Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 20
NBC airs the 20th episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Dana Andrews, Sandra Dee, Jared Martin, Patrick Macnee, Brock Peters, and Tim Matheson guest star.
The Fujita Scale
Dr. Tetsuya Theodore Fujita, a pioneering researcher in the formation and development of severe weather, proposes a scale for judging the intensity of tornadoes by the damage left behind. His five-point scale covers minimal tornadoes (F1) through storms capable of inflicting incredible damage (F5), with damage surveyed after a storm to determine the physical effects and the estimated wind speed needed to cause those effects. The Fujita Scale is adopted almost worldwide, remaining in widespread use by severe weather researchers and government agencies until it is supplanted by the more refined Enhanced Fujita Scale in the 1990s.
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 19
NBC airs the 19th episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Edward G. Robinson, Yaphet Kotto, and Zsa Zsa Gabor guest star.
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 18
NBC airs the 18th episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Ross Martin, Rene Auberjonois, and Mel Blanc guest star in an episode that includes an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “Cool Air”.
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra‘s self-titled debut album is released in the UK, though it proves to be the last released collaboration between founders (and former Move members) Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne; Wood leaves the band after an unpromising live debut. The album is released in the US in March 1972, where a phone call to clarify the album’s title results in a misunderstood written note that leads to the American release going out under the unintentional title No Answer.
Mariner 9 at Phobos
NASA’s Mariner 9 Mars orbiter becomes the first spacecraft to provide relatively close-up images of Mars’ innermost, larger moon, Phobos, from over 3,500 miles away. The irregular shape and heavily cratered surface of Phobos point up its likely origins as an asteroid that long ago came close enough to Mars to be captured into an orbit. Phobos (and its still unseen-at-close-range smaller sibling, Deimos) will be imaged at much closer range later in the 1970s by the Viking orbiters.
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 17
NBC airs the 17th episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Bardford Dillman, Louise Sorel, Steve Lawrence, and Donald Moffat (Logan’s Run) guest star in an episode that includes an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “Pickman’s Model”.
Earth II
ABC premieres the two-hour TV movie Earth II, starring Gary Lockwood (2001: a space odyssey) and Mariette Hartley. The movie is intended to serve as a pilot for a potential series, but despite making a powerful impression on science fiction fans, Earth II doesn’t draw a large enough audience to merit a series pickup.
More about Earth II in the LogBook
Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 16
NBC airs the 16th episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Alex Cord and Elizabeth Hartman guest star.
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 15
NBC airs the 15th episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Bob Crane, Jo Anne Worley, John Astin, Victor Buono (Batman), and Alan Napier (Batman) guest star.
Mariner 9 at Mars
The unmanned NASA/JPL space probe Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars, becoming the first human spacecraft to orbit another planet in the solar system. The probe begins a nearly year-long survey of the red planet, mapping over 70% of its surface at a much higher resolution than was achieved by the previous NASA Mars probes, Mariners 6 and 7. Mariner 9’s mapping mission is temporarily delayed by a global dust storm obscuring the entire planet when the orbiter arrives. Among its discoveries are Olympus Mons, the solar system’s largest volcano, and the gigantic canyon later named Valles Marineris. Mariner 9 also gathers images of Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos.
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 14
NBC airs the 14th episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Patty Duke, Cesar Romero (Batman), Carl Reiner, and Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman) guest star.
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 13
NBC airs the 13th episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Glenn Corbett and Susan Strasberg guest star.
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 12
NBC airs the 12th episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Leslie Nielsen and Fritz Weaver guest star.
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 11
NBC airs the 11th episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. David McCallum, David Carradine, and Linda Marsh guest star; one story is narrated by Orson Welles.
Computer Space
Boasting a curved, futuristic fiberglass cabinet that truly looks like an alien art object, Nutting Associates’ arcade video game Computer Space hits an amusement market dominated by pinball machines and jukeboxes. Devised by Nolan Bushnell, Computer Space is a coin-operated homage to the mainframe game Spacewar, complete with complicated controls, and fails to sell well. Bushnell later has a revelation: arcade games will need to be easy to learn (but not easy to beat) in order to catch on.
More about Computer Space in Phosphor Dot Fossils
Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast
Ace Of Wands: The Eye Of Ra, Part 4
ITV airs the 26th episode of Ace Of Wands, starring Michael McKenzie, Tony Selby and Judy Loe. Oscar Quitak (Brazil) guest stars in the second season finale, which also marks the departure of cast members Selby and Loe. This episode, like the rest of the series’ first two seasons, is now missing from the archives.
Salyut 1 down
With its first crew having perished, prompting a far-reaching reorganization of the Soviet space program and its technology, the now-unmanned Salyut 1 space station is ordered to fire its thrusters, slowing it down to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. With no immediate prospect of a new crew to inhabit it, the first space station intended for long-term occupation by a human crew barely lasts six months in orbit.
You’ve got mail
Computer engineer and recent MIT graduate Ray Tomlinson, working on the nascent ARPAnet project, adds minor new features to an experimental file transfer protocol and, in so doing, sends the first network e-mail. This first message doesn’t have far to travel – it arrives at another computer terminal in the same room – but it is the beginning of e-mail on ARPANET, a feature which is adopted so widely and so quickly that it accounts for 75% of all ARPANET data traffic just two years later. Tomlinson is also credited for inventing the user@destination e-mail address format.
Ace Of Wands: The Eye Of Ra, Part 3
ITV airs the 25th episode of Ace Of Wands, starring Michael McKenzie, Tony Selby and Judy Loe. Oscar Quitak (Brazil) guest stars. This episode, like the rest of the series’ first two seasons, is now missing from the archives.
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 10
NBC airs the tenth episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Patrick O’Neal, Kim Stanley, Rudy Vallee, Pat Boone, and Larry Linville guest star.
The Guardians: End In Dust
London Weekend Television airs the 13th and final episode of the alternate-future-history series The Guardians, starring Gwyneth Powell and Cyril Luckham. The series’ political plotline prevents it from being broadcast in Northern Ireland, and the series never receives a repeat broadcast. There is no home video release until the 21st century.
This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.
The voice of the National Weather Service
The National Weather Service’s NOAA Weather Radio system finally finds its purpose with the introduction of a piercing “warning tone” preceding emergency weather announcements such as severe weather warnings. Manufacturers of weather radio receivers (an item which hit the market in 1970) use the five-second burst of 1050Hz warning tone to trigger attention-grabbing alert sounds and then activate the radio so the relevant information can be heard. NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts on 29 stations around the country, and the agency continues to bring new transmitters online throughout the year.
Ace Of Wands: The Eye Of Ra, Part 2
ITV airs the 24th episode of Ace Of Wands, starring Michael McKenzie, Tony Selby and Judy Loe. Oscar Quitak (Brazil) guest stars. This episode, like the rest of the series’ first two seasons, is now missing from the archives.
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 9
NBC airs the ninth episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Jonathan Harris (Lost In Space), Adam West (Batman), Jeanette Nolan, and James Farentino guest star.
Luna 19
The Soviet Union launches unmanned space probe Luna 19 toward the moon, a return to orbital-only missions. Over the course of a year, Luna 19 conducts an extensive mapping campaign of the lunar surface, as well as measuring gravitational anomalies in lunar orbit.
The Guardians: The Killing Trade
London Weekend Television airs the 12th episode of the alternate-future-history series The Guardians, starring Gwyneth Powell and Cyril Luckham.
This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.
Ace Of Wands: The Eye Of Ra, Part 1
ITV airs the 23rd episode of Ace Of Wands, starring Michael McKenzie, Tony Selby and Judy Loe. Oscar Quitak (Brazil) guest stars. This episode, like the rest of the series’ first two seasons, is now missing from the archives.
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 8
NBC airs the eighth episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Vincent Price, E.G. Marshall, Imogene Coca, and Desi Arnaz Jr. guest star.
The Guardians: The Roman Empire
London Weekend Television airs the 11th episode of the alternate-future-history series The Guardians, starring Gwyneth Powell and Cyril Luckham. Elizabeth Adare (The Tomorrow People) guest stars.
This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.