[00:00] Announcer: From Neural Newscast, this is Deep Dive, exploring the moments that shape today.
[00:10] Claire Donovan: I am Claire Donovan.
[00:12] Frederick Moore: And I'm Frederick Moore. Welcome to Deep Dive.
[00:14] Claire Donovan: Today we are looking back at March 16th, 2026,
[00:19] Claire Donovan: a date that represents massive leaps in human potential,
[00:22] Claire Donovan: whether that is launching a rocket into the atmosphere or drafting the very framework of a nation.
[00:28] Announcer: It is a day of beginnings, Claire, and perhaps the most explosive one happened in a quiet
[00:33] Announcer: cabbage patch in Auburn, Massachusetts, exactly 100 years ago today.
[00:38] Claire Donovan: You are talking about Dr. Robert Goddard.
[00:41] Claire Donovan: On March 16, 1926, he launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket.
[00:48] Claire Donovan: He called it Nell.
[00:50] Claire Donovan: It was an awkward, spindly-looking contraption, but it changed everything.
[00:54] Announcer: It is incredible how modest that first flight was.
[00:58] Announcer: It lasted only two and a half seconds, reached an altitude of 41 feet, and landed about 184 feet away.
[01:05] Announcer: To the casual observer, it might have looked like a failure, especially since it ended in a crash.
[01:10] Claire Donovan: Right. But as we know from the history of innovation, those few seconds were proof of concept.
[01:17] Claire Donovan: Before Goddard, rockets used solid fuel, like gunpowder.
[01:21] Claire Donovan: They were unpredictable and lacked the power for long-distance travel.
[01:26] Claire Donovan: Liquid fuel was the breakthrough that made spaceflight possible.
[01:29] Announcer: It really was the right brother's moment for rocketry.
[01:33] Announcer: Every Saturn V rocket that eventually took us to the moon can trace its lineage back to that cabbage patch in Auburn.
[01:42] Announcer: Goddard was a visionary who was often ridiculed for his dreams of space travel, but he got the last laugh.
[01:50] Announcer: The Master of Slapstick
[01:52] Announcer: Lewis was more than just a comedian.
[01:54] Announcer: He was a filmmaker and a massive philanthropic force with his annual telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
[02:03] Announcer: He had this frenetic, rubber-faced energy that defined a whole era of comedy.
[02:08] Claire Donovan: And staying with birthdays, if we go much further back to 1751, we find the birth of James Madison.
[02:17] Claire Donovan: He is often called the father of the Constitution, and for good reason.
[02:22] Announcer: Claire, his influence on the American experiment is almost impossible to overstate
[02:29] Announcer: Not only was he our fourth president, but he was the principal author of the Bill of Rights
[02:36] Announcer: and the recorder of the Constitutional Convention.
[02:40] Announcer: He provided the intellectual backbone for the entire United States government.
[02:46] Claire Donovan: It is fascinating to think about him working through the Federalist Papers, trying to convince
[02:53] Claire Donovan: a young nation to adopt a brand new system of checks and balances.
[02:58] Claire Donovan: His legacy is literally written into the laws we live by today.
[03:04] Announcer: Yeah.
[03:04] Announcer: And bringing us into the modern era, we also celebrate the birthday of Alexandra Dadario,
[03:12] Announcer: born in 1986.
[03:14] Announcer: She has become a major presence in film and television,
[03:18] Announcer: from the Percy Jackson series to big summer blockbusters like San Andreas and Baywatch.
[03:25] Claire Donovan: She has a real range, Frederick.
[03:28] Claire Donovan: It is a wide spectrum of talent we are seeing today, from the Founding Fathers to the stars of the silver screen.
[03:36] Announcer: While we are on the subject of the Constitution and the laws of the land,
[03:41] Announcer: there is a legal story from this day that sounds like it should be from the 19th century,
[03:46] Announcer: but it actually happened in 1995.
[03:49] Claire Donovan: You are referring to the 13th Amendment.
[03:53] Claire Donovan: On March 16, 1995, Mississippi became the last state in the Union to ratify the amendment that abolished slavery.
[04:03] Announcer: That's remarkable when you hear the date.
[04:06] Announcer: The amendment had been ratified by the required number of states back in 1865.
[04:14] Announcer: But Mississippi never officially submitted their ratification paperwork until 130 years later.
[04:23] Claire Donovan: It was largely a symbolic gesture by that point, as slavery had been illegal across the country for over a century.
[04:31] Claire Donovan: But it was a necessary clerical correction to reflect the state's official stance on the record.
[04:38] Announcer: It serves as a reminder that history isn't always a straight line, Claire.
[04:44] Announcer: Sometimes the paperwork takes a century to catch up with progress.
[04:48] Claire Donovan: From the drafting of our founding documents to the first liquid-fueled flight and the long road to constitutional ratification,
[04:57] Claire Donovan: March 16th shows us that progress is often a series of small, determined steps.
[05:03] Announcer: Whether it's a rocket in a cabbage patch or a signature on a page,
[05:09] Announcer: these moments build the world we live in.
[05:12] Announcer: Explore more history at deepdive.neuralnewscast.com.
[05:19] Announcer: I'm Frederick Moore.
[05:21] Claire Donovan: And I am Claire Donovan.
[05:23] Claire Donovan: Thank you for joining us for this look at the timeline.
[05:27] Claire Donovan: Deep Dive is AI-assisted, human-reviewed.
[05:32] Claire Donovan: Explore History Every Day on Neural Newscast.
[05:36] Announcer: This has been Deep Dive on Neural Newscast.
[05:39] Announcer: Exploring the moments that shape today.