Manitowoc, WI Had it's OWN "Sputnik Moment" in 1962

[Clio the Leo]

This is both hillarious and genius, all rolled into one big giant cornball.

Obama will have a special Sputnik moment in Wisconsin town
By Moni Basu, CNN
January 26, 2011 2:24 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- Have you been wondering why Manitowoc, Wisconsin, is the first stop for President Barack Obama after his State of the Union address?
Could be that he wants to continue his conversation with American families about rebuilding the nation's economy. Or that he wants to lift Democratic blues that Wisconsin will turn red in the next election.

Nah. Any true space cadet will tell you that Manitowoc was chosen for its "Sputnik moment."

In his speech Tuesday night, Obama spoke of this generation's Sputnik moment, challenging America to take the next innovative leap forward. Where else to launch that new course of direction but in the tiny Lake Michigan town that's best known for its own Sputnik moment.

And it was a whopper.

On September 6, 1962 -- when Obama was but a mere lad, John F. Kennedy occupied the White House and the Cold War was raging -- a 20-pound hunk of smoldering metal fell from the sky and crashed in the middle of Manitowoc's Eighth Street.

Turns out it was a piece of the Soviet satellite Sputnik IV.

The Sputnik moment that Obama referenced happened when the Soviet Union launched the first-man made object into space -- Sputnik I in 1957 -- shocking the United States into a technological boom. Sputnik IV came five years later. It burned up in the atmosphere and ended up linking Manitowoc to Sputnik in a way no other American town is.

Two Manitowoc police officers noticed what looked like a piece of cardboard lying in the street, according to the Rahr-West Art Museum, which sponsors a Sputnik festival in Manitowoc every year.

They approached the glowing object and kicked it to the curb, thinking it was a piece of slag from a local foundry. Wrong!

After they heard about Sputnik IV breaking up in space, they realized what they had stumbled upon and rushed back to retrieve it from the gutter. It was sent to the Smithsonian Institution for analysis and was confirmed as a piece of the Soviet satellite.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/01/26/wisconsin.obama.sputnik/index.html

US President Barack Obama holds energy efficient lights as he tours Orion Energy Systems, a power technology company that designs, manufactures and deploys energy efficiency and renewable energy technology for commercial and industrial business, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on January 26, 2011 as part of his White House to Main Street Tour.

[Clio the Leo]

1. for the record, the WH is claiming they didn't know about this...

.... oh WHATEVER DUDE! :)