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Lynn Hill (born 1961) is an American rock climber. Widely regarded as one of the leading competitive sport climbers in the world during the late 1980s and early 1990s, she made the first ascent without aid of the difficult sheer rock face of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley and the first free ascent in 24 hours. Hill shaped rock climbing for women and became a public spokesperson, helping it gain wider popularity and arguing for gender equity. She has publicized climbing by appearing on television shows and documentaries and writing an autobiography, Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World. She took to climbing at a young age and became a part of the climbing community in Southern California and Camp 4 in Yosemite Valley. During the early 1980s, she traveled around the United States, climbing increasingly difficult routes and setting records not only for first female ascents but also for first ascents. From 1986 to 1992 she won over thirty international titles, including five victories at the Arco Rock Master; she left competitive climbing in 1992. She has been described as both one of the best female climbers in the world and one of the best climbers of all time. (Full article...)

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June 17

The large number of chronometers carried by HMS Beagle, an Admiralty survey ship, were vital to her three missions, which included charting the coasts of South America and Australia. Chronometers were formerly essential to mariners for the accurate determination of longitude. Beagle's second voyage (1831–36) established a chain of linked reference points of known longitude encircling the globe for the first time. Beagle required large numbers of chronometers so that they could be compared with each other for accuracy and some would inevitably break down on such a long voyage. The expensive chronometers included some by famous makers such as John Arnold who coined this use of the term chronometer, Edward Dent who designed Big Ben, and Thomas Earnshaw who invented the spring detent escapement. Some of these chronometers were still in use on Royal Navy ships in the modern era, and at least one went down with a battleship in the First World War. However, only two have survived to the present time, including one in the British Museum (pictured). (Full list...)