On July 24, 1304 King Edward I of England captured the last stronghold of resistance against English rule in Scotland, the formidable Stirling Castle. But he did not have to storm the castle to make the defenders surrender. He merely had to threaten them with perhaps the most terrifying siege engine in the era before gunpowder.
On August 12, 1977 the space shuttle Enterprise made its first free flight. That is, it was detached from its Boeing 747 "Shuttle Carrier Aircraft” and let fly. It is difficult to wrap my mind around the fact that this vehicle that once was, to me, the symbol of the future is now, itself, history. That is, perhaps, as ironic as the fact that the First Space Shuttle, Enterprise, never went to space.