On This Day, April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 Launched from Kennedy Space Center.

The mission was commanded by Jim Lovell with Jack Swigert as command module pilot and Fred Haise as Apollo Lunar Module pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for Ken Mattingly, who was grounded after exposure to rubella.

Two days later, the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module failed two days into the mission, leading to famous expression, "Houston, we have a problem."

To survive, the crew needed to overcome limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and make makeshift repairs to the carbon dioxide removal system.

There was a critical need to adapt the command module’s cartridges for the carbon dioxide scrubber system to work in the lunar module. Working together, thousands of miles apart, the crew and mission controllers were successful in improvising a solution.

Looping around the Moon, the crew returned safely to Earth six days later on April 1...

Famed thriller author, Robert Ludlum died on this day, March 12, 2001. From The Scarlatti Inheritance and The Osterman Weekend, to the Bourne Supremacy, movies, digital games, and 41 other novels in-between, Ludlum will always be a hard act for any author to follow. The number of copies of Ludlum’s books in print is estimated up to 500 million: and his books have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries.

Perhaps less known, is that his life—as well as his death may parallel that of his most famous protagonist, Jason Bourne.

Robert Ludlum led a fascinating life.

Ludlum was born in New York City, the adopted son of Margaret Wadsworth and George Hartford Ludlum. He never found who his birth parents were.

As an adopted child, Robert Ludlum explored the limits of reasonable behavior and parental tolerance. After a seemingly endless period of rowdy behavior, this future superstar settled down at the famed Connecticut prep-school, Cheshire Academy, and began to establish himself as...

On this Day, March 9, 1964, Ford began production of its new sports car, the Mustang.

At that moment in time, the U.S. economy was booming, the first Beatles record had just been released, LBJ had announced his War on Poverty, and the country was still trying to shake off the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Cars were a positive distraction, and the release of the Ford Mustang was no exception.

The Mustang’s styling, with its long hood and short deck, proved wildly popular and inspired a host of competition.

At a base price of $2,368, it was originally intended to be a mid-engine two-seated roadster, but that changed when the sales of the Thunderbird increased after adding a back seat.

Since it was introduced four months before the normal start of the 1965 production year, the earliest Mustangs are widely referred to as the 1964½ model by enthusiasts.

Before the car officially hit the sales floor on April 17, 1964, Ford wanted every dealership to have a...

On this day, December 23, 1783 General George Washington resigned his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. That act signaled his return to civilian life at Mount Vernon, but ultimately it was much more than that. It set the stage for how the United States would ultimately be led and governed. Today, Luke and I took a walk down to the Maryland State House in Annapolis. Unfortunately, because of the current health crisis, the State House is closed to the public, so we couldn't get in to shoot this as we'd intended—undeterred, we sat down on a park bench outside and did it there. We posted some additional photos from our previous visits to the State House. It was a windy day, and we did this pretty quickly--but hopefully, it will serve as a good reminder of how significant this day is, and especially, how meaningful George Washington's actions were 237 years ago. Today.