Looking Ahead

NASA animal eulogy

Shuttle program operations may have ended on July 21, but NASA officials will finally lock the doors on Aug. 21 after an unusual posthumous tribute. The agency will eulogize the monkeys, dogs, cats, mice, spiders, and other animals that perished during space shuttle experiments.

Glenn Beck rally

Those who can't fly to Israel to attend former Fox News host Glenn Beck's "Rally to Restore Courage" can certainly watch on Beck's website. The event kicks off on Aug. 21 with a program featuring Beck, controversial pastor John Hagee, historian David Barton, and religious leaders. An Aug. 24 event near the Western Wall concludes the pro-Israel rally.

Mona Lisa theft centennial

A century ago on Aug. 22, an employee at the Louvre Museum in Paris hid Leonardo da Vinci's 16th-century masterpiece Mona Lisa under his coat and walked out the museum's door, setting off frenzied investigation. Vincenzo Peruggia, the Louvre employee who stole the painting, was finally caught two years later when he tried to sell the masterpiece to a gallery in Florence, Italy.

MLK Dedication

Performances by Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder and a speech by President Barack Obama will headline the Aug. 28 dedication service for the newly created Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in Washington, D.C. The King monument will border the Tidal Basin on the National Mall and take the address 1964 Independence Ave.-a tribute to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

U.S. Open begins

By the time the U.S. Open Tennis Championships open Aug. 29 in New York, Swiss star Roger Federer will be 30. And nabbing another Open title won't be easy for the man who won all five Opens from 2004 to 2008. Since 1990, only three men 30 or older have taken home Grand Slam singles titles.