In case you were wondering about notable science events that happened around June 27th…

Its just not quite as convenient as an ipod. On June 29th, 1888, the first recording of a classical song was made. The first song recorded was Handel’s “Israel in Egypt,” and it was recorded on a new piece of technology called the phonograph cylinder developed by Thomas Edison. Unfortunately, the new techonology could not hold 80 gigs of music.

photo credit: Elsie esq.

Are we there yet? On July 1st, 2004, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft finally reached its destination of Saturn after travelling through space for almost seven years. The craft split into two pieces upon reaching Saturn; the Cassini orbiter entered Saturn’s orbit while the Huygens probe continued on to land on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. You can view images the probes have taken of saturn and its moons here.

On July 2nd, 1900, the first Zeppelin was tested. The German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin obtained a patent in 1895 and began constructing his first model in 1889, which was completed almost a year later. The initial flight only lasted eighteen minutes; the zeppelin was forced to land after the winding mechanism broke. Probably the most famous zeppelin moment was when the largest airship ever constructed, the Hindenburg  exploded while landing in front of a crowd of thousands. 35 of the 97 passengers on board were killed. The following video is a newreel that was released about the Hindenburg crash shortly after the explosion.

photo credit: Karl Palutke

Suffering from a broken heart? On July 2nd, 2001, AbioCor created the first truly artificial heart. It runs on a rechargable power source. The heart is still being perfected, as it currently extends the life of a patient by only 12 to 17 months. Also, due to the large size of the technology, it can only be implanted in large patients. However, it’s only a matter of time until anyone can resemble RoboCop.