Crew

M. Scott Carpenter Backup crew

Mass: 1,352 kg
Perigee: 159 km
Apogee: 265 km
Inclination: 32.5°
Period: 88.5 min Mission parameters
The Mercury 6 mission was the first attempt by the U.S. and Mercury program to place an astronaut in orbit. The MA-6 mission was launched on February 20, 1962, from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The flight used Atlas # 109-D and Mercury spacecraft # 13. The spacecraft was named Friendship 7. It made three earth orbits, piloted by astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. (The Soviets had already placed a cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, in orbit on Vostok 1 in April 12, 1961 and Gherman Titov in August 6, 1961)
After the successful completion of the Mercury 5 flight that carried Enos the Chimp in late November, 1961, a press conference was held in early December, 1961. Reporters asked NASA's Robert Gilruth who would be the first U.S. astronaut in orbit, piloting Mercury 6. He then announced the team members for the next two Mercury missions. John H. Glenn was the selected as prime pilot for the first mission (Mercury 6), with M. Scott Carpenter as his backup. Donald K. Slayton and Walter M. Schirra were pilot and backup, respectively, for the second mission, Mercury 7.
The Mercury 6 launch vehicle, Atlas #109-D, arrived at Cape Canaveral the evening of November 30, 1961. NASA had wanted to launch Mercury 6 in 1961 (hoping to orbit an astronaut in the same calendar year as the Soviets did), but by early December it was apparent that the mission hardware would not be ready for launch until early 1962.
Mercury spacecraft # 13 began taking form on McDonnell's St. Louis, Missouri assembly line in May 1960. It was chosen for the MA-6 mission in October, 1960 and delivered to Cape Canaveral on August 27, 1961. Mercury spacecraft # 13 and Atlas # 109-D were stacked on the pad at Launch Complex 14 on January 2, 1962.
The launch date was first announced as January 16, 1962, then postponed to January 23 because of problems with the Atlas rocket fuel tanks. The launch then slipped day by day to January 27 because of weather. On January 27, 1962, John Glenn had been onboard Mercury 6 and ready to launch, when at T-20 minutes, the flight directory called off the launch because of the heavy overcast. The heavy cloud cover would have prevented the necessary photo coverage of the launch.
The launch was postponed until February 1, 1962. When technicians began to fuel the Atlas on January 30, they discovered a fuel leak had soaked an internal insulation blanket between the fuel and oxidizer tanks of the rocket. This caused a two week delay while necessary repairs were made. On February 15, the launch was again postponed due to weather. Finally on February 19, the weather started to break. It appeared that February 20, 1962 would be a favorable day to attempt a launch.
John Glenn boarded the Friendship 7 spacecraft at 11:03 UTC on February 20, 1962. The hatch was bolted in place at 12:10 UTC. Most of the 70 hatch bolts had been secured, when one was discovered to be broken. This caused a 40 minute delay while all the bolts were removed, the defective bolt was replaced and the hatch was re-bolted in place.
At 14:47 UTC, after two hours and 17 minutes of holds and three hours and 44 minutes after Glenn entered Friendship 7, it was finally launched. At liftoff Glenn's pulse rate climbed to 110.
Thirty seconds after liftoff the General Electric-Burroughs guidance system locked onto a radio transponder in the booster to guide the vehicle to orbit. As the Atlas and Friendship 7 passed through Max Q Glenn reported, "It's a little bumpy about here." After Max Q the flight smoothed out. At two minutes and 14 seconds after launch, the booster engines cut off and dropped away. Then at two minutes and twenty-four seconds, the escape tower was jettisoned, right on schedule.
After the tower was jettisoned, the Atlas and spacecraft pitched over still further, giving Glenn his first view of the horizon. He described the view as "a beautiful sight, looking eastward across the Atlantic." Vibration increased as the last of the fuel supply was used up. At SECO it was found that the Atlas had accelerated the capsule to a velocity only 7 ft/s (2 m/s) below nominal. At 14:52 UTC, Friendship 7 was in orbit. Glenn received word that the Atlas had boosted the MA-6 into a trajectory that would stay up for at least seven orbits. Meanwhile, computers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland indicated that the MA-6 orbital parameters appeared good enough for almost 100 orbits.
When the posigrade rockets fired and separated the capsule from the booster, the five-second rate-damping operation started two and a half seconds late. This caused a substantial roll error as the capsule began its turnaround. The automatic attitude control system took 38 seconds to place the Friendship 7 into its proper orbital attitude. The turnaround maneuver used 5.4 pounds (2.4 kg) of fuel from a total supply of 60.4 pounds (27.4 kg) (36 lb (16.3 kg) for automatic and 24.4 lb (11.1 kg) for manual control system). The spacecraft then settled into orbital flight with a velocity of 17,544 mph (7,843 m/s).
Friendship 7 began its first orbit with all systems go. It crossed the Atlantic and passed over the Canary Islands. Controllers there reported all capsule systems in perfect working order. Looking at the African coastline, and later the interior over Kano, Nigeria, Glenn told the tracking station team that he could see a dust storm. Kano flight communicators replied that the winds had been quite heavy for the past week.
Over Kano, Nigeria, Glenn took control of the spacecraft and started a major yaw adjustment. He allowed the spacecraft to continue the yaw maneuver until it was facing into its flight path. Glenn noticed that the attitude indicators disagreed with what he observed were the true spacecraft attitudes. Even with the incorrect instrument readouts, he was pleased to be facing forward instead of backward on his orbital path.
Over the Indian Ocean on his first orbit, Glenn observed his first sunset from orbit. He described the moment of twilight as "beautiful." Space sky was very black, he said, with a thin band of blue along the horizon. Glenn described the sunset. The sun went down fast but not as quickly as he had expected. For five or six minutes there was a slow reduction in light intensity. Brilliant orange and blue layers spread out 45 to 60 degrees on either side of the sun, tapering gradually toward the horizon. Clouds prevented him from seeing a mortar flare fired by the Indian Ocean tracking ship as part of a pilot observation experiment.
Continuing his journey on the night side of Earth, nearing the Australian coastline, Glenn made star, weather, and landmark observations. He failed to see the dim light phenomenon known as zodiacal light. His eyes had not had sufficient time to adapt to the darkness.
The spacecraft came into radio range of Muchea, Australia. At the Mercury Tracking Station there, Gordon Cooper was the capsule communicator. Glenn reported that he felt fine and had no problems. He saw a very bright light and what appeared to be the outline of a city. Cooper said that he probably was looking at the lights of Perth and Rockingham. This turned out to be correct; many people in Perth turned on their lights so as to be visible to Glenn as he passed over. "That sure was a short day," he excitedly told Cooper. "That was about the shortest day I've ever run into."
The spacecraft moved across Australia and across the Pacific to Canton Island. Glenn experienced a short 45 minute night and prepared the periscope for viewing his first sunrise in orbit. As the sun rose over Canton Island, he saw thousands of "little specks, brilliant specks, floating around outside the capsule." Glenn had the impression that the spacecraft was tumbling or that he was looking into a star field. A quick hard look out of the spacecraft window corrected this momentary illusion. He definitely thought the "fireflies," as he called the small objects, were streaming past his spacecraft from ahead. They seemed to flow by slowly but did not seem to be coming from any part of the spacecraft. As Friendship 7 moved into brighter sunlight, the "fireflies" disappeared. They were probably small ice crystals venting from onboard spacecraft systems.
As the spacecraft crossed the Kauai, Hawaii tracking station, Glenn noticed a lot of interference on the HF radio band. As he crossed the Pacific coast of North America the tracking station at Guaymas, Mexico, informed Mercury Control in Florida that a yaw thruster was causing attitude control problems. Glenn later recalled, this problem "was to stick with me for the rest of the flight."
Glenn noticed the control problem when the automatic stabilization and control system allowed the spacecraft to drift about a degree and a half per second to the right. Glenn switched control to manual-proportional control mode and moved Friendship 7 back to the proper attitude. He tried different control modes to see which used the least fuel to maintain attitude. The manual fly-by-wire combination used the least fuel. After about twenty minutes the yaw thruster began working again and Glenn switched back to the automatic control system. It worked for a short time and then began having problems again, this time with the opposite yaw thruster. He then switched back to the manual fly-by-wire system and flew the spacecraft in that mode for the remainder of the flight.
As Friendship 7 crossed Cape Canaveral at the start of its second orbit, a flight controller noticed that "Segment 51", a sensor providing data on the spacecraft landing system, was giving a strange reading. According to the reading, the heat shield and landing bag were no longer locked in position. If this were the case, the heat shield was only being held against the spacecraft by the straps of the retro package. Mercury Control ordered all tracking sites to monitor "Segment 51" closely and advise Glenn that the landing-bag deploy switch should be in the "off" position.
Glenn was not immediately aware of the problem, but he became suspicious when site after site asked him to make sure that the landing-bag deploy switch was off. Meanwhile Friendship 7 was crossing the Atlantic for the second time. Glenn was busy manually keeping the spacecraft attitude correct and also trying to accomplish as many of the flight plan tasks as he could.
Crossing over the Canary Islands, Glenn observed that the "fireflies" outside the spacecraft had no connection with gas from the reaction control jets. His suit temperature felt too warm, but he didn't take time to adjust it. The Kano, Nigeria and Zanzibar sites suddenly noticed a 12 percent drop in the spacecraft secondary oxygen supply.
During his second pass over the Indian Ocean, Glenn found that the Indian Ocean tracking ship was in heavy weather. Instead of releasing balloons for a pilot observation experiment, the ship fired star-shell parachute flares as Friendship 7 passed overhead. Glenn only was able to observe the flashes of lightning from storms in the area.
The temperature in Glenn's spacesuit was too warm. It had been since he passed over the Canary Islands, earlier in the second orbit. As he crossed the Indian Ocean he tried to adjust the suit temperature. Coming up on Woomera, Australia, a signal light came on warning him of excess cabin humidity. For the rest of the flight Glenn had to carefully balance suit cooling against the cabin humidity.
While still over Australia, another warning light came on, indicating that the fuel supply for the automatic control system was down to 62 percent. Mercury Control recommended that Glenn let the spacecraft attitude drift to conserve fuel.
There were no more problems for Friendship 7 during the remainder of the second orbit. He continued to manually control the spacecraft attitude, not allowing it too drift too far out of alignment. In doing so, he consumed more fuel than a functioning automatic system would have used. Fuel consumption was 6 pounds (2.7 kg) from the automatic tank and 11.8 pounds (5.4 kg) from the manual tank, during the second orbit. This amounted to almost 30 percent of the total fuel supply.
On the third orbit of Friendship 7, the Indian Ocean tracking ship did not attempt to launch any objects for pilot observation experiments. The cloud coverage was still too thick. When the spacecraft came across Australia for the third time, Glenn joked with Cooper at the Muchea Tracking Station. Glenn asked Cooper to notify General Shoup, Commandant of the Marine Corps, that three orbits should meet the minimum monthly requirement of four hours' flying time. He also asked to be certified as eligible for his regular flight pay.
Meanwhile, Mercury Control had been monitoring the "Segment 51", situation. The Hawaiian tracking station asked Glenn to toggle the landing bag deploy switch into the automatic position. If a light came on, reentry should take place while retaining the retro pack. Adding this to past questions about the landing bag switch, Glenn realized there was a possible problem with a loose heat shield. The test was run but no light appeared. Glenn also reported there were no bumping noises during spacecraft maneuvers.
Mercury Control was still undecided on the course of action to take. Some controllers thought the retro pack should be jettisoned after retrofire, while other controllers thought the retro pack should be retained, as added assurance that the heat shield would stay in place.
Flight Director Chris Kraft and Mission Director Walter C. Williams, decided to keep the retro pack in place during reentry. Walter Schirra, the California communicator at Point Arguello, relayed the instructions to Glenn. The retro pack should be retained until the spacecraft was over the Texas tracking station.
Glenn was now preparing for reentry. Retaining the retro package would mean he had to retract the periscope manually. He would also have to activate the .05-g sequence by pushing the override switch. Friendship 7 neared the California coast. It had been four hours and 33 minutes since launch. The spacecraft was maneuvered into retrofire attitude and the first retrorocket fired. "Boy, feels like I'm going halfway back to Hawaii," Glenn radioed. The second and then the third retros fired at five second intervals. The spacecraft attitude was steady during retrofire. Six minutes after retrofire; Glenn maneuvered the spacecraft into a 14 degree nose up, pitch attitude for reentry.
Friendship 7 lost altitude in its reentry glide over the continental United States, headed toward splashdown in the Atlantic. The Texas tracking station told Glenn to retain the retro pack until the accelerometer read 1.5 g (14.7 m/s²). Glenn reported as he crossed Cape Canaveral he had been controlling the spacecraft manually and would use the fly-by–wire mode as a backup. Mercury Control then gave him the 0.05 g (0.49 m/s²) mark, and he pressed the override button. About the same time, Glenn heard noises that sounded like "small things brushing against the capsule." "That's a real fireball outside," he radioed Mercury Control. A strap from the retro package broke partially loose and hung over the spacecraft window as it was consumed in the reentry plasma stream. The spacecraft control system was working well but the manual fuel supply was down to 15 percent. The peak of reentry deceleration was still to come. Glenn switched to fly-by-wire and the automatic tank supply. This combination had more available fuel.
The spacecraft now experienced peak reentry heating. Glenn later reported, "I thought the retro pack had jettisoned and saw chunks coming off and flying by the window." He feared the chunks were pieces of his heatshield that might be disintegrating. The chunks were pieces of the retro package breaking up in the reentry fireball.
After passing the peak g region, the Friendship 7 began oscillating severely. The astronaut could not control the ship manually. The spacecraft was oscillating past 10 degrees on both sides of the vertical zero-degree point. "I felt like a falling leaf," Glenn later said. He activated the auxiliary damping system, this helped stabilize the large yaw and roll rates. Fuel in the automatic tanks was getting low. Glenn wondered if the spacecraft would retain stability until it was low enough to deploy the drogue parachute.
The automatic fuel supply ran out at 1 minute and 51 seconds, and manual fuel ran out at 51 seconds, before drogue chute deployment. The oscillations resumed, at 35,000 feet (10 km) Glenn decided to deploy the drogue chute manually to regain attitude stability. Just before he reached the switch, the drogue chute opened automatically at 28,000 feet (8.5 km) instead of the programmed 21,000 feet (6.4 km). The spacecraft regained stability and Glenn reported, "everything was in good shape."
At 17,000 feet (5 km) the periscope opened and was available for the astronaut to use. Glenn tried to look out the overhead window instead, but it was coated with so much smoke and film that he could see very little. The spacecraft continued to descend on the drogue chute. The antenna section jettisoned and the main chute deployed and opened to its full diameter. Mercury Control reminded Glenn to manually deploy the landing bag. He toggled the switch and the green light confirmation came on. A "clunk" could be heard as the heat shield and landing bag dropped into place, four feet (1.2 m) below the capsule.
Friendship 7 had splashed down in the Atlantic about 40 miles (60 km) short of the planned landing zone. Retrofire calculations had not taken into account spacecraft weight loss due to use of onboard consumables. The USS Noa, a destroyer code-named Steelhead, had spotted the spacecraft when it was descending on its parachute. The destroyer was about six miles (10 km) away when it radioed Glenn that it would reach him shortly. The Noa came alongside Friendship 7 seventeen minutes later.
One crewman cleared the spacecraft antenna and another crewman attached a line to hoist Friendship 7 aboard. After being pulled from the water the spacecraft bumped against the side of the destroyer. Once Friendship 7 was on deck, Glenn intended to leave the capsule through the upper hatch, but it was too hot in the spacecraft and Glenn decided to blow the side hatch instead. He told the ship's crew to stand clear and hit the hatch detonator plunger with the back of his hand. The detonator plunger recoiled, and slightly cut the astronaut's knuckles through his glove. With a loud bang, the hatch was off. A smiling John Glenn got out of Friendship 7 and stood on the deck of the Noa. His first words were, "It was hot in there."
According to a chart printed in the NASA publication, "Results of the First United States Manned Orbital Space Flight, Feb. 20, 1962", the landing coordinates are near 21°20′N, 68°40′W.
The astronaut and spacecraft came through the mission in good shape. America had taken its first step on the way to the moon.
The "Segment 51" warning light problem was later determined to be a faulty sensor switch. The heat shield and landing bag were in fact secure during reentry.
February 21, 1962, a metal fragment was recovered on a farm in South Africa. It was identified as coming from the MA-6 Atlas launch vehicle by numbers stamped on it. The fragment had landed on the farm after about 8 hours in orbit.
Mercury spacecraft # 13 - Friendship 7, used in the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, is currently displayed at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C. Mercury spacecraft #13 Friendship 7 display page on A Field Guide to American Spacecraft website.

Mercury-Atlas Three Orbit Flight Events

Splashdown

A software bug (or "bug") is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from behaving as intended (e.g., producing an incorrect result). Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's source code or its design, and a few are caused by compilers producing incorrect code. A program that contains a large number of bugs, and/or bugs that seriously interfere with its functionality, is said to be buggy. Reports detailing bugs in a program are commonly known as bug reports, fault reports, problem reports, trouble reports, change requests, and so forth.
Bugs can have a wide variety of effects, with varying levels of inconvenience to the user of the program. Some bugs have only a subtle effect on the program's functionality, and may thus lie undetected for a long time. More serious bugs may cause the program to crash or freeze leading to a denial of service. Others qualify as security bugs and might for example enable a malicious user to bypass access controls in order to obtain unauthorized privileges.
The results of bugs may be extremely serious. A bug in the code controlling the Therac-25 radiation therapy machine was directly responsible for some patient deaths in the 1980s. In 1996, the European Space Agency's US$1 billion prototype Ariane 5 rocket was destroyed less than a minute after launch, due to a bug in the on-board guidance computer program. In June 1994, a Royal Air Force Chinook crashed into the Mull of Kintyre, killing 29. This was initially dismissed as pilot error, but an investigation by Computer Weekly uncovered sufficient evidence to convince a House of Lords inquiry that it may have been caused by a software bug in the aircraft's FADEC. [2] [3]

Etymology
Bugs are a consequence of the nature of the programming task. Some bugs arise from simple oversights made when computer programmers write source code carelessly or transcribe data incorrectly. Many off-by-one errors fall into this category. Other bugs arise from unintended interactions between different parts of a computer program. This happens because computer programs are often complex, often having been programmed by several different people over a great length of time, so that programmers are unable to mentally keep track of every possible way in which different parts can interact. Many race condition bugs fall into this category.
The computer software industry has put a great deal of effort into finding methods for preventing programmers from inadvertently introducing bugs while writing software. These include:
Bugs are often created by typos that are not caught by the compiler. Various innovations in programming style and defensive programming are designed to make these bugs less likely, or easier to spot.
Bugs often create inconsistencies in the internal data of a running program. Programs can be written to check the consistency of their own internal data while running. If an inconsistency is encountered, the program can immediately halt, so that the bug can be located and fixed. Alternatively, the program can simply inform the user, attempt to correct the inconsistency, and continue running.
There are several schemes for managing programmer activity, so that fewer bugs are produced. Many of these fall under the discipline of software engineering (which addresses software design issues as well.) For example, formal program specifications are used to state the exact behavior of programs, so that design bugs can be eliminated.
Programming languages often include features which help programmers deal with bugs, such as exception handling. In addition, many recently-invented languages have deliberately excluded features which can easily lead to bugs. For example, the Java programming language does not support pointer arithmetic.

Prevention

Main article: Debugging Debugging
It is common practice for software to be released with known bugs that are considered non-critical. While software products contain an unknown number of unknown bugs when shipped, measurements during the testing may provide a statistically reliable estimate of the number of likely bugs remaining. Most big software projects maintain a list of "known bugs". This list inform users about bugs that are not fixed in the current release, or not fixed at all, and often a workaround is offered additionally.
There are various reasons for such a list:
Given the above, it is often considered impossible to write completely bug-free software of any real complexity. So bugs are categorized by severity, and low-severity non-critical bugs are tolerated, as they do not impact the proper operation of the system, for the majority of users. NASA's SATC managed to reduce number of errors to fewer than 0.1 per 1000 lines of code (SLOC) but this was not felt to be feasible for any real world projects.
One school of thought, popularized by Eric S. Raymond as Linus's Law, holds that popular open-source software holds a better chance of being bug-free than other software, because "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow". This assertion has been disputed, however.

The developers often don't have time to fix all non-severe bugs.
The bug could be fixed in a new version or patch that is not yet released.
The changes to the code required to fix the bug would be large, and would bring with them the chance of introducing other bugs into the system. Managing bugs

Famous computer bugs

NASA Mariner 1 went off-course during launch, due to a missing 'bar' in its FORTRAN software (July 22, 1962).[7]
NASA Apollo 11 landing problem (July 20, 1969).
NASA Voyager 2 (January 25, 1986).
Phobos 1 lost (September 10, 1988).
ESA Ariane 5 Flight 501 self-destruction 40 seconds after takeoff (June 4, 1996).
NASA Mars Climate Orbiter destroyed due to entry of momentum data in imperial units instead of the metric system (September 23, 1999).
Mars Polar Lander lost (December 3, 1999).
NASA Mars Rover freezes due to too many open files in flash memory (January 21, 2004).
NASA Mars Global Surveyor battery failure was the result of a series of events linked to a computer error made five months before (November 2, 2006).[8] Space exploration

The Therac-25 accidents (1985-1987), which caused at least five deaths.
A misuse of medical diagnosis software created by Multidata Systems International, at the National Cancer Society in Panama City, caused, by different estimates, between five and eight cancer patients to die of over-radiation. (2000) Medical

The year 2000 problem, popularly known as the "Y2K bug", spawned fears of worldwide economic collapse and an industry of consultants providing last-minute fixes.
The Pentium FDIV bug. Computing

The 2003 North America blackout was triggered by a local outage that went undetected due to a race condition in General Electric Energy's XA/21 monitoring software. Electric power transmission

AT&T long distance network crash (January 15, 1990), documented in Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown. Telecommunications

The software error of a MIM-104 Patriot, which ultimately contributed to the deaths of 28 Americans in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (February 25, 1991).
Chinook crash on Mull of Kintyre: the cause of this event remains a mystery, but strong suspicions have been raised that software problems were a contributory factor. Military

The Missingno. and Glitch City bugs, found in the Pokémon series
The Minus World in NES version of Super Mario Brothers Video games
Malicious software may attempt to exploit known vulnerabilities in a system - which may or may not be bugs. Viruses are not bugs in themselves - they are typically programs that are doing precisely what they were designed to do. However, viruses are occasionally referred to as such in the popular press.

Security vulnerabilities

Divide by zero
NULL pointer dereference
Infinite loops
Arithmetic overflow or underflow
Exceeding array bounds
Using an uninitialized variable
Accessing memory not owned (Access violation)
Memory leak or Handle leak
Stack overflow or underflow
Buffer overflow
Deadlock
Off by one error
Race condition
Loss of precision in type conversion See also

Events

1578 - Agostino Agazzari, Italian composer and music theorist (d. 1640)
1694 - William Shirley, Colonial Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1771)
1703 - Ferdinand Konscak, Croatian explorer (d. 1759)
1710 - Bertinazzi, Italian actor and writer (d. 1783)
1738 - Richard Montgomery, Irish-born soldier (d. 1775)
1754 - William Cooper, American judge (d. 1809)
1760 - John Breckinridge, American politician (d. 1806)
1811 - Jean-Charles Chapais, French Canadian politician, Father of the Canadian Confederation (d. 1885)
1817 - Heinrich von Sybel, German historian (d. 1895)
1825 - Emperor Pedro II of Brazil (d. 1891)
1846 - Pierre Marie René Ernest Waldeck-Rousseau, French statesman (d. 1904)
1859 - Georges Seurat, French painter (d. 1891)
1863 - Charles Ringling, American circus owner (d. 1926)
1885 - George Richards Minot, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize (d. 1950)
1886 - Harry Burleigh, American composer (d. 1949)
1891 - Otto Dix, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1969)
1892 - Leo Ornstein, Russian-born composer and pianist (d. 2002)
1894 - Warren William, American Broadway and film actor (d. 1948)
1895 - Harriet Cohen, British pianist (d. 1967)
1897 - Hovhannes Bagramyan, Marshall of the Soviet Union (d. 1982)
1898 - Indra Lal Roy, Indian pilot (d. 1918)
1899 - John Barbirolli, British conductor (d. 1970)
1899 - John Cobb, British racing driver (d. 1952)
1901 - Raimundo Orsi, Argentine-born footballer (d. 1986)
1902 - Howard Koch, American screenwriter (d. 1995)
1906 - Peter Carl Goldmark, Hungarian-born recording engineer (d. 1977)
1914 - Adolph Green, American composer (d. 2002)
1914 - Ray Walston, American actor (d. 2001)
1917 - Sylvia Syms, American jazz singer (d. 1992)
1923 - Maria Callas, Greek soprano (d. 1977)
1924 - Alexander M. Haig, Jr., American soldier and politician
1925 - Julie Harris, American actress
1930 - Gary Becker, American economist, recipient of the Bank of Sweden Prize
1931 - Edwin Meese, American politician
1931 - Nigel Calder, British science writer
1931 - Hatsumi Masaaki, Founder and head of the Bujinkan Dojo organization
1931 - Wynton Kelly, American jazz pianist (d. 1971)
1933 - Michael Larrabee, American athlete (d. 2003)
1933 - K. Veeramani, Indian anti-caste activist
1934 - Andre Rodgers, baseball player (d. 2004)
1935 - David Hackett Fischer, American historian
1939 - Yael Dayan, Israeli writer and politician
1939 - Harry Reid, American politician
1939 - Francis Fox, Canadian politician, member of the Senate
1943 - Wayne Allard, American politician
1944 - Ibrahim Rugova, first President of Kosovo (d. 2006)
1944 - Botho Strauß, German author
1944 - Dionysis Savvopoulos, Greek musician and songwriter
1944 - Inger Davidson, Swedish politician
1945 - Penelope Spheeris, American film director
1946 - Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer (d. 1997)
1947 - Isaac Bitton, French rock band drummer (Les Variations)
1947 - Tommy Jenkins, English football player
1948 - T. Coraghessan Boyle, American writer
1950 - Bob Kevoian, American radio personality
1951 - Adrian Devine, American baseball pitcher
1952 - Carol Shea-Porter, American Congresswoman
1954 - Dan Butler, American actor
1954 - Stone Phillips, American television journalist
1957 - Dagfinn Høybråten, Norwegian politician
1958 - Uladzimir Parfianovich, Belarusian canoer
1958 - Eric L. Harry, American novelist
1958 - George Saunders, American writer
1960 - Rick Savage, British bassist (Def Leppard)
1962 - Kardam, Prince of Turnovo, titular Bulgarian royal family
1963 - Ann Patchett, American novelist
1963 - Ron Sutter, National Hockey League player
1966 - Jinsei Shinzaki, Japanese professional wrestler
1968 - Lucy Liu, American actress
1968 - Nate Mendel, American bassist (Foo Fighters)
1968 - Rena Sofer, American actress
1968 - Chris Wedge, American animator
1968 - Darryl Kile, baseball player (d. 2002)
1971 - Wilson Jermaine Heredia, American actor
1971 - Francesco Toldo, Italian Football Player (Inter Milan)
1972 - Sergei Zholtok, Latvian ice hockey player (d. 2004)
1973 - Monica Seles, Yugoslavian-born tennis player
1973 - Jan Ullrich, German cyclist
1973 - Graham Kavanagh, Irish Footballer plays for Sunderland A.F.C.
1976 - Eddy Garabito, professional baseball player
1977 - Siyabonga Nomvethe, South African footballer plays for Aalborg BK
1978 - Nelly Furtado, Canadian singer and songwriter
1978 - Chris Wolstenholme, British bassist (Muse)
1978 - David Rivas, Spanish Footballer plays for Real Betis
1978 - Jason Collins, American basketball player for New Jersey Nets
1978 - Jarron Collins, American basketball player for Utah Jazz
1979 - Yvonne Catterfeld, German singer and actress
1979 - Michael McIndoe, Scottish professional footballer (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
1981 - Isabella Soprano, American pornographic actress
1981 - Britney Spears, American singer
1981 - Danijel Pranjić, Croatian football player plays for SC Heerenveen
1982 - Matt Ware, American football player
1982 - Pizon, American rapper/producer
1982 - Hristos Karipidis, Greek footballer
1983 - Bibiana Candelas, Mexican volleyball player
1983 - Chris Burke (footballer), Scottish footballer plays for Rangers F.C.
1984 - Péter Máté, Hungarian footballer (Reading F.C.)
1985 - Dorell Wright, American basketball player
1986 - Claudiu Keserü, Romanian football player (FC Nantes Atlantique)
1987 - Teairra Mari, American R&B singer
1989 - Cassie Steele, Canadian actress Deaths

R.C. Saints - St Bibiana, Saint Chromatius
Laos - National Day
United Arab Emirates - National Day (independence from Britain, 1971)
International Day for the Abolition of Slavery - United Nations

The Territoire de Belfort is a department in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France.

Geography

Communes of the Territoire de Belfort department
Cantons of the Territoire de Belfort department
Arrondissements of the Territoire de Belfort department

The Atlanta Thrashers are a professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). Their home arena is Philips Arena.

Franchise history
Led by captain Shawn McEachern, the Thrashers jumped quickly out of the gates with some notable highlights. Ilya Kovalchuk scored eight goals in the first seven games, including two hat tricks, one in a 7-2 rout of the Chicago Blackhawks and another in a come-from-behind victory against the Nashville Predators. Those comeback victories became a recurring sight throughout the season, including shocking upsets against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Boston Bruins, and the Ottawa Senators, as well as wins from games against the Los Angeles Kings and the New York Islanders.
Eleven games into the season, the Thrashers were alone in first place atop both the Southeast Division the NHL. Although they continued to play well, they could not keep up with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the eventual Stanley Cup champions, or other teams in the league. The absence of Heatley and a lack of depth started to appear. Boxing Day 2003 marked both a bright and dark day for the Thrash. On that day, Heatley skated for the first time since his car accident with Snyder, but it also marked the last win for the Thrashers before an extended losing streak. From December 28 to February 11 the Thrashers went a dismal 1-17-3. However, fans were entertained regardless of the team's struggles. Kovalchuk became only the second Thrashers' player to score in the NHL All-Star Game (after Heatley), an exciting overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings occurred on New Year's Eve, Randy Robitaille broke Brian Boucher's shutout streak, Dany Heatley eventually returned to game action, and a twelve-man brawl against the Edmonton Oilers took place. The losing streak finally ended with a 4-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks.
While the Thrashers' playoff hopes were done for the year, they still played on and ended up finishing second in the Southeast Division and tenth in the Eastern Conference, only a handful of wins away from the playoffs. Kovalchuk ended up tying for the league lead in goals (41) with Jarome Iginla and Rick Nash. Goaltender Kari Lehtonen started his NHL career with four wins in four starts, including one shutout.

2003-04 Season Recap
Before the start of the 2005-06 season, the Thrashers picked up many veteran players in the hopes of making the playoffs for the first time. They signed Mike Dunham, Peter Bondra, Bobby Holik, Jaroslav Modry, and Scott Mellanby. They traded Dany Heatley on August 23, 2005, to the Ottawa Senators, in a blockbuster deal for forward Marian Hossa and defenseman Greg de Vries.
The 2005-06 season saw the Thrashers win a club-record 41 games, even with numerous goaltending injuries. Only a few minutes into the first game of the season, Lehtonen pulled his groin, an injury that would keep him out for a good portion of the season. Veteran backup Mike Dunham, an experienced number-one net minder, stepped in, but also promptly injured himself only a few games later; this left only prospects Michael Garnett and Adam Berkhoel to mind the nets. Journeyman goalie Steve Shields was signed, but he too was injured within ten games. On April 6, Lehtonen was run into by Tampa Bay's Chris Dingman, injuring him yet again. The remainder of the season was left to Dunham. Garnett was injured in a game against the Washington Capitals. Dunham, who had started the game but was relieved by the young rookie after poor play, was forced back into action in the third period.

2005-06 Season Recap
For a complete overview of the 2006-07 season, see 2006-07 Atlanta Thrashers season
October 13, 2006, the first official event on the new SportSouth was a National Hockey League game between the Atlanta Thrashers and the Carolina Hurricanes. The Thrashers ended up losing 4-3, giving the Hurricanes their first win of the season. On April 24, 2007, team captain Scott Mellanby announced his retirement. On October 17, coach Bob Hartley was fired after an 0-6 start.

Recent

Team colors and mascot
The current team colors are ice blue, navy blue, red, and gold. In 2003, the NHL decided to switch home and road jerseys.

Jerseys
The team's mascot is Thrash, a Brown Thrasher.

Mascot

Statistics and records

Individual records

Most Goals in a season: Ilya Kovalchuk, 52 (2005-06)
Most Assists in a season: Marc Savard, 69 (2005-06)
Most Points in a season: Marian Hossa, 100 (2006-07)
Most Penalty Minutes in a season: Jeff Odgers, 226 (2000-01)
Most Points in a season, defenseman: Jaroslav Modry, 38 (2005-06)
Most Points in a season, rookie: Dany Heatley, 67 (2001-02)
Most Wins in a season: Kari Lehtonen, 34 (2006-07)
Most Shutouts in a season: Kari Lehtonen, 4 (2006-07) Regular season
This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Thrashers. For the full season-by-season history, see Atlanta Thrashers seasons
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes
Records as of May 10, 2007. As of the 2005-06 NHL season, all games tied after regulation will be decided in a shootout; SOL (Shootout losses) will be recorded as OTL in the standings.

Current roster

Kelly Buchberger, 1999-2000
Steve Staios, 2000-01
Ray Ferraro, 2001-02
Shawn McEachern, 2002-05
Scott Mellanby, 2005-07
Bobby Holik, 2007- present Team captains
Hall of Famers: Currently, no member of the Thrashers has been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Retired Numbers: The Thrashers have not retired a number, although Wayne Gretzky's Number 99 was retired League-wide on February 6, 2000. Number 37 (though not retired) has been taken out of circulation since the tragic death of Dan Snyder in 2003.

Honored Members

1999: Patrik Stefan (1st overall)
2000: Dany Heatley (2nd overall)
2001: Ilya Kovalchuk (1st overall)
2002: Kari Lehtonen (2nd overall) & Jim Slater (30th overall)
2003: Braydon Coburn (8th overall)
2004: Boris Valabik (10th overall)
2005: Alex Bourret (16th overall)
2006: Bryan Little (12th overall)
2007: none First-round draft picks
These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season.
Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; * = current Thrashers player

Franchise scoring leaders
Calder Memorial Trophy
Rocket Richard Trophy

Dany Heatley: 2001-02
Ilya Kovalchuk: 2003-04 (shared with Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames and Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets) Media

A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. Judaism has this equivalent in the circumcision ceremony. A male godparent is a godfather and a female godparent is a godmother. The child is a godchild (godson, goddaughter).

Christianity
In the Catholic church, only church members who have undergone Confirmation are accepted as godparents. Someone who belongs to another Christian denomination cannot become a godparent but is known as a Christian Witness, with most of the regular role of a godparent. Non-Christians are not at all eligible to any religious role formalized by the Church. This is based on the view that the godparent-godchild relationship is not something which is just between the persons and God, but a whole-Church event wherein the Holy Spirit dwells.
A Godparent is regarded as a patron saint on earth, who prays for the newly baptised, looks after them spiritually and gives them guidance. The Catholic Church sees Baptism as an entry into the Kingdom of God, and entry into the Church.

Anglican Church
There are two roles in the Jewish circumcision ceremony which are sometimes translated as godparent. The sandek holds the baby boy while he is circumcised. Among Orthodox Ashkenazi the kvater (or kvaterin if female) is the person who takes the child from his mother and carries him into the room in which the circumcision is performed.

Islam
In some cultures, the word for "godparent of one's child" is used for any, or certain, very close friends. This is the meaning of the Spanish compadre and comadre, the French commère and compère, and the archaic meaning of the English word gossip (from godsib, "god-sibling").
Godparent is also used, in absence of a "religious reason", as a stated person (be it family member or close friend) who is responsible for the child in the event of both parents' demise or incapacitation.
Folktales often feature a fairy godmother, a fairy who acts as a mentor to a main character.

As Player
As Manager
Harold Abraham McRae (born July 10, 1945 in Avon Park, Florida) is a former outfielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Cincinnati Reds (1968, 1970-72) and Kansas City Royals (1973-87). McRae batted and threw right-handed. He is the father of Brian McRae. Son Cullen McRae is the Florida Marlins video coordinator.
McRae was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 6th round of the 1965 draft with the 117th overall pick. He was considered a below-average outfielder with the Reds. In 1972, McRae was traded to the Kansas City Royals along with Wayne Simpson in exchange for Roger Nelson and Richie Scheinblum. McRae developed as a consistent designated hitter in the American League. His playing career spanned 23 years, including 14 seasons with Kansas City. Selected a three-time All-Star, he hit over .300 six times for the Royals and was named Designated Hitter of the Year three times both by The Sporting News and Associated Press.
In 1976 McRae was on top of the American League batting title race going into the final game of the season, in which his teammate George Brett went 2-for-4 to clinch the title over McRae by a margin of less than .001. McRae finished second. Oddly, the other two of the top four finishers that season, Minnesota Twins' Rod Carew and Lyman Bostock, played in that same game.
In a 19-year MLB career, McRae posted a .290 batting average (2091-for-7218) with 191 home runs, 1097 RBI, 484 doubles, 65 triples, and 109 stolen bases in 2084 games played. He added a .351 on base percentage and a .454 slugging average for a combined .805 OPS.
Following his playing retirement, McRae managed the Kansas City Royals (1991-94) and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (2001-02). He also served as a hitting coach for the Reds and Phillies, and is currently the hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals. McRae, who won a World Series ring playing for Kansas City against the Cardinals in 1985, won a ring as a coach for the Cardinals when they defeated the Detroit Tigers in the 2006 World Series, four games to one.

Cincinnati Reds (1968,1970–1972)
Kansas City Royals (1973–1987)
Kansas City Royals (1991–1994)
Tampa Bay Devil Rays (2001–2002)
3-time All-Star (1975-76, 1982)
3-time TSN and AP DH Award (1976, 1980, 1982)
Silver Slugger Award (1982)
Led league in on base percentage (.407, 1976)
Led league in OPS (.868, 1976)
Finished second for AL batting title by less than .001 (1976)
Led league in games played (162, 1977)
Led league in doubles (54, 1977)
Led league in extra-base hits (86, 1977)
Led league in hit by pitch (13, 1977)
Led league and set a Royals record in RBI (133, 1982)
Tied a MLB record with six extra-base hits in a game (five doubles and a home run, August 27, 1974) Trivia

While managing for Kansas City Royals, McRae was involved in an infamous incident after a game on April 26, 1993 (a 5-3 loss against the Detroit Tigers ) in which he lost his temper with reporters and trashed his entire office, throwing things off of his desk and yelling profanities at reporters. It was recently voted the biggest pro-athlete blow up on The Best Damn Sports Show Period.