Blueberries in United States

The blueberry is native to North America, whereas the closely related bilberry originated in Europe.

Wild berries are important source of food for birds and other wild animals and native people enjoyed them long before the first Europeans discovered North America.

This fruit was used by the Indians to make pemmican, which is prepared by mixing sun or wind-dried strips of meat with melted fat and various types of berries.

French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, found native people gathering wild blueberries for use during the winter months.

Native people originally harvested the berry where they grew naturally, that is in treeless barrens or where forested areas had been burned over after lighting strikes. Later, some tribes, encouraged continuing production by deliberately setting fire to favorite picking areas and this method of pruning resulted in improved growth and increased yield of fruit.

During the 17th century, settlers from England arrived in the New World to begin colonies. In winter of 1620, the pilgrims established a settlement at Plymouth. Their neighbors, the Wampanoag Indians, taught the settler new skills that helped them survive.

The colonist learned how to gather blueberries, dry under the summer’s sun and store them for the winter.

The early settlers began to harvest the fruit for their own use after the manner of the native people. Americans began to consume greater amounts of blueberries after the supply of sugar increased sharply in the latter part of the 18th century, when the fruit became a popular ingredient of jams, jellies, pies and tarts.

The cultivation of blueberries in the United States was initiated in 1906 by Dr. F. V. Coville, a botanist in the US Department of Agriculture. He elected wild highbush berry plants from New Hampshire and New Jersey for his experiments.

The first commercial shipments of blueberries were made in 1916, and the production and utilization of this fruit has increased steadily since then.
Blueberries in United States

Scripps Institution of Oceanography

William E. Ritter (1856-1944) was a zoologist at the University of California in Berkeley when he decided that his life’s work was to found a marine biological station on the west coast.

It was then he met Edward Willis Scripps (1854-1926) and his sister Ellen Browning Scripps (1836-1932).  Edwards was the owner of many so-called penny newspapers in the United States, designed to bring news to the general public, was also a yachtsman who sought relaxation at sea.

While Ellen Browning, was a major benefactor in the San Diego are and beyond (hospital, college, science and other projects).

The Scripps family provided almost all of the operating funds for the station from 1903 to 1912. The name of the station was Marine Biological Association of San Diego (1903-1912) and Scripps Institution for Biological Research (1912-1925).

The station began in 1892 as a portable laboratory-in-a-tent.  Its first permanent buildings were erected in 1905 on a site purchased with funds donated Scripps family.

From 1912, when the station became part of the University of California, until their deaths, E.W Scripps and Ellen Browning Scripps matched the state support for the institution.

E. W. Scripps personally donated over forty thousand dollars. He donated his yacht as the institution’s first ship, the E. W. Scripps.

He initiated the idea of operating a pulse aquarium at the station and he convinced Ritter to purchase the one hundred and seventy acre pueblo lot in La Jolla where the institution stands today.

The first chemical laboratory at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography was founded by Erik G. Moberg in 1930. This was the beginning of a tradition of excellence on chemical oceanography and marine chemistry that continuous to the present.

By October 1925 its name was change to Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

United States president Dwight D. Eisenhower formed NASA on October 1, 1958. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.

This group has studied aircraft flight for more than 40 years. The National Aeronautics and Space Admi9nstartion (NASA) is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nations’ civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research.

NASA started operational with four laboratories and 80 employees. NASA’s first agenda was human spaceflight and the possibility of safely sending a man into space and bringing him back to earth.

1961: NASA scientists with their calculation board

Eisenhower appointed the president of the Case Institute of Technology, T. Keith Glennan, as NASA’s first administrator, believing that Glennan could sway international opinion by using NASA to demonstrate American’s superior civilian scientific and technological capabilities.

Urged on by a pledge from President John F. Kennedy that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, on July 20, 1969 the space program finally achieved their ultimate goal as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the first steps in the moon and safely return them to earth.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan approved the construction of Space Station Freedom, which was the first step in the planning and construction of what today is the International Space Station, also known as Space Station Alpha.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)