Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 07:53:32 -0500 From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us> To: "gt-pfrc at ml.gt.org" <gt-pfrc at ml.gt.org>, WSFA Official List <wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com>, WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net> Subject: [WSFA] The chimp that took America into space Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net> Excerpt: Fifty years ago tomorrow Ham blasted off =96 and returned to a celebrity = lifestyle Fifty years ago tomorrow an African-born astronaut made it into space ahead of Soviet pioneer Yuri Gagarin. His name was Ham, a chimpanzee born in July 1957 in the rainforests of what was then the French Cameroons. He was bought by the US Air Force to be used in early space flight experiments for $457 =96 not a bad investment as it turned out. --- end excerpt --- <http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/jan/30/chimp-took-america-int= o-space> mark -- The busiest woman in the afterlife: "Hello, this is Cleopatra, can you hold, please?"