On this day · archive
Pluto names its small companions
June 21 carries archive, culture, disaster, law, space. A distant planet’s family album gains two names, turning faint points of light into entries the public can remember.
8
events in todayish file
2006
Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra.
A distant planet’s family album gains two names, turning faint points of light into entries the public can remember.
Pluto’s newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra: a small act of language at the far edge of the familiar solar system. Before a name, a moon is a measurement; after it, the public can begin to remember it.
The record is modest in scale and large in implication. Nix and Hydra do not make Pluto less distant, but they make its neighborhood more legible — two companions added to the map by naming.
On a day crowded with crashes, court doctrine, theater, spaceflight, and Andean scholarship, the Pluto entry offers the archive a quiet scientific verb: to notice, then to name.
The full record
8 entries from the day’s archive, filed year by year with a note on what each one leaves behind.
A hot air balloon catches fire mid-flight and crashes in Praia Grande, Santa Catarina, Brazil, killing 8 of the 21 on board.
A balloon excursion becomes a fatal aviation disaster in Brazil, with the toll kept plainly in view.
Disaster
A boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsizes in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island of Java and Christmas Island, killing 17 people and leaving 70 others missing.
Migration and maritime danger meet between Java and Christmas Island, leaving deaths and missing people in the record.
Disaster
An Indonesian Air Force Fokker F27 Friendship crashes near Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport, killing 11.
The Fokker crash gives the same year a second disaster record, this one measured by airport proximity and eleven deaths.
Disaster
Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra.
Nix and Hydra turn remote discovery into public language at the edge of Pluto’s neighborhood.
Space
Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-57 to retrieve the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) satellite. It is also the first shuttle mission to carry the Spacehab module.
The 1993 space entry measures distance and engineering through Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-57 to retrieve the European Retrievable Carrier EURECA.
Space
The original production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Evita, based on the life of Eva Perón, opens at the Prince Edward Theatre, London.
The 1978 culture entry begins with The original production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita based on, then depends on audiences to carry it forward.
Culture
The Primer Congreso del Hombre Andino is inaugurated in Arica, Chile.
The Arica congress adds an intellectual and regional register to the day’s archive.
Archive
In its decision in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller test for determining whether something is obscene and not protected speech under the U.S. constitution.
The Miller decision gives the date a durable First Amendment test and a long legal afterlife.
Law