Albert Einstein: Love, Espionage, and Lessons Beyond the Grave.

Albert Einstein was born on the 14th of March 1879 in Germany to a Jewish family. His father Hermann was a salesman and engineer. Along with his brother Jakob, he founded a company in Munich that was involved in the mass production of electrical equipment, which was quite innovative at the time.

Albert Einstein is famous for his Theory of Relativity, which fundamentally changed our understanding of physics. E = mc2 comes from his theory, expresses the idea that energy (E) and mass (m) are interchangeable; they are different forms of the same thing. This equation shows that a small amount of mass can be converted into a large amount of energy, which is the principle behind nuclear energy.

Einstein had a fat head at the time he was born, which initially worried his mother and grandmother. However, his head size normalized as he grew.

He did not speak until the age of three. Despite this, he went on to become one of the most influential scientists in history. Now this phenomenon is sometimes referred to as “Einstein Syndrome,” where children exhibit delayed speech but later show exceptional abilities in various areas.

The parietal lobe in Einstein’s brain was 15% larger than that of an average brain. This region of the brain is associated with mathematical thought, visuospatial cognition, and movement. Additionally, Einstein’s brain lacked a groove known as the Sylvian fissure, which may have allowed for more connections between neurons in this area.

It’s fascinating how these unique features might have contributed to his extraordinary cognitive abilities.

He never wore socks. He found them unnecessary and even wrote about it in letters to friends and family. He mentioned that his big toe would always end up making a hole in his socks, so he decided to stop wearing them altogether. He even managed to avoid wearing socks on formal occasions by wearing high boots to cover up the lack of socks.

He never learned to swim; nevertheless, he loved sailing. He enjoyed spending time on the water and often took a boat out onto a lake to relax and think, but he always stayed on the boat.

He had a poor memory. He often forgot dates, names, and even his own phone number. Despite his incredible intellect and groundbreaking contributions to science, he struggled with everyday details. One of his teachers even remarked that he had a "memory like a sieve".

Although some of Einstein's teachers found him challenging because of his independent thinking and inquisitive nature, he excelled in subjects he was passionate about, especially mathematics and physics.

His academic path was not without challenges though, particularly in subjects such as languages and biology where he did not perform as well. Nonetheless, his grades were mostly above average, and he demonstrated remarkable aptitude in areas that captured his interest.

He was an exceptional musician, skilled as a violinist and pianist. Einstein started playing the violin at six and maintained this passion throughout his life. He harbored a profound appreciation for classical music, especially the compositions of Mozart and Bach.

Einstein often said that music helped him think and relax. He even mentioned that if he hadn’t been a physicist, he would have been a musician. His passion for music was so strong that he once said, "Life without playing music is inconceivable for me. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music".

His first wife was Mileva Marić, a Serbian mathematician whom he met while they were both students at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich. They married in 1903 and had two sons, Hans Albert and Eduard.

Some say Maric might have co-authored his 1905 Relativity Paper. In the 1980's, American physicist Evan Walker Harris published an article in Physics Today claiming that Einstein first wife, Mileva Maric, was one of many coauthors of his 1905 paper on special relativity.

Most physicists and historians of science have rejected it.

After Einstein’s death in 1955, Soviet physicist Abram Fedorovich Joffe described some correspondence he had with Einstein early in their careers in a article published in Russian.

He had asked Einstein for a prints of some of his papers and wrote: “The author of these articles Einstein-Marity” 

A popular Russian science writer called Daniil Semenvich Danin, interpreted Joffe’s account to mean that Einstein and Maric collaborated on the work. 

Einstein’s letters are full of his ideas about physics.

Maric’s contain none and she was not a talented physicist or mathematician. She failed her final examinations and was never granted a diploma.

Maric and Einstein divorced in 1919, but as part of the divorce settlement, Einstein agreed to pay his ex-wife all of any future Nobel Prize he might be awarded. That is another reason why people think she might have been a co-author.

His second wife Elsa Löwenthal was his cousin. Elsa was his first cousin on his mother’s side and his second cousin on his father’s side. They began their relationship in 1912 while he was still married to Marić. They married in 1919 after Einstein’s divorce from Mileva. Elsa was a significant support to Einstein, especially during his health issues, and they remained married until her death in 1936.

Hitler considered him public enemy number one. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime considered Albert Einstein a significant threat. Einstein was a prominent Jewish intellectual and a vocal critic of the Nazis. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Einstein was in the United States and decided not to return to Germany due to the rising anti-Semitism and the dangerous political climate.

The Nazis targeted Einstein’s work and reputation, labeling his theories as “Jewish physics” and attempting to discredit him. They even placed a bounty on his head, making him a public enemy. Despite these threats, Einstein continued to speak out against the regime and supported efforts to help Jewish refugees escape from Europe.

In 1921 Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. However, he actually received the award in 1922. The Nobel Prize was awarded to him "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". This discovery was crucial in the development of quantum theory and had significant implications for the understanding of light and energy.

He became a strong advocate for nuclear disarmament after witnessing the devastating effects of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was deeply concerned about the potential for future nuclear wars and the annihilation of humanity.

In the last decade of his life, Einstein dedicated himself to promoting peace and international cooperation. He frequently spoke out against the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He believed that the only way to ensure global security was through the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Supporter of civil rights. After moving to the United States in 1933, he became increasingly aware of the racial segregation and discrimination faced by African Americans. He actively spoke out against racism and worked with several civil rights organizations.

Einstein was a member of the NAACP and developed a close friendship with civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois. He also supported the campaign to defend the Scottsboro Boys, nine African American teenagers falsely accused of rape in Alabama. In 1946, he gave a speech at Lincoln University, a historically black university, where he called racism "a disease of white people".

The FBI spied on Albert Einstein. They kept him under surveillance from the moment he entered the United States in 1933 until his death in 1955. The FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover was suspicious of Einstein’s political views and his advocacy for peace, civil rights, and Zionism. They amassed a file of over 1,400 pages on him, which included wiretaps, mail interceptions, and even searches of his trash23.

Einstein’s outspoken nature and his connections with various political and social movements made him a target during a time of heightened paranoia about communism and espionage.

Einstein was a genius when it came to science, but love was a different matter. Unbeknownst to Einstein the woman he had an affair with was a Russian spy.  

Margarita Ivanovna (Vorontsova) Konenkova was born in 1895, in the remote Russian town of Sarapul. As a young woman she moved to Moscow and enrolled in law courses. She was associated with Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff and famous opera singer Feodor Chaliapin. In Moscow she met her husband, Sergei Konenkov “the Russian Rodin". Sergei was already a famous sculptor. In 1923 the couple traveled together to the United States, where Margarita became socialite, attending numerous balls and social events, while Konenkov continued creating art.

In 1935, Sergei was commissioned to make a bust of Albert Einstein for Princeton University. The couple met Einstein just before the work begun. Sergei visited Princeton only a few times to talk over the plans for the project, while Margarita became a frequent visitor. After Einstein's second wife Elsa died in 1936, Einstein and Margarita's relationship became more friendly. Einstein even persuaded Sergei to send Margarita over to his cottage at Saranac Lake by writing a letter stating that she was ill and needed to spend time in a good climate to get well. He even attached a fake doctor’s certificate. Each year she spent several months living with Einstein next to Saranac while her husband Sergei worked in Chicago. The scientist even came up with the name “Almar” (Albert-Margarita).

According to Pavel Sudoplatov, an intelligence general for Joseph Stalin, Margarita was indispensable in terms of spying on America’s nuclear program. Margarita's mission was to find out about the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan project's goal was to produce the first nuclear weapons. She successfully infiltrated the Princeton science circle where besides becoming close to Einstein, Magarita also befriends Robert Oppenheimer, one of the "fathers" of the atomic bomb. She talked Oppenheimer into hiring people known for their leftist views,

Einstein met with Pavel Mikhailov , the USSR consul who worked for the Soviet army intelligence, a few times as a favor for Margarita. He knew that her future in the USSR depended on this meeting. 

Konenkovs came back to Moscow in 1946 they were provided for by the government.

The relationship between Einstein and Margarita was revealed through a series of letters he wrote to her. These letters, which surfaced many years later, are now preserved by the Library of Congress and demonstrate the profound affection and bond they shared.

Einstein presented Margarita with a gold watch as a parting gift when she and her husband departed the United States following World War II.

Einstein was offered and declined the opportunity to become president of Israel after the death of its first president in 1952. Einstein declined the presidency citing his inexperience in politics and his advanced age as reasons. He believed he was not fit for the role, expressing that he lacked the inherent skill and experience required to engage politically with people.

Einstein died on April 18th, 1955, in Princeton, New Jersey at the age of 76 from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Despite his declining health, he continued to work on his scientific theories until his final days.

After his death his eyes were removed during an autopsy conducted by pathologist Thomas Harvey. They were given to Einstein’s eye doctor, Henry Abrams. They are now kept in a safety deposit box in New York City

His brain was stolen after his death. The pathologist who performed his autopsy, Dr. Thomas Harvey, removed Einstein’s brain without permission. Harvey took the brain for scientific study, hoping to uncover the secrets behind Einstein’s genius.

Harvey preserved the brain in celloidin and kept it for many years, even cutting it into 240 pieces and distributing some of these pieces to other researchers.

Einstein’s legacy continues to influence and inspire scientists and thinkers around the world and even after his death Einstein is teaching us new things.

Einstein's theory of relativity has enabled scientists to discover a planet three times the size of Jupiter. The planet, KELT-9b, is hotter than most stars. Techniques based on Einstein’s theory, such as gravitational microlensing and relativistic beaming, made this discovery possible.

The General Theory of Relativity describes how the gravity of stars can bend light waves, an effect that can expose otherwise hidden planets.

This theory has aided in the discovery of a massive exoplanet named MOA-2016-BLG-227Lb.

MOA-2016-BLG-227Lb is a super-Jupiter mass planet orbiting a star in the Galactic bulge, located 21,000 light years from Earth.

International researchers, including teams from the U.S., Israel, and Japan, employed gravitational microlensing to detect the way light bends around the planet.

Was Stephen Hawking Albert Einstein?

Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein having such striking similarities in their lives. This makes some people think that Albert was reincarnated as Stephen Hawking. You be the judge.

They both had neurological disorders. Hawking was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). ALS is a neuro-degenerative disease that slowly erodes nerves that control voluntary movement.

So he really couldn't move as the disease progressed and that is why he was wheelchair-bound for most of his life. 

Einstein suffered from a mild case of Asperger’s syndrome, a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, as well as attention deficit disorder (ADD). This means he had he didn't know what to do or how to act towards others sometimes and he had a hard time concentrating.

They both were married twice. Einstein divorced his first wife Mileva Maric to marry Elsa Lowenthal. They were together until she passed away. Hawking divorced his wife of 30 years, Jane Wilde, to marry Elaine Mason. He eventually divorced her too.

They both were fascinated by the universe and time travel. Einstein looked at things from a relativistic point of view while Hawking focused more on quantum physics.

They both thought that their own ideas were stupid. Einstein thought that one of his biggest mistakes was the cosmological constant he introduced into equations for general relativity. Hawking thought his was the “information loss” in black holes.

Both of them became famous.

They both had a good sense of humor. Einstein claimed that humor powered his brilliant intellect. On his 72nd birthday a photographer asked him to smile, so he stuck out his tongue. He was known for his childlike sense of humor. Hawking was known for his amazing one liner's that had intelligence to them.

Both Einstein and Hawking passed away when they were 76 years old. 

Was Einstein part of the Illuminati?

Some believe Einstein was a member of the Illuminati. While there is no clear connection to the Illuminati, it has been reported that Einstein visited Bohemian Grove.

Breaking Barriers: The Inspiring Journey of Helen Keller.

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow." ~Helen Keller

Helen Adams Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. She was also blind and deaf. 

Born on June 27th, 1880, in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, Helen started speaking when she was just 6 months old and started walking at the age of 1. Sadly, Helen lost her sight and her hearing after contracting "brain fever" when she was only 19 months old. 

By the time Helen was seven years old, she and Martha Washington, the family cook's daughter, had developed a type of sign language. During this time Helen was very frustrated and became unruly. She tormented Martha and inflicted raging tantrums on her parents leaving many relatives to feel that she should be institutionalized. 

Desperate to help her, her parents sought the advice of Alexander Grahm Bell, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell suggested the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston. While at the institute, it was suggested that the family work with one of the institute's most recent graduates at the time, Joanna Mansfield Sullivan. Sullivan had graduated head of her class, was an experienced teacher and was partially visually impaired. 

On March 3, 1887, Sullivan arrived at Helen's home in Alabama and began teaching with love and patience. She spelled the world "Doll" in Helen's hand in attempts to associate it with the doll she had brought the child as a present.

Initially, Helen was curious but soon became defiant and uncooperative. Sullivan noticed Helen failed to associate the objects with the letters spelled in her hand. Despite this, Sullivan persisted, and continued to guide Helen.

As Helen's frustration escalated and her tantrums became more frequent, Sullivan insisted that she and Helen be separated from the family for a period to ensure that Helen could focus solely on her teachings. Consequently, they relocated to a cottage on the plantation.

Sullivan introduced the word "water" to Helen by guiding her to a water pump and placing her hand under the spout. As Sullivan pumped the cool water over Helen's hand, she spelled out the letters w-a-t-e-r on Helen's other hand. This helped Helen make the connection between the object and the word. Helen grasped the concept and mirrored the word in Sullivan's hand. By the end of the day, she had mastered 30 words.

With Sullivan's extraordinary teachings Helen's mood improved and she learned to understand and communicate with the world around her. Helen learned to read and write in Braille and to use the hand signals, which she could understand only by touch. She also learned to use a typewriter.

Helen learned to speak with the help of Sarah Fuller using her fingers to feel Sarah's lips and throat when she spoke. Helen dedicated a significant portion of her life to delivering speeches and lectures about her experiences.

Helen studied at schools for the deaf in Boston and New York City with Sullivan repeating the lectures into her hand. At twelve she published an autobiographical sketch in the Youth’s Companion.

As Helen's story gained public attention, she started meeting notable and influential figures. Among them was the writer Mark Twain, who found her remarkable and befriended her. Twain then introduced her to his acquaintance, Henry H. Rogers, an executive at Standard Oil. Struck by Helen's abilities, ambition, and resolve, Rogers decided to finance her education at Radcliffe College which she was accepted to at just 16. 

During her junior year at Radcliffe, Helen authored her first book, "The Story of My Life," which remains available in over fifty languages. Persevering in her academic endeavors, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in 1904 at the age of 24, becoming the first individual with deaf blindness to attain such a degree.

Shortly after her college graduation, Helen joined the Socialist Party and spoke out for women's suffrage and demanded better access to birth control. She also penned numerous articles on socialism and endorsed Eugene Debs, the Socialist Party's candidate for president. Helen emerged as a powerful advocate for the rights of individuals with disabilities and for women's rights. This also resulted in her being monitored by the FBI.

It was during this period that Helen first encountered public bias regarding her disabilities. Throughout most of her life, she had received overwhelming support from the press but once she revealed her socialist beliefs, some began to criticize her by highlighting her disabilities. The Brooklyn Eagle newspaper commented that her ""mistakes sprung out of the manifest limitations of her development."

Following her college education, she embarked on a journey to expand her understanding of the world and to explore ways she could contribute to enhancing the lives of others. Helen conveyed her experiences to various audiences and provided testimony before Congress, fervently championing the betterment of the blind community's welfare.

In 1905 Sullivan married Harvard instructor and social critic John Macy and Keller lived with them in Forest Hills, Queens.

Just before World War I, Helen Keller discovered that she could experience music through the vibrations by placing her fingertips on a resonant surface, with the help of the Zoellner Quartet.

In 1914 a young woman named Polly Thomson began working as a secretary for Helen and Sullivan.

In 1915, Helen co-founded Helen Keller International, an organization dedicated to fighting the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition.

In 1916 Sullivan became ill and Boston reporter Peter Fagan served as a replacement secretary. He and Hellen fell in love and wished to marry. However, it was the interference from Hellen's family, who believed that the deafblind Helen could fulfill the roles of a wife and mother, that ultimately ended the relationship.

In 1918, Helen made a silent movie in Hollywood, Deliverance, to dramatize the plight of the blind. For two year she also performed on the vaudeville stage much to Sullivan's dismay.

Helen helped found the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920.

In 1924 Helen became a member of the American Federation for the Blind and participated in many campaigns to raise awareness, money and support. She garnered significant donations from Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and key figures in the motion picture industry. When a branch for the overseas blind, it was named Helen Keller International.

Helen also became involved with other organizations committed to aiding the underprivileged, such as the Permanent Blind War Relief Fund.

Sullivan experienced health problems and in 1932 lost her eyesight completely. In 1936 she fell into a coma as a result of coronary thrombosis and passed away with Hellen holding her hand. This is when Polly Thomson, became Helen's constant companion. Helen and Thomson moved to Connecticut. They traveled worldwide and raised funds for the blind.

Also, in 1936 Helen received the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal.

Helen offered her support to soldiers blinded during World War II.

In 1946, Helen Keller was appointed as a counselor for international relations by the American Foundation for the Overseas Blind, and she visited 35 countries across five continents.

In 1953, Helen received a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1955, Helen, at the age of 75, undertook a challenging journey. She covered 40,000 miles in five months, traversing Asia. Her numerous speeches and appearances provided inspiration and encouragement to millions.

In 1957, Thomson suffered a stroke from which she never fully recovered, passing away in 1960. Winnie Corbally, a nurse who was initially employed to look after Thomson, continued to stay on after her death and became Helen's companion for the remainder of her life.

Also in 1957 Helen's autobiography, "The Story of My Life," served as the inspiration for the television drama "The Miracle Worker." Later, in 1959, it was adapted into a Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play with the same name, featuring Patty Duke as Helen Keller and Anne Bancroft as her teacher, Anne Sullivan. Duke and Bancroft reprised their roles in the critically acclaimed 1962 film adaptation of the play.

In 1964 Helen received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 1965 was elected to the Women's Hall of Fame.

Helen was also awarded honorary doctoral degrees from Temple University, Harvard University, and the universities of Glasgow in Scotland, Berlin in Germany, Delhi in India, and Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Additionally, she received the title of Honorary Fellow from the Educational Institute of Scotland.

In 1961 Helen suffered a series of strokes and spent the remaining years of her life at her home in Connecticut.

On June 1st, 1968, just a few weeks before her 88th birthday Helen died in her sleep. Her ashes are interred at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.

There is a blind guy who can ride his bike in traffic using his tongue!

Daniel Kish was born blind and figured out how to use echolocation by clicking his tongue and listening to the echoes. Daniel works with a non-profit organization known as World Access for the Blind to help train around 500 blind students in the technique he named “FlashSonar.” He has been nicknamed the “Real-life Batman”.

He enjoys various outdoor hobbies, including mountain biking and hiking.

Wonderful Amy Johnson Was The Queen Of The Air.

Amy Johnson

"Queen of the air"

Amy Johnson was born at 154 St George's Road in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England to Amy Hodge and John William Johnson, a member of the family fish merchants firm of Andrew Johnson, Knudtzon and Company. Amy was the eldest of the four daughters. 

She was educated at Boulevard Municipal Secondary School (later Kingston High School) and the University of Sheffield, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. She moved on to work as a secretary to a London solicitor and became interested in flying. She was told by her first instructor that she'd never be a pilot, but in 1928 she proved them wrong when she gained an aviator's certificate and a pilot's license, both at the London Aeroplane Club. In that same year, she became the first British woman to obtain a ground engineer's licence.

Amy wanted to fly solo to Australia and to beat Bert Hinkler's record of 16 days. She obtained the funds for her first aircraft from her father and eventually won financial backing from Lord Wakefield. She purchased a second-hand de Havilland DH.60 Gipsy Moth G-AAAH and named it Jason after her father's business trade mark.

On May 5th, 1930, with only 75 hours of flying time Amy set off from Croydon in South London on her solo flight to Darwin. On the fourth day a sandstorm forced her to land and she spent several with her gun in hand and the desert dogs barking in the distance. 

Several days later, after leaving Karachi in what is now Pakistan, she realized she didn't have enough fuel to get her to her next stop, so she made an unscheduled landing. Johnson flew through monsoon rains and in blistering heat and made several crash landings that caused delays while improvised repairs were made to her plane. And at one point, after making an unplanned stop in an Indonesian village, she was reported missing.

It was an epic flight of 11,000 miles.  She missed the record by three days, nevertheless she was the first woman to fly alone to Australia and was dubbed “Queen of the Air” by the British press.

Later, Amy remarked, "The prospect did not frighten me, because I was so appallingly ignorant that I never realized in the least what I had taken on."

In 1931, she and co-pilot Jack Humphreys became the first to fly from London to Moscow in one day. They completed the 1,760 miles  journey in approximately 21 hours in a de Havilland DH.80 Puss Moth G-AAZV which Amy named Jason II. From there, they continued across Siberia and on to Tokyo, setting a record time for Britain to Japan.

In 1932, Johnson married Scottish pilot Jim Mollison, who had proposed to her during a flight together some eight hours after they had first met. That year, she also broke the record for solo flight, which had been held by her new husband, to Cape Town, South Africa by 11 hours in Puss Moth G-ACAB, named Desert Cloud.

The following year the newly-weds undertook a joint flying mission non-stop from Wales for New York in a G-ACCV, de Havilland DH.84 Dragon I named "Seafarer." Ignoring his wife's advice, Mollison refused to refuel in Boston and headed to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. They ran out of gas over an airstrip in Connecticut, They overshot the runway trying to land their plane in the dark and crashed in a drainage ditch. Both were thrown from the aircraft but suffered only cuts and gashes. When Amelia Earhart heard about the accident she invited them to stay at her house while they recovered. After recuperating, the pair were feted by New York society and received a ticker tape parade down Wall Street.

The couple also flew, in record time, from Britain to India in 1934 in G-ACSP, named "Black Magic", a de Havilland DH.88 Comet as part of the Britain to Australia MacRobertson Air Race. They were forced to retire from the race at Allahabad because of engine trouble.

In May 1936, Amy made her last record-breaking flight, regaining her Britain to South Africa record in G-ADZO, a Percival Gull Six. The same year she was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Aero Club.

In 1938, Amy overturned her glider when landing after a display at Walsall Aerodrome in England, but was not seriously hurt. The same year, she divorced Mollison. Soon afterwards, she reverted to her maiden name.

In 1939, during the outbreak of World World II, the Royal Air Force invited her to join the newly established Air Transport Auxiliary, which was ferrying aircraft from factories to air bases. She rose to first officer.

On January 5th, 1941, had been on a routine mission, flying a  Airspeed Oxford from Prestwick to Kidlington when she went off course in adverse weather conditions. Reportedly out of fuel, she bailed out as her aircraft crashed into the Thames Estuary near Herne Bay. A convoy of wartime vessels spotted Amy's parachute coming down and saw her alive in the frigged water, calling for help. 

The weather was terrible and the tide was strong as the snow was falling as Lt Cmdr Walter Fletcher, the Captain of HMS Haslemere, navigated his ship to attempt a rescue. The crew of the vessel threw ropes out to Amy but she was unable to reach them and was lost under the ship. Some people believed that Amy was sucked into the blades of the ship's propellers, but no one witnessed this however and Amy was never seen again.

A memorial service was held for Amy in the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields on January 14th, 1941.

As a member of the ATA with no known grave, she is (under the name Amy V. Johnson) commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on the Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede. 

During her life and after her death, Amy was honored in many ways. I will only mention of few of them since there are so many. A song was written about Amy called, Wonderful Amy.  From 1935 to 1937, Johnson was the President of the Women's Engineering Society. The British Women Pilot's Association award is an annual Amy Johnson Memorial Trust Scholarship to help outstanding women pilots further their careers.

In 1999, it was reported that Tom Mitchell, claimed to have shot sixteen rounds of shells Amy's aircraft down when she twice failed to give the correct identification code during the flight. Mitchell explained how the aircraft was sighted and contacted by radio. 

"We all thought it was an enemy plane until the next day when we read the papers and discovered it was Amy. The officers told us never to tell anyone what happened."

You Probably Didn't Know That Vice Admiral Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov Saved Our World.

Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov

He was a Soviet Union Naval Officer who prevented the launch of a nuclear torpedo during the Cuban Missile Crisis and therefore possibly a nuclear war.

He was a very shy and modest person, intelligent and smart, very polite. He was always in touch with the modern world. Vasili was born on January 30th, 1926 into a peasant family in Staraya, Kupavna.  At the age of 16, he enrolled into Pacific Higher Naval School and participated in the Soviet–Japanese War in August 1945, serving aboard a minesweeper. The Soviet Union's defeat of Japan's Kwantung Army in the Soviet-Japanese War helped in the the termination of World War II.

Later, Vasili transferred to the Caspian Higher Naval School where he  graduated in 1947. Right after graduation, Vasili served in the submarine service aboard boats in the Black Sea, Northern and Baltic Fleets. 

K-19 "Hiroshima"

In July 1961, Vasili was appointed deputy commander and also acted as the executive officer of the submarine K-19. It was a first generation nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear ballistic missiles. It was also one of the first two of the Project 658 class and was hastily built as a part of the arms race against the United States.

As the crew conducted exercises off the south-east coast of Greenland, an extreme leak in the reactor coolant system of the submarine was detected. On July 4, 1961, the leak eventually caused cooling system failure and also damaged the radio communications systems. 

Unable to make contact with Moscow, Commander Nikolai Vladimirovich Zateyev ordered the entire engineering crew to come up with a solution to avoid nuclear meltdown. This entailed them to work in high radiation levels for extended periods. After Vasili helped to stop a mutiny, the engineering team was able design a secondary cooling system,  preventing the reactor from a meltdown. The crew survived, but they were all exposed to high levels of radiation. The exposure to high radiation caused the deaths of all the members of the engineering team, as well as their divisional officer, within a month of the incident. 15 more members of the crew died during the next two years, and Vasil later developed kidney cancer. He also received a medal for his loyalty, bravery, and calm demeanor.

The tragic story of of K-19 and the crew was adapted into a 2002 movie called "K-19: The Widowmaker." It stars Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson and Peter Sarsgaard. The most significant difference between the plot and the historical events is the scene that replaces an incident where the all the submarine's small arms were thrown overboard out of concern about the possibility of a mutiny; the film instead portrays an actual attempt at mutiny.

The Cold War And The Cuban Missile Crisis

As World War II ended the Cold War began. The Cold War was an ongoing series of largely political and economic clashes between the United States and the Soviet Union.

During this time, a Latin American country openly allying with the Soviet Union was regarded by the US as unacceptable. So, when leftist revolutionary leader Fidel Castro aligned himself with the Soviet Union, the United States was less than thrilled. 

By October 1st, 1962, Vasili was the commander of an entire submarine fleet of four diesel-powered, nuclear-armed Soviet Foxtrot-class submarines. The fleet left the base on the Kola Peninsula and was carrying nuclear weapons that the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, had agreed to secretly place in Cuba.

The Kennedy administration had previous launched a failed attack on the island, the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and Castro and  Khrushchev hoped the missiles would deter further U.S. attacks.

On October 14th, Vasili, aboard the flagship B-59 and acting as its second-in-command to Captain Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, reached the Caribbean the day Tropical Storm Ella hits. Trailing him are a B-4, a B-36, and a B-130. They were all diesel-powered and became saunas in the tropical waters.

Also on the 14th, a pilot of an American U-2 spy plane making a high-altitude pass over Cuba, photographed a Soviet SS-4 medium-range ballistic missile being assembled for installation.  

The fact that the nuclear-armed Cuban missiles were being installed, just 90 miles south of Florida meant that they were capable of quickly reaching targets in the eastern U.S. This didn't sit right with Kennedy and ExCom and they wanted to orchestrate their removal without initiating a wider conflict–and possibly a nuclear war. The Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously agreed that a full-scale attack and invasion was the only solution, but Kennedy was skeptical. He didn't want U.S. allies thinking of the country as "trigger-happy cowboys". However, less than a month before the crisis, Kennedy had promised the American people, "if Cuba should possess a capacity to carry out offensive actions against the United States... the United States would act," so he had to do something.

Kennedy decided he would employ the U.S. Navy to establish a blockade, or quarantine, of the island to prevent the Soviets from delivering additional missiles and military equipment. He also raised the country’s defense readiness condition (DEFCON) from 4 to 3 (in readiness for war), a first in its history.

On the 15th, Moscow ordered Vasili and his fleet to leave Cuban waters and head east to the Sargasso Sea. With no more messages arriving from Moscow, the fleet relies on American radio broadcasts for information. They heared about a U.S. invasion of Cuba, the launch of U.S. warships and planes, and the possibility of Soviet submarines in the area.

On the 24th, By October 24, the U.S. is on DEFCON 2, the final step before a nuclear war, and the Soviet fleet neared the line of U.S. vessels enforcing the blockade. 

The air conditioning in the vessel that Vasili and his men were in failed and temperatures rise to 65°F. In the diesel section, it was over 70°. Since they never arrived at Cuba, they were short on supplies and men were limited to one glass per man a day. High levels of carbon dioxide were also present in the submarine.

The fleet stayed hidden just below the surface to charge their batteries and hoped not to be detected.

On the 27th, an U.S. reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba, and a U.S. invasion force was readied in Florida. 

Also on the 27th, Vasili and his fleet of ships were discovered by a group of eleven United States Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph. They began dropping non-lethal depth charges to encourage the Soviet submarines to surface. The submarines were submerged too deep to even hear the radio communications of the U.S. ships and the crew of B-59 thought they were witnessing the beginning of a third world war. 

Unknown to the U.S. forces, the Soviets had a ten kiloton nuclear torpedo on board and the officers had permission to launch it without waiting for approval from Moscow. Temperatures in the B-59 exceeded 120 degrees and the batteries were about to go out.  They had to do something soon or perish. Two of the vessel’s senior officers wanted to launch the missile, but all three senior officers on board had to agree to deploy the weapon. Vasili refused to sanction the launch of the weapon and calmed the captain down. The torpedo was never fired. 

They contacted the the U.S. ships, who gave them permission to surface, then they were ordered back in to head home. One of Vasili's superiors told him that it would have been better had he died.

After the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vasili commanded submarines and later submarine squadrons. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1975, and became head of the Kirov Naval Academy. He was promoted to vice admiral in 1981 and retired in the mid-1980s.

He settled in Kupavna (which was incorporated into Zheleznodorozhny, Moscow Oblast, in 2004). He died there on August 19th, 1998 from kidney cancer. Vasili Arkhipov leftt behind his wife, Olga and their daughter named Yelena.

Nikolai Vladimirovich Zateyev died nine days later. Both Vasili and Nikolai were 72.

Vasili received the first "Future of Life Award," which was presented to his family in 2017. The award recognizes exceptional measures, often performed despite personal risk and without obvious reward, to safeguard the collective future of humanity.