The monumental announcement sent shockwaves through the scientific community. “Hearing Dr. Millikan was like being present when the Curies announced the discovery of radium, Roentgen reported the first generation of X-rays or Hertz sent the first wireless waves,” reported The Science News-Letter, a weekly publication.

As significant as Millikan’s research was, it drew on the earlier work of Austrian physicist Victor Hess. In the early 1910s, Hess conducted multiple balloon experiments to measure ionization levels in the atmosphere and discovered concentrations were highest several miles above the ground. One test during a near-total solar eclipse led Hess to argue that the source of this “high altitude radiation” wasn’t the sun but elsewhere in space. Scientists didn’t accept this theory until Millikan confirmed it within his own research the following decade.

Cosmic rays are actually high-speed particles, either electrons or atomic nuclei, that travel through space, moving at nearly the speed of light. Most cosmic rays come from within the Milky Way galaxy, and others come from the sun. The strongest cosmic rays usually come from outside the Milky Way, allowing scientists to uncover some of the universe’s makeup and history. The Earth’s magnetosphere and atmosphere largely protect humans from the dangers such cosmic radiation poses, though astronauts, pilots and flight attendants face increased risks.

Beyond illuminating previously unknown facets of the universe, cosmic rays ushered in the field of modern particle physics and led to the discovery of antimatter. They also underpin the radiocarbon dating technology that allows scientists to determine the age of various artifacts and geologic specimens.

Two years before he coined the term cosmic rays, Millikan, who served as director of the Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics at the California Institute of Technology, won a Nobel Prize for his study of the elementary electronic charge and the photoelectric effect. During World War I, Millikan played a significant role in developing meteorological and antisubmarine devices as vice chairman of the National Research Council.

Hess received a Nobel Prize for discovering cosmic radiation in 1936.

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Cyrus Avery, an Oklahoma realtor and owner of a Tulsa-based coal company, is known as the “Father of Route 66.” He began acquiring oil leases in the early 1900s and identified the need for more roads, particularly one that could connect the Midwest to the West Coast. Avery teamed up with John Woodruff of Springfield, Missouri, to promote the idea of a highway that would follow a diagonal course and link hundreds of rural communities so farmers could transport grain and produce to consumers.

In April 1926, Avery and Missouri highway engineer B.H. Piepmeier sent a telegram to the Bureau of Public Roads in Washington, D.C., suggesting the route’s famous name. It was officially adopted that November.

Truckers started using Route 66 by the 1930s, and the iconic route became the country’s first fully paved highway in 1938. The following year, John Steinbeck dubbed it the “Mother Road” in his novel The Grapes of Wrath. In addition to serving Dust Bowl migrants, Route 66 became an essential thoroughfare for the U.S. military during World War II.

Thanks to heavy promotion, Route 66 became a major attraction for cross-country road trips in the 1950s, leading souvenir shops, gas stations, motels and auto camps to pop up along “The Main Street of America.” It inspired the 1946 hit song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66,” written by Bobby Troup and performed by Nat King Cole, and the early 1960s television series “Route 66.”

Among the most famous roads in U.S. history, Route 66 seemed a permanent national fixture. But, just like its name, its days were numbered. Between the mid-1950s and October 1984, modern, four-lane interstates gradually bypassed the route and allowed motorists to travel faster and more efficiently. The following June, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials officially removed Route 66 from the U.S. highway system.

Today, Historic Route 66 remains a beloved symbol, and some stretches have been designated as National Scenic Byways or All-American Roads. Many roadside attractions and motels remain in operation.

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At 12:15 p.m., Morrison reaches the 29,032-foot summit of Everest, located in the Himalayas on the border of Nepal and Tibet, via the Hornbein and Japanese couloirs, a notoriously difficult route that few climbers have attempted. He then clips into his skis around 2 p.m. and begins a four-hour, five-minute descent from the highest point in the world to his base camp on the Rongbuk Glacier 9,000 vertical feet below.

Filmmaker and mountaineer Jimmy Chin, who documented the expedition with his wife, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, for the 2026 film Everest: The Other Side, compared the challenge to rock climbing without a rope or other safety gear. “If your edge blows out or you slip anywhere on the line, you’re gone,” he said. “You fall 9,000 feet.”

Skiing Mount Everest’s North Face had been a goal for Morrison since his teens. Originally, he planned the expedition with his partner, acclaimed ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson. However, Nelson died in 2022 after a small avalanche swept her off her skis while the couple was skiing down Nepal’s Mount Manaslu. Before starting his Everest descent, Morrison scattered some of her ashes on the mountain’s summit. “I had a little conversation with her and felt like I could dedicate the whole day to her,” he later told National Geographic.

Morrison’s feat came 25 years after Everest’s first successful ski descent from the summit to base camp. Slovenian skier Davo Karničar was the first person to ski from Everest’s summit to base camp in October 2000, descending via the southeast ridge. A year later, France’s Marco Siffredi became the first person to descend Everest’s North Face on a snowboard, traveling through the Norton Couloir. In 2002, he returned to Everest intending to descend the Hornbein Couloir but disappeared during the attempt; his body has not been found. Roughly three weeks before Morrison’s accomplishment, Polish ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel also made history when he skied down the mountain without supplemental oxygen via the southeast ridge.

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While training on Guadalcanal, the site of the U.S.’s second major victory in the Pacific, the Marines from the 29th and 4th Regiments sparred over which unit boasted the superior football talent. Their ranks included NFL players and college All-Americans who postponed their professional football careers to serve their country. To settle the argument—and provide a Yuletide morale boost—the regiments agreed to face off in the “Football Classic” on Christmas Eve.

The 65 players included a trio of college All-Americans, seven former team captains at universities including Notre Dame and what is now Colorado State as well as 16 players who had either been drafted or would later receive professional offers. Charles “Ed” Behan, the 29th Regiment’s player-coach, had suited up for the Detroit Lions, while John McLaughry, who had played for the New York Giants, lined up in the backfield for the 4th Regiment. The college stars included Tony Butkovich, a Cleveland Rams draft pick who had set the (since broken) Big Ten single-season scoring record while playing at Purdue University, and a pair of University of Wisconsin linemen—All-American Dave Schreiner and Bob Baumann—who had also been drafted by NFL teams.

Playing without helmets or pads, the Marines took to a makeshift field on a grassless parade ground in rudimentary uniforms. The 4th Regiment wore dungaree trousers, while the 29th Regiment sported cutoff dungarees. No one wore a numbered T-shirt. At least 1,500 Marines, many with warm beer in hand and money wagered on the outcome, ringed the field. Printed programs, a public address announcer and performances by a regimental band added to the big-game atmosphere. Service members stationed across the South Pacific tuned in to listen to the radio broadcast on the military’s “Mosquito Network,” a name that, like the game’s nickname, referenced the region’s buggy tropical climate.

What began as a touch football game quickly turned into a bruising, full-tackle battle that left combatants with knees and elbows bloodied from the field’s sharp coral. Few details of the fiercely contested game survive, but Bob Spicer of the 4th Marines intercepted a pass in the last minute to preserve a scoreless tie.

The brief afternoon of normalcy soon gave way to the grim reality of the war. Just over three months later, the Marines invaded Okinawa. Among the more than 12,000 American troops killed in the nearly three-month campaign were 15 Mosquito Bowl players, including Behan, Baumann, Schreiner and Butkovich. The story of the game and its participants became the subject of a 2022 book by Buzz Bissinger and a 2026 feature film.

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Earlier that day, Bundy had attempted to abduct 18-year-old Carol DaRonch from a shopping mall in Murray, Utah. Posing as a police detective, he lured her into his car, but she managed to escape.

Kent was taken to Bundy's home in Salt Lake City, where he held her about 24 hours, Bundy later confessed. It is unclear when Bundy began his killing spree, but his earliest widely documented attack occurred about 10 months before the abduction of Kent.

On January 4, 1974, Bundy severely battered and sexually assaulted Karen Sparks in Seattle. In early February, Bundy raped and killed Lynda Ann Healy, his first known murder victim. Before moving to Utah in 1974, Bundy attacked at least seven other women.

Bundy was sentenced to death in 1979 and spent a decade filing multiple appeals. He eventually confessed to 30 murders, though the number is thought to be higher. Before his execution, Bundy told investigators where he had disposed of Kent's body. Searchers subsequently recovered 10 bags of bones near Fairview Canyon, but only one bone, a human patella, was identified as human. In 2019, authorities announced that DNA testing had confirmed the bone belonged to Kent.

In April 2026, advances in DNA technology conclusively linked Bundy to the 1974 murder of 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime in Utah, a killing he had confessed to before his execution. In October 2026, authorities also announced a DNA match connecting him to the 1974 murder of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith.

Bundy was executed by electric chair on January 24, 1989, at the Florida State Prison, where hundreds of people came to cheer.

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