"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."
--1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.

"Correction: It is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum. The 'Times' regrets the error."
NY Times, July 1969.

— New York Times

John Wheeler (1911-2008)

John Wheeler, the great physicist who coined the term "black hole", passed away yesterday: http://cosmicvariance.com/2008/04/13/goodbye/

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=pioneering-physicist-john-wheeler-dies