Image: NASA.
In 1926 on this date, Virgil Ivan ‘Gus’ Grissom was born. An American test pilot and astronaut from 1959 to 1967, he was the second American in space, flying aboard Gemini 3 in 1965. In July of 1967, he died in the Apollo 1 launchpad fire, alongside Edward H. White II and Roger Bruce Chaffee.