On this day in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created. The US Congress was spurred to create the federal agency by the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik, the first orbital satellite. Two of the goals were to expand human knowledge of the Earth’s atmosphere and space, and the improvement of space vehicles. It consistently places as the most popular government agency. READ More… (1958)
Last year, GNN reported on the toolkit of patience and garden rakes needed to get through the 100 million-strong crab migration season on Christmas Island.
Taiwan, itself also an island, has found that a healthy dose of compassion and basic materials can protect its own crabs during migration, running from July to September.
Internet access has increased 20-fold and broadband costs have fallen by 99% on the archipelago of Micronesia thanks to the ending of government monopoly in the sector.
Protection and conservation programs have recorded a banner year for the eastern imperial eagle, as majestic a bird as you’re likely to see in Europe, and the national bird of Serbia.
High schools funded and/or managed by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) have achieved the highest average graduation rates yet recorded in its history.
8 high schools saw every senior in the 2025/26 class graduate, while another 13 high schools achieved graduation rates of 90% or higher.
133 years ago today, the Vizcaya Bridge, Spain’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site of industrial heritage was completed. Spanning the two banks situated at the mouth of the Nervion River, connecting the towns of Portugalete and Las Arenas, it is the world’s oldest transporter bridge, using a 6-car gondola suspended on steel cables to ferry people and vehicles across the water without disrupting maritime traffic. READ how it was built, and how it works… (1893)
Submitted By Jeff G. Rottman
About 80 miles east of San Angelo, Texas, a young astrophotographer named Bray Falls is running one of the largest ‘telescope ranches’ on Earth.
Stargazers from around the world ship their telescope gear to Bray, who hosts hundreds of them on his 40 acres of gently rolling terrain near Rockwood.
As soon as Aleksander Wolszczan confirmed the observation of the first planet outside of our solar system, he immediately reasoned that thousands more would be discovered in the coming decades.
From China’s Anhui Province comes a story that reminds us it’s never too late to learn.
71-year-old Liu Defang remembers chatting with her friends while out one day near a bridge in her hometown in Suixi County. She suddenly heard someone shout that a man had fallen into the water.
For the 4th year in a row, Indian grey hornbills have successfully bred in Gujarat state where they’d been absent for more than 50 years.
Despite being listed as a species of “Least Concern” by the IUCN, the animal has habitat requirements that can see it quickly succumb to displacement.
86 years ago today, Bugs Bunny, the wisecracking Warner Bros cartoon character, first debuted in an animated short entitled A Wild Hare. Supervised by Fred ‘Tex’ Avery, it featured a hunter named Elmer Fudd pursuing a wily rabbit voiced by Mel Blanc. The pair became beloved, and their debut received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short. WATCH the opening scene and learn more… (1940)
Off the coast of Catalina Island for 15 years, the fishing vessel Midnight Hour has sat on the ocean floor—its sunken wreckage becoming a tangle of abandoned fishing nets, the kind that drift in the current while trapping debris—and marine life.
