Apollo 12 Launches from Cape Canaveral - This Day in History – Nov 14th

Back in 1969, the three NASA Astronauts: Alan L. Bean, Charles Conrad, Jr.; Richard F. Gordon, Jr.; liftoff from Pad A at Cape Canaveral, FL in the space ship Apollo 12.  Even though their Saturn 5 launch rocket was struck by lightning, their computers were able to adjust to this predicament of the circuit breakers.

According to history.com, “On November 19, the landing module Intrepid made a precision landing on the northwest rim of the moon's Ocean of Storms. About five hours later, astronauts Conrad and Bean became the third and fourth humans to walk on the surface of the moon. During the next 32 hours, the two astronauts made two lunar walks, where they collected lunar samples and investigated the Surveyor 3 spacecraft, an unmanned U.S. probe that soft-landed on the moon in 1967. On November 24, Apollo 12 successfully returned to Earth, splashing down only three miles from one of its retrieval ships, the USS Hornet.”

Writer, Herman Melville’s classic, Mob-Dick is published

Back in 1851, the publishers of Harper & Brothers of New York approved the novel of writer, Herman Melville’s story of Moby-Dick and the voyage of Captain Ahab’s quest among the whaling ship, the Pequod.  This book is famous with one of it’s famous opening lines of, “Call me Ishmael.”

The writer of this book was an expert of whaling ships because according to history.com, “Herman Melville was born in New York City in 1819 and as a young man spent time in the merchant marines, the U.S. Navy and on a whaling ship in the South Seas.” 

Mr. Melville had written a few successful novels before Moby-Dick.  For instance, he had written “Typee” a romantic adventure within Polynesia and “Omoo” a sequel to Typee.  The novel, Moby-Dick was considered a flop in literary terms due to its dark storyline.  

Mr. Melville income suffered after his bad reviews of Moby-Dick, according to history.com,  “After Moby-Dick's disappointing reception, Melville continued to produce novels, short stories (Bartleby) and poetry, but writing wasn't paying the bills so in 1865 he returned to New York to work as a customs inspector, a job he held for 20 years.

Melville died in 1891, largely forgotten by the literary world. By the 1920s, scholars had rediscovered his work, particularly Moby-Dick, which would eventually become a staple of high school reading lists across the United States. Billy Budd, Melville's final novel, was published in 1924, 33 years after his death.”

All History facts provided from the link below:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/last-day-for-texas-celebrated-drive-in-pig-stands?catId=17