on Thursday, May 12, 2005, the Adler Planetarium, the first planetarium in America and in the Western Hemisphere, will mark its 75th anniversary. Max Adler recognized a need to exhibit artifacts from the history of astronomy to the public, and so he founded the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum in 1930. Originally, it housed a collection of about 500 astronomical, navigational, and mathematical instruments that would become the foundation for Alder's History of Astronomy Collection. Today, this collection has grown to almost 2000 astronomical artifacts dating from the 12th to the 20th centuries. Included in this collection is the world's oldest known window sundial from 1529; a telescope made by William Herschel, the astronomer who discovered Uranus; and a collection of rare books comprising more than 2000 volumes, some of which were printed before the 1500s. Over the past 75 years, the Adler's history has been marked by several milestones. In 1933, light from the star Arcturus was successfully converted into electrical signals that turned on the lights for the opening ceremonies of the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition. In 1964, the Adler Planetarium partnered with the National Science Foundation and began offering the Astro-Science Workshop, a program designed to challenge Chicago area high school students who demonstrate an exceptional aptitude for science.…
On the recordMay 10, 2005
Source
govinfo.govShare
More from Dick Durbin
Aug 16, 2026
Senate Democrats continue to support the full repeal of Republicans’ disastrous Medicaid cuts and stand united in calling on the Trump Administration to withdraw this harmful rule.
Aug 25, 2026
Students need to be careful. You can’t go wrong starting with City Colleges and community colleges in your community… I beg my young students in Illinois to start there, and counselors to do their job and discourage kids from getting…
Aug 26, 2026
The President is dead set on attacking Americans’ right to vote and undermining our democracy by making baseless claims about ‘rigged’ elections, demanding unreasonable voter registration requirements, restricting mail-in voting, and…





