Remarkable Space and Music Milestones Celebrated

Quick Smiles:

• NEAR Shoemaker made history landing on asteroid Eros 433.
• George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue premiered 102 years ago.
• The 13th Dalai Lama and Charles Darwin were both born on this day.

Twenty-five years ago, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft became the first human-made object to orbit and land on asteroid Eros 433. The spacecraft spent a year studying Eros, gathering crucial data about its surface, density, and lack of magnetic field, and returned nearly 160,000 images.

Today also marks 102 years since George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue dazzled its first audience in New York City, blending classical and modern sounds into one of America’s most beloved concert works.

“It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer – I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise. … And there I suddenly heard, and even saw on paper – the complete construction of the rhapsody, from beginning to end… I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness.”

This date also celebrates Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, the foundation of the NAACP, and the start of construction on the Gateway Arch. Additionally, remarkable figures like Charles Darwin and the 13th Dalai Lama were born on this very day, making it a moment filled with inspiring achievements across science, music, and leadership.

Let’s savor these historical moments and look for today’s hidden reasons to smile!

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