Sunday · September 27, 2026
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19821776 Club

The Air Force stands up a new command for space, headquartered in Colorado Springs

Gen. James V. Hartinger takes charge after years of infighting among rival commands over who would run America's space assets.

For years, the Air Force ran its space programs out of a patchwork of commands, none of them fully in charge. The looming arrival of the Space Shuttle only sharpened the fight, with Systems Command, Aerospace Defense Command, Strategic Air Command, and Military Airlift Command all arguing they should run shuttle operations. On September 1, 1982, the Air Force cut through the dispute and activated Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, the first dedicated U.S. military space command. Gen. James V. Hartinger took the first commander's chair…

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More from September 1
1983

Soviet jet destroys Korean Air 007 off Sakhalin; 269 dead, a US congressman among them

The Boeing 747 had drifted deep into Soviet airspace before a Su-15 pilot fired his missiles.
1974

An SR-71 crosses the Atlantic in under two hours flat

Sullivan and Widdifield average nearly 1,807 miles an hour, refueling in midair along the way.
1774

Redcoats empty the Charlestown powder house before dawn

Word of the raid spreads wrong and fast, and thousands of militiamen are on the road before anyone confirms a shot was fired.
19391776 Club
Oppenheimer and his student Hartland Snyder show a dying star can seal itself off from the universe entirely.
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More from Cold War America
1984

Reagan, mic hot before a soundcheck, jokes he'll outlaw Russia and start bombing in five minutes

The line wasn't meant for air, but by August 13 wire services had it anyway.
1990

A flat tire sends Sue Hendrickson up a cliff, and she finds a T. rex

While the rest of the crew fixed the truck, Hendrickson checked the one ridge nobody had searched yet.
1969

New York buries three astronauts in paper; Nixon pins on the nation's highest civilian honor

The same day, hundreds of miles away in Los Angeles, a state dinner turns into a medal ceremony.
1962

GI dodges court martial by walking across a minefield into North Korea

Three hours before he was due to answer for forged paperwork, Dresnok chose the DMZ instead.
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