September 24

William Adams was born in Kent and sailed for the Dutch East India Company. In 1600, his ship reached Japan, marking the first known European arrival. He became a trusted adviser and hatamoto to Tokugawa Ieyasu in Edo. Adams helped establish Japan’s first Western-style shipyard and trade initiatives. Known as Miura Anjin, he adopted Japanese customs while maintaining ties to England. His life inspired stories of cultural exchange and early globalization.

Born in 1930 in San Francisco, Young graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology before joining the U.S. Navy as a test pilot. Selected by NASA in 1962, he flew on Gemini 3 as the youngest pilot at that time and served as Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 10. In 1972, he commanded Apollo 16, becoming the ninth person to walk on the Moon and conducting critical geological explorations in the Descartes Highlands. Young later commanded the inaugural Space Shuttle mission STS-1 in 1981 and flew again on STS-9, setting records for his versatility and longevity in space. Over his career, he logged over 839 hours in space and received numerous awards, including the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. After retiring from NASA in 2004, he held various advisory positions and inspired generations of astronauts until his death in 2018.