many problems. Limited agricultural productivity restricted their diet. Micro-organisms in the soil reduced oxygen levels in the atmosphere and added nitrous oxide.

Albert Einstein publishes his first paper on the theory of relativity

Albert Einstein published the theory of special relativity in 1905, building on many theoretical results and empirical findings obtained by Albert A. Michelson, Hendrik Lorentz, Henri Poincaré and others. Einstein developed general relativity between 1907 and 1915. The final form of general relativity was published in 1916.

Francis Drake returns after second circumnavigation in history

Drake’s galleon, the Golden Hind, anchored in Plymouth with Drake and his 59 remaining crewmen aboard. The ship was full of spices and captured Spanish treasures. Golden Hind was second vessel to complete the circumnavigation. First was Spanish carrack Victoria, captained first by Ferdinand Magellan and later by Juan Sebastián Elcano.

Anniversaries of the (in)famous