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The Quatermass Experiment is a British science-fiction serial, broadcast by BBC Television in the summer of 1953, and re-staged by BBC Four in 2005. Set in the near future against the background of a British space programme, it tells the story of the first manned flight into space, overseen by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group. When the spaceship that carried the first successful crew returns to Earth, two of the three astronauts are missing, and the third is behaving strangely. It becomes clear that an alien presence entered the ship during its flight, and Quatermass and his associates must prevent the alien from destroying the world. Originally comprising six half-hour episodes, it was the first science-fiction production to be written especially for an adult television audience. The serial was the first of four Quatermass productions to be screened on British television between 1953 and 1979. As well as spawning various remakes and sequels, The Quatermass Experiment inspired much of the television science fiction that followed it, particularly in the United Kingdom, where it influenced successful series such as Doctor Who and Sapphire and Steel. It also influenced Hollywood blockbusters such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien. (more...)

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Pope Benedict XVI (pictured) speaks to 150,000 pilgrims in Sydney for World Youth Day 2008.
The Sri Lankan military captures a coastal town in Sri Lanka's Mannar District from rebel Tamil Tigers.
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is arrested over allegations that he sodomised a male aide.
The Taliban attack an outpost in Afghanistan, killing nine ISAF soldiers.
The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, requests a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir in connection to the conflict in Darfur.

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On this day...

July 18: Constitution Day in Uruguay (1830)

64 – The Great Fire of Rome started among the shops around the Circus Maximus, eventually destroying four of fourteen Roman districts and severely damaging seven others.
1863 – American Civil War: Led by Union Army Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first formal African American military unit, spearheaded an assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina (pictured).
1925 – The first volume of Adolf Hitler's personal manifesto Mein Kampf was published.
1969 – After a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts, United States Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off a wooden bridge into a tidal channel, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker.
1982 – Guatemalan military forces and their paramilitary allies slaughtered over 250 Mayans in the village of Plan de Sánchez, Baja Verapaz.

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A view of Hurricane Felix from the International Space Station. At the time of the photo, the hurricane was south of Kingston, Jamaica, moving west at 21 miles per hour (34 km/h). The sustained winds were 165 mph (266 km/h) with higher gusts, making Felix a category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.

Photo credit: Expedition 15 astronaut (NASA)

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