On November 14th, 1969, N.A.S.A. launched the 10-day Apollo 12 mission to explore Earth’s moon. The spacecraft was hit by lightning twice during the first minute of flight. Lightning was conducted the length of the spacecraft and rocket stages and rocket exhaust all the way to Earth.

On this date in 1965, the ‘great northeast blackout’ occurred as several states and parts of Canada lost electricity up to 13 1/2 hours. While 30 million persons lost electricity, 800,000 persons were trapped in subway cars, and the populace heard no explanation of what had caused the outage, panic, chaos, and crime didn’t reign. Law-enforcement agencies and news media reported that most persons coped calmly.