Image Credit: NASA
On this date in 1894, Hermann Julius Oberth, the “Father of German Spaceflight,” was born. His seminal 1923 book, outlining the mathematic principles of rocketry and space travel, provided the basis for the space craze in Germany, leading to the V-2 and Wernher von Braun’s rocket team.
You can read NASA’s official biography of Oberth here.