10-31-1936

Caltech students test-fired a homemade rocket in a dry river bed near campus. Their professor, Theodore von Karman, named the tar paper shacks the students set up in the riverbed as they continued their experiments the "Jet Propulsion Laboratory." The leader of the student group, Frank Malina, eventually became director of JPL. (Los Angeles Times, 10/20/11)

More information about:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory History
California Institute of Technology
Theodore von Karman