October 29, 1998: The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on mission STS-95. Among its crew is John Glenn. He had been the 1st American to orbit the Earth in 1962, was wrapping up his 4th term as a U.S. Senator from Ohio, and was now, at 77, the oldest person ever to travel in space. Also among the crew is Pedro Duque, the 1st native of Spain to fly in space.
Glenn had been a fighter pilot in the Korean War, a squadron-mate of baseball legend Ted Williams. After the war, he set a speed record flying from coast to coast. Of the "Mercury 7" -- who called him "Mr. Clean the Marine" -- he was the oldest, and the one with the most flying experience.
Because Glenn was the 1st American in orbit, he ended up being celebrated far more than Alan Shepard, whose Mercury-Redstone 3 launch in 1961 made him the 1st American in space, because his capsule, Freedom 7, never got into orbit.
Following his return to Earth, Glenn received a ticker-tape parade in New York, and a welcome to the White House from President John F. Kennedy. He became so useful as an example of American excellence that they didn't let him fly in space again. This might not have been fair, but it became more logical in 1968, when Soviet astronaut (they used the term "cosmonaut") Yuri Gagarin, the 1st person in space and the 1st person to orbit the Earth, was killed in a test flight.
In 1964, he ran for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from Ohio, but dropped out when an injury interfered with his ability to campaign. He tried again in 1970, narrowly losing the primary. He tried again in 1974, and won, the 1st of 4 terms he would win. His opponents liked to say, "John, what on Earth have you done for us?" The voters of Ohio seemed to think he was doing enough. He ran for the Democratic nomination for President in 1984, but didn't get far.
On October 25, 1998, as he was retiring from the Senate, he finally returned to space, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, on mission STS-95. His fellow crewmembers: Air Force Colonels Curtis Brown and Steve Lindsey, mechanical engineer Stephen Robinson, physicians Scott Parazynski and Chiaki Mukai (the only woman on the crew), and the 1st astronaut from Spain, aeronautics engineer Pedro Duque. The mission lasted 10 days, and reported no problems.
Glenn was 77, at the time the oldest person ever to travel in space. This record would later be broken by several "space tourists," including William Shatner, the actor who played Star Trek's Captain James T. Kirk, who was 90 years old when he finally reached "space, the final frontier" in real life, aboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin on October 13, 2021.
Glenn died in 2016, the last survivor of the Mercury 7.
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October 29, 1998 was a Thursday. Baseball season had ended 8 days earlier, when the New York Yankees completed a 4-game World Series sweep of the San Diego Padres. There was one college football game: Brigham Young University (BYU) beat San Diego State, 13-0 at Cougar Stadium (now LaVell Edwards Stadium) in Provo, Utah.
The NBA team owners had locked the players out, and the season didn't start until February 5, 1999. There were 5 games played in the NHL:
* The New Jersey Devils beat the New York Islanders, 2-1 at the Nassau Coliseum.
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins played to a tie, 1-1 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.
* The Ottawa Senators beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1 at the Corel Centre in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata, Ontario. (It's now the Canadian Tire Centre. The town was absorbed into Ottawa proper in 2001.)
* The St. Louis Blues beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-1 at the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.
* And the Colorado Avalanche beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-2 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.
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