Here’s a brief look back in time for this day, April 11.
In 1814, the famed French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte (also known simply as Napoleon) is exiled onto the secluded island of Elba just off the coast of Italy. This happened due to his failed military operation into Moscow, in which the Russians sent his troops into retreat back to France. With most of Europe now turned against him, he realized that his tenure as emperor was up. He wanted his son, Napoleon II, to take the throne in his stead. This offer was refused, and he was sent on his way aboard the HMS Undaunted.
In 1945, U.S. armed forces locate and liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. This was during the final weeks of the war in Europe as Nazi Germany retreats to Berlin. Part of the retreat were attempts to erase evidence of the concentration camps. These camps had resulted in the deaths of millions of Jewish citizens, with some like Auschwitz being built solely for the purpose of extermination. The prisoners they couldn’t take with them were either executed or left to die. Buchenwald was a slave labor camp that was built in 1937 just a couple years before the invasion of Poland, in which labor primarily consisted the manufacturing of munitions for the war effort. Medical experiments were conducted there as well, which resulted in hundreds of deaths. One such experiment was a “cure” for homosexuality: a serious crime in Germany during this period. Over 21,000 prisoners were rescued when the U.S. liberated the camp.
In 1970, Apollo 13 successfully launches. This was the third attempted lunar landing. The astronauts on this mission were James Lovell, John Swigert and Fred Haise. While on their way to the moon, something blows up. Lovell looked outside his window and noticed that gas was leaking out into space. This was oxygen for the Command Module where the crew resided in; time is now running out fast before they suffocate to death. On top of this, fuel is nearing empty and the module’s navigation systems were rendered offline. The crew was over 200,000 miles away from Earth; however, mission control in Houston had a plan. They proposed to use the Moon’s gravity as a means to “slingshot” the module’s way back to Earth, limiting the usage of fuel. With no other option, the crew proceeds with the plan. They used little fuel to reach the Moon’s orbit, wraps around it, and lunges the module’s way back to Earth. There was one extra caveat though: reentry. Earth’s atmosphere has the ability to burn up anything that enters; Apollo 13 was no exception. NASA feared initially that the module’s heat shield was damaged, which could literally fry the astronauts inside the tiny, metal capsule. There was only one way to find out. Hours felt like years as the module safely lands in the Pacific Ocean. However, all three astronauts wave to the world their survival. 2026’s Artemis II utilized this similar method. By the time of writing, they are expected to reach back to Earth within the coming hours.