Page 19 - All About History - Issue 26-15

Animals & Man

BELKA AND STRELKA SERGEANT RECKLESS

SOVIET UNION UNKNOWN-UNKNOWN KOREA UNKNOWN-1968
Before Man went into space, animals took the When Lieutenant Eric Pederson spent $250
first uncertain steps. Belka and Strelka were the buyingaMongolianmareatSeoulRace
first dogs to orbit the Earth and return Trackin1952,hewasn’tgambling.Pederson,
alive. Selected from strays found on In commanderoftheRecoillessRiflePlatoon,
Moscow’s streets – it was thought knew his unit needed help transporting its
their tough lives would mean addition heavygunsandartilleryoverruggedterrain
they were more hardy – the to other military duringtheKoreanWar.‘Reckless’wasthe
pair were shot into space awards, Sergeant unit’scallsignal,soitbecamethenameof
on Sputnik 5 in 1960. Their Back home, Sgt the horse that performed brilliantly in battle.
safe return gave scientists Reckless has been Reckless and Lt She made countless solo trips to and from
invaluable knowledge to decorated with two Pederson celebrate ammo delivery sites under fire and also
later send humans into Purple H with cake evacuated wounded soldiers. In 1954, she was
orbit. The pair became promoted to sergeant – no other animal has
cosmonaut celebrities at being ever been given an officially sanctioned rank
home, their images reproduced act intheUSmilitary.
on sweet wrappers, postcards and
handkerchiefs, while Soviet premier
Khrushchev gave one of Strelka’s subseque
puppies to US president Kennedy’s wife.

Tui Malila met Queen
Elizabeth and David
Attenborough
Pickles’ collar is
displayed at the
Aradiatedtortoisefrom National Football
Madagascar was presented to the Tongan ro Museum in Manchester
family by Captain James Cooke and lived to
the age of at least 188. Named Tui Malila, th
creature outlived Napoleon, Hitler and Stali
and endured two world wars and the nucle
Belka’s name age. Having survived several grass fires, at t
means ‘squirrel’ and time of its death from natural causes it was
Strelka’s ‘arrow’ widely considered to have enjoyed a lifespa
longer than any other earthly vertebrate. After
Pickles found
“Animals are such agreeable friends – the the trophy, his
asknoquestions,theypassnocriticisms owner David Corbett

George Eliot was wrongly suspected
of being the thief and
Cher Ami questioned for
FRANCE UNKOWN-1919 PICKLES hours by police
Thousands of carrier p BRITAIN 1962-67
worldwarstodeliverim It was considered a national
of Cher Ami (‘Dear Frie embarrassment when the World
heroic.AttheBattleof Cup, the original Jules Rimet
US‘LostBattalion’ofM Trophy, was stolen from a display
behind enemy lines. U months before the tournament
they were also sufferin began in 1966 in England.
theirownside.CherAm Fortunately, a black and white
pigeon.Releasedwithv mongrel dog named Pickles came
information, the bird im to the rescue. Out walking in
attractedGermangunf South London with his owner,
woundedinthebreast David Corbett, Pickles sniffed
eye, Cher Ami neverth Cher Ami’s body was out a package tightly bound in
took flight again to stuffed and mounted newspaper from under a bush.
by the Smithsonian
deliver the message th Institution Inside it was the World Cup. © Alamy; Corbis; Thinkstock
saved 194 soldiers.