From Mass Moments: “On this day [March 16] in 1926, Clark University physics professor Robert Goddard launched the world’s first liquid fuel rocket — and with it the space age. Standing in a snow-covered field in Auburn, Massachusetts, he watched as the rocket he had built rose 41 feet into the air, flew for two and a half seconds, and landed 184 feet away. …”

Read more at Mass Moments, an electronic almanac of Massachusetts history, launched by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities  on January 1, 2005.

For an extensive look at the work and life of the “father of modern rocketry,” visit The Dr. Robert H. Goddard Collection housed in the Archives and Special Collections section of Clark University’s Robert H. Goddard Library.