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I didn’t realize until Friday that yesterday was going to be the 20th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. I remember exactly where I was that day.

My mom and I had just moved back from Florida, and my dad was still there trying to sell our house. I had just started the second half of my sixth grade year at my grandmother’s school, and I had my hands full just trying to fit in and form new friendships. I had come out of the bathroom when I saw the school administrator rushing by. She glanced over and hurriedly shouted, “Brian, go to the cafeteria!”.

I had no idea why she was saying this, but I suspected something was wrong. When I got there and saw what was on the television, I knew I was right. I sat there for awhile watching the news reports while other classes were being escorted in to witness the tragedy repeated ad nauseum.

I remember thinking that the explosion didn’t look that bad on television, and I wondered if the people on the ground new what was happening. My stomach sank as I thought about the crew and if they were alive after the initial explosion. Reading about the events twenty years later still gives me that same feeling.

I’ll always remember Ronald Reagan’s speech later that evening, specifically the last memorable paragraph.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”

More history for you: sixty years ago today was the raising of the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi on the tiny island of Iwo Jima. You’ve probably seen this immortalized many times in a very famous photo, there’s actually video of the event that gets shown every once in awhile. Monica used to live right by the memorial depicting that event, which sits in Rosslyn, Virginia. We drove and walked by it many times, but most days never gave it much thought.

What you might not know, is that the moment captured in that picture was actually the second time a flag was raised there. For more on the story, read this article.

Amazing photos from Iwo Jima, an island of scorched earth where the United States fought one of the fiercest battles of WWII. For the soldiers involved, it was a month of hell on earth.

I stare at these pictures, and I am just in awe.