June 24 - June 30: Pilot Kenneth Arnold witnesses nine strange objects flying through the sky like 'saucers skipping across the surface of water' - Helen Keller is born, soon to be struck with illness leaving her blind and deaf - and a new and deadly virus kills a factory worker in Nzara, Sudan.
June 24, 1947
Kenneth Arnold with an illustration of one of the objects. Kenneth Arnold, a private pilot, was flying near Mt Rainier, Washington, when he spotted several unusual objects flying through the sky.
He described them as being flat like a pie pan, saucer like, with a bite taken out of the back forming a half moon shape with a small triangle shape attached to the rear. Their motion was described as being similar to a saucer being skipped across the surface of water.
And they were fast, very fast. He estimated that they were travelling of speeds up to 1200 mph, much faster than any known man made aircraft.
The story hit the media and soon many people were reporting seeing similar objects in the sky. With many accounts being published in the various papers across the country soon the press coined the term 'flying saucer' to describe the objects.
The US Air Force would go on to state that what Kenneth Arnold and others were seeing was just a mirage. Still a new boom had hit popular culture, and although it was not the first reported incdent of strange objects in the sky, the era of the UFO in the publics attention had arrived.
He described them as being flat like a pie pan, saucer like, with a bite taken out of the back forming a half moon shape with a small triangle shape attached to the rear. Their motion was described as being similar to a saucer being skipped across the surface of water.
And they were fast, very fast. He estimated that they were travelling of speeds up to 1200 mph, much faster than any known man made aircraft.
The story hit the media and soon many people were reporting seeing similar objects in the sky. With many accounts being published in the various papers across the country soon the press coined the term 'flying saucer' to describe the objects.
The US Air Force would go on to state that what Kenneth Arnold and others were seeing was just a mirage. Still a new boom had hit popular culture, and although it was not the first reported incdent of strange objects in the sky, the era of the UFO in the publics attention had arrived.
June 27, 1880
A young Helen Keller with Anne Sullivan. On this day Helen Keller is born in the Keller family home in Tuscombia, Alabama. She was born a normal, healthy child but at 19mths she took ill, probably meningitis or scarlet fever. When she had recovered from the illness she was left both blind and deaf.
This loss of the ability to communicate was very traumatic for the family and it was thought her quality of life would be much hindered as she would not be able to develop as a normal child and her interactions with the world would be severely limited.
However Keller was soon found to be able to communicate with the daughter of the families cook, through a very rudimentary form of sign language and by the age of seven she had developed more than 60 signs in which to communicate with family and friends.
Her mother sent her along with her father to seek out a throat, nose, ear and eye specialist for further advice on helping Helen to develop these communication skills. The doctor referred Helen to Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, who was working with deaf children. It was at about this time that Helen Keller began formal education under the guidance of 20yr old Anne Sullivan.
Sullivan began to teach Anne by spelling words into her hand. At first Keller did not understand that every object had its own word and became frustrated. However it was after one month, while Sullivan ran water over one of Kellers hands while spelling 'water' into the other that she realised the concept of spelling and words.
Soon Keller learned hundreds, thousands of words, went to several schools for the deaf, the Cambridge School for Young Ladies and then Radcliffe College where she graduated with honors at age 24.
This loss of the ability to communicate was very traumatic for the family and it was thought her quality of life would be much hindered as she would not be able to develop as a normal child and her interactions with the world would be severely limited.
However Keller was soon found to be able to communicate with the daughter of the families cook, through a very rudimentary form of sign language and by the age of seven she had developed more than 60 signs in which to communicate with family and friends.
Her mother sent her along with her father to seek out a throat, nose, ear and eye specialist for further advice on helping Helen to develop these communication skills. The doctor referred Helen to Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, who was working with deaf children. It was at about this time that Helen Keller began formal education under the guidance of 20yr old Anne Sullivan.
Sullivan began to teach Anne by spelling words into her hand. At first Keller did not understand that every object had its own word and became frustrated. However it was after one month, while Sullivan ran water over one of Kellers hands while spelling 'water' into the other that she realised the concept of spelling and words.
Soon Keller learned hundreds, thousands of words, went to several schools for the deaf, the Cambridge School for Young Ladies and then Radcliffe College where she graduated with honors at age 24.
Helen Keller. She soon learnt to speak, an incredible achievement as she could not see or hear people talking, learned to read lips with her fingers, sign language with her hands and listen to music by feeling vibrations resonating through tabletops.
She married in 1905, and due to her health beginning to fail in 1914 hired a house keeper, Polly Thompson who became a constant companion. All the while Anne Sullivan, her teacher and friend stayed by her until Sullivan died in 1936 – Keller holding her hand.
Keller became a world famous speaker, author, advocate for people with disabilities and suffragist. She would go on to visit over 40 countries, meet 15 US presidents and become friends with many famous people ranging from Charlie Chaplin to Mark Twain (who quite admired her).
She wrote several books including a childrens book when she was just 11 years old.
In the 1960's Keller suffered from several strokes and on June 1, 1968 passed away in her sleep at home in Connecticut. She was aged 87 and her ashes were placed in the National Cathedral, Washington DC, alongside her friends Anne Sullivan and Polly Thompson.
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart. "
Helen Keller.
She married in 1905, and due to her health beginning to fail in 1914 hired a house keeper, Polly Thompson who became a constant companion. All the while Anne Sullivan, her teacher and friend stayed by her until Sullivan died in 1936 – Keller holding her hand.
Keller became a world famous speaker, author, advocate for people with disabilities and suffragist. She would go on to visit over 40 countries, meet 15 US presidents and become friends with many famous people ranging from Charlie Chaplin to Mark Twain (who quite admired her).
She wrote several books including a childrens book when she was just 11 years old.
In the 1960's Keller suffered from several strokes and on June 1, 1968 passed away in her sleep at home in Connecticut. She was aged 87 and her ashes were placed in the National Cathedral, Washington DC, alongside her friends Anne Sullivan and Polly Thompson.
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart. "
Helen Keller.
June 27, 1976
A nurse inspecting graves of those who fell to Ebola Zaire. In Nzara township, Sudan, a storekeeper at a cotton factory becomes ill. Within the week he is dead.
So begins the worlds first Ebola Virus epidemic.
The store keeper will at first felt flu like symptoms, lethargy, fever, chills and chest pain. Nausea will have followed. Soon abdominal pains, diarrhoea and vomiting will have closed him in their grip. His throat will have felt like it was on fire, severe headaches will have been felt crushingly in his skull then confusion and coma.
A rash will have presented itself followed by bleeding from some or all orifices – mouth, nose, eyes, ears... and worse. Soon the body will have suffered from multiple organ failure causing death.
A nasty virus indeed and before this epidemic was finished 284 cases will have been reported with a fatality rate of about 53%.
Soon after the storekeeper died a second man in the same town died, followed by his brother and then the brothers co-worker... the co-workers wife soon died thereafter, then a neighbour who would unbeknownst to him infect another 48 people.
Hospital workers who came in contact with the infected soon became sick themselves, 33 dying from the virus.
The World Health Organisation sent teams into the infected zone and set up quarantine containing the epidemic.
So begins the worlds first Ebola Virus epidemic.
The store keeper will at first felt flu like symptoms, lethargy, fever, chills and chest pain. Nausea will have followed. Soon abdominal pains, diarrhoea and vomiting will have closed him in their grip. His throat will have felt like it was on fire, severe headaches will have been felt crushingly in his skull then confusion and coma.
A rash will have presented itself followed by bleeding from some or all orifices – mouth, nose, eyes, ears... and worse. Soon the body will have suffered from multiple organ failure causing death.
A nasty virus indeed and before this epidemic was finished 284 cases will have been reported with a fatality rate of about 53%.
Soon after the storekeeper died a second man in the same town died, followed by his brother and then the brothers co-worker... the co-workers wife soon died thereafter, then a neighbour who would unbeknownst to him infect another 48 people.
Hospital workers who came in contact with the infected soon became sick themselves, 33 dying from the virus.
The World Health Organisation sent teams into the infected zone and set up quarantine containing the epidemic.
Graves hastily being dug. Soon thereafter reports of the virus stopped.
However other outbreaks of Ebola virus have occurred on the African continent, several different strains have been discovered with Ebola Zaire having one of the highest lethality rates – 88% in the 1970s.
Today it is still not known why the virus keeps popping up or how to cure it. Cases of Ebola have occurred as recently as 2012, luckily they have proven to be easy to localise and isolate – quarantining those with the virus being a sure fire way to halt it in its tracks by preventing it being passed on through contact with a victims blood and other bodily fluids..
It was thought to be transmitted through contact but recently (2012) Canadian scientists have found a evolved, deadlier form of the virus - one that can be transmitted through the air and capable of crossing between species.
However other outbreaks of Ebola virus have occurred on the African continent, several different strains have been discovered with Ebola Zaire having one of the highest lethality rates – 88% in the 1970s.
Today it is still not known why the virus keeps popping up or how to cure it. Cases of Ebola have occurred as recently as 2012, luckily they have proven to be easy to localise and isolate – quarantining those with the virus being a sure fire way to halt it in its tracks by preventing it being passed on through contact with a victims blood and other bodily fluids..
It was thought to be transmitted through contact but recently (2012) Canadian scientists have found a evolved, deadlier form of the virus - one that can be transmitted through the air and capable of crossing between species.
Ashley Hall 2013
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