they officially changed the name from cape kennedy to cape canaveral on october 9, 1973.
when did they officially change the name from cape kennedy to cape canaveral?
october 9, 1973
bullet::::- on thanksgiving day, president johnson issued an executive order the immediate renaming of the space center at cape canaveral, in florida to "cape kennedy", then told the nation about it as part of a televised address. in addition, the president noted that the cape itself "shall be known hereafter as cape kennedy". the day before, at johnson's request, the united states board on geographic names had approved the renaming of the peninsula, which had first been identified as "cabo cañaveral" by explorer juan ponce de león. despite protests from the residents of the city of cape canaveral, florida, the order affected only the cape itself and the federally-owned property, rather than the town. florida governor farris bryant told critics on december 5, "the people of florida, in the year 2063, will look back and understand what president johnson has done and will approve.". however, the old name would be restored less than ten years later, on october 9, 1973, at the request of florida congressman lou frey, jr..
november 1963
bullet::::- while working at the space suit company, jj pryor meets gus grissom, and they discuss the apollo 1 mission. grissom later says, "get me back to cape canaveral." in reality, the apollo 1 mission was not designated by that number or name until after the accident that claimed the lives of grissom and two other astronauts (at the time the mission was known as apollo/saturn 204), and the reference to cape canaveral would have been wrong, as the area where the space center was located had been renamed "cape kennedy" during the 1960s. while the town was officially renamed back to cape canaveral in 1973, the space center was (and still is) known as the kennedy space center, and at least three years had passed since the town was renamed from cape canaveral to cape kennedy; so although it is not impossible that in a casual conversation grissom would have used the traditional name, it is still unlikely that this would happen.
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