Earth To The Moon

January 4: The Texas Longhorns quarterbacked by Vince Young defeat the Trojans of the University of Southern California 41 to 38 for the college football national championship.

January 10: Iran breaks the United Nations seals on its nuclear facility, vowing to restart its nuclear research program.

January 19: The New Horizons spacecraft is launched on a mission to Pluto. It will take over nine years to reach Pluto and travel over 3 billion miles during its journey.

January 31: The US Senate votes 58-42 to confirm Samuel Alito as an associate justice to the US Supreme Court. Alito replaces the retiring Sandra Day O'Conner.

February 5: The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Seattle Seahawks 21-10 to win Superbowl XL.

February 11: US Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shoots his hunting partner lawyer Harry Whittington while hunting for quail.

February 22: A terrorist attack destroys the golden dome of the most revered Shiite shrine in Iraq.

March 3: Former congressman Randy Cunningham is sentence to 8 years in prison for taking bribes from military contractors.

March 10: Scientists report that the Cassini spacecraft has taken photographs of what appear to be water geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus.

March 11: Former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic dies of a heart attack in his prison cell. Milosevic was on trial at The Hague for war crimes.

March 29: Ismail Haniya, leader of the terrorist group Hamas is sworn in as the Palestinian Prime Minister.

April 4: Deposed Iraqi dictator is charge with crimes of genocide for a campaign that killed over 50,000 Iraqi Kurds and over 2,000 villages in an attempt to wipe out the Kurdish population.

April 19: Mary, Lexie, and I fly to Miami, Florida. We are going diving with Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpenter down to the Jules Verne Lodge off Key Largo, Florida. I have called this adventure the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation Expedition 1. For my account of this adventure follow the ASF EXP 1 A link. The adventure is told on three web pages, ASF EXP 1 A, ASF EXP 1 B, and ASF EXP 1 C.

May 3: Terrorist Zacarius Moussaoui is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his part in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.

May 25: Former Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling are convicted of fraud and conspiracy.

May 27: Approximately 5,570 people are killed by an Indonesian 6.3 magnitude earthquake. Over 500,000 people are left homeless.

May 28: Sam Hornish Jr. wins the 90th running of the Indianapolis 500.

June 8: Terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is killed in an air strike 5 miles North of Baquba, Iraq. Zarqawi was the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq and was blamed for killing thousands of Iraqis and US soldiers.

June 15: Bill Gates the chairman of Microsoft announces that he will step aside from day to day operations in 2 years to concentrate instead on philanthropic efforts with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

June 20: The Miami Heat defeat the Dallas Mavericks 4 games to 2 to win the 2006 NBA championship.

June 30: Mary, Lexie, Wayland, and I fly to Florida for the STS-121 launch attempt. That night we have a private dinner with Al Worden at Bernard's Surf in Cocoa Beach. For my account of our dinner follow the Cocoa Beach link.

July 1: NASA scrubs the STS-121 launch attempt on Saturday. I sing Karaoke with Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot Al Worden. For my account of these events follow the 121 Scrub #1 link.

July 2: NASA scrubs the STS-121 launch attempt on Sunday. For my account of this event follow the 121 Scrub #2 link.

July 4: NASA launches space shuttle Discover on STS-121 on another mission to continue the construction of the International Space Station. My wife, two of our grandchildren, and me watch the launch from the Banana Creek VIP site at the Kennedy Space Center. For my account of this event follow that STS-121 link.

July 10: Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev is killed by an explosion conducted by Russian security forces. Basayev was responsible for organizing the 2002 Moscow theater seizure and the Beslan 2004 school seizure.

July 11: More than 200 people die on trains in Mumbai, India from a series of terrorist bombs.

July 12: Hezbollah guerrillas abduct 2 Israeli soldiers and kill 3 others igniting a month long war between Israeli and guerrillas in Southern Lebanon.

July 17: Space shuttle Discovery returns to earth after a 13 day construction mission to the International Space Station. 3 EVAs were conducted during the mission.

July 27: The crimes against humanity trial of deposed Iraqi dictator Sadaam Hussein is completed.

August 10: A terrorist plot in Britain is stopped when British authorities arrest 24 British born Muslims. The plot involved using liquids to blow up passenger airliners.

August 24: Pluto loses its status as a planet. The International Astronomical Union votes to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet.

September 5: Felipe Calderón is declared the winner by the Federal Electoral Tribunal of Mexico's July 2 presidential election.

September 9: NASA launches space shuttle Atlantis on STS-115. This is the first launch of Atlantis in nearly 4 years. The crew consisted of astronauts Brett W. Jett, Jr., Christopher J. Ferguson, Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper Joseph R. Tanner, Daniel C. Burbank, and Steven G. MaClean. 3 EVAs were conducted on this space station construction mission.

September 19: Thailand's military ousts Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra with a bloodless coup.

September 21: Space shuttle Atlantis successful lands at the Kennedy Space Center after the completion of its 12 day mission on STS-115.

September 29: Republican Congressman Mark Foley steps down from the US House of Representatives after reports come out of his involvement in sending sexual explicit text messages to teenage male Congressional pages.

September 28: Mary, Lexie, and I are in Key Largo Florida for three days of scuba diving with Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot Al Worden. I have called this Astronaut Scholarship Foundation Expedition 2. For my account of this adventure follow the ASF EXP 1 A link. The adventure is told on five web pages, ASF EXP 2 A, ASF EXP 2 B, ASF EXP 2 C, ASF EXP 2 D, and ASF EXP 2 E.

October 2: Charles Roberts IV, a deranged man, kills 5 girls and injures 5 others at an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.

October 9: North Korea is reported to have conducted a nuclear weapons test.

October 19: The Dow Jones Industrial average tops 12,000 for the first time in the stock index's 110 year history.

November 5: Iraqi dictator Sadaam Hussein is sentenced to death by hanging for crimes against humanity.

November 7: Democrats seize control of both houses of United States Congress in the midterm elections.

November 8: US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resigns from the Bush cabinet. President Bush nominates former chief of the CIA, Robert Gates, to succeed Rumsfeld.

November 19: Jimmie Johnson wins the 2006 Nextel Cup for his first Nascar championship.

December 9: NASA launches space shuttle Discover on STS-116 with the first night launch conducted in 4 years. It is another mission to continue the construction of the International Space Station. This will be the last space shuttle to launch from launch pad 39-B My wife, two of our grandchildren, and me watch the launch from the Banana Creek VIP site at the Kennedy Space Center. For my photos and story of this launch follow the STS-116 link.

December 3: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is reelected president of Venezuela defeating Manuel Rosales 61% to 38%.

December 4: NASA announces plans to build a manned base on the Moon. Construction of the base is to begin after the year 2020.

December 30: Deposed Iraqi dictator Sadaam Hussein is put to death by hanging after having been sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.