Happy Anniversary Day
"Robert H. Goddard became interested in space when he read H.G. Wells' science fiction classic The War of the Worlds when he was 16 years old. His dedication to pursuing rocketry became fixed on October 19, 1899.
While climbing a cherry tree to cut off dead limbs, he imagined, as he later wrote, "how wonderful it would be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars, and how it would look on a small scale, if sent up from the meadow at my feet." For the rest of his life, he observed October 19 as "Anniversary Day", a private commemoration of the day of his greatest inspiration."
While climbing a cherry tree to cut off dead limbs, he imagined, as he later wrote, "how wonderful it would be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars, and how it would look on a small scale, if sent up from the meadow at my feet." For the rest of his life, he observed October 19 as "Anniversary Day", a private commemoration of the day of his greatest inspiration."