Dr. Wernher von Braun.
Image: NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center.

In 1934 on this date, Wernher Von Braun received his doctorate degree in Germany. His published doctoral thesis, “About Combustion Tests,” was completed in very little time.

His actual thesis, however, was later revealed to be a classified Army document! This dissertation, entitled “Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket”, dated 16 April 1934, was not declassified until some 70 years later. It detailed the construction and design of the A2 rocket that would fly later that year.