Claims that the Great Wall is visible from the Moon were printed in 1932, 37 years before anyone got there.
Astronauts saw no such thing: the wall is too narrow, and hard to spot even from low orbit.
The events
- Great Wall of Chinac. 214 BC · Northern China. Qin Shi Huang ordered the border walls of the former states joined into one line against the Xiongnu nomads, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives. Later dynasties, above all the Ming, rebuilt it, and with all its branches it exceeds 20,000 km.
- Moon landing1969 · Cape Canaveral. Apollo 11 launched from Cape Canaveral on 16 July 1969, and on 20 July Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the Moon while Michael Collins stayed in orbit. The landing was the climax of the space race.
More amazing facts
- 1931 · 1973 The Empire State Building went up in 13.5 months; the Sydney Opera House opened 16 years after its design contest.
- 1932 The Emu War was the idea of World War I veterans.
- 1932 LEGO means 'play well' in Danish.
- 1932 The commander of the Emu War admired the enemy.
- 1933 · 1983 Earth's lowest temperature was measured at a Soviet Antarctic station: −89.2 °C at Vostok on 21 July 1983.
- 1933 · 1938 The chain reaction was conceived to spite Rutherford.