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Science & Discovery That Happened On This Day in History
Science & Discovery events in history: 697 entries across 310 dates. Open any date for the full story.
January 1 1
- 1983 The ARPANET officially changes to using TCP/IP, the Internet Protocol, effectively creating the Internet.
January 2 3
- 1959 Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union.
- 1955 Following the assassination of the Panamanian president José Antonio Remón Cantera, his deputy, José Ramón Guizado, takes power, but is quickly deposed after his involvement in Cantera's death is discovered.
- 1818 The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded by a group of six engineers; Thomas Telford would later become its first president.
January 3 2
- 1999 The Mars Polar Lander is launched by NASA.
- 1977 Apple Computer is incorporated.
January 4 3
- 2004 Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.
- 1959 Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
- 1854 The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang.
January 5 3
- 2005 The dwarf planet Eris is discovered by Palomar Observatory-based astronomers, later motivating the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to define the term planet for the first time.
- 1972 US President Richard Nixon announces the Space Shuttle program.
- 1969 The Venera 5 space probe is launched at 06:28:08 UTC from Baikonur.
January 7 3
- 1985 Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Sakigake, Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union.
- 1968 Surveyor program: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36A.
- 1954 Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York at the head office of IBM.
January 8 2
- 1994 Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He would stay on the space station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space.
- 1973 Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.
January 9 2
- 1992 The first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail. They discovered two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12.
- 1962 Apollo program: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket launch vehicle, then known as the "Advanced Saturn", to carry human beings to the Moon.
January 10 2
- 1980 The New England Journal of Medicine publishes the letter Addiction Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics, which is later misused to downplay the general risk of addiction to opioids.
- 1901 The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.
January 11 1
- 1996 Space Shuttle program: STS-72 launches from the Kennedy Space Center marking the start of the 74th Space Shuttle mission and the 10th flight of Endeavour.
January 12 3
- 2005 Deep Impact launches from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II rocket.
- 1997 Space Shuttle program: Atlantis launches from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-81 to the Russian space station Mir, carrying astronaut Jerry M. Linenger for a four-month stay on board the station, replacing astronaut John E. Blaha.
- 1986 Space Shuttle program: Congressman and future NASA Administrator Bill Nelson lifts off from Kennedy Space Center aboard Columbia on mission STS-61-C as a payload specialist.
January 13 2
- 2003 208996 Achlys was discovered by Chad Trujillo and Michael E. Brown at Palomar Observatory.
- 1993 Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center.
January 16 3
- 2003 The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.
- 1984 A radiation detector at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, United States, detects radioactivity after a truck carrying rebar accidentally passed through the laboratory's area, revealing a contamination incident that occurred in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, the previous month.
- 1969 Space Race: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of crewed spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.
January 17 1
- 1997 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: A Delta II carrying the GPS IIR-1 satellite explodes 13 seconds after launch, dropping 250 tons of burning rocket remains around the launch pad.
January 18 2
- 1977 Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announce they have identified a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.
- 1898 British colonial engineer and estate manager William Claxton Peppé discovered the Buddha's remains in Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, India.
January 19 1
- 2024 The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's probe lands on the moon, making Japan the 5th country to land a spacecraft on the moon.
January 21 2
- 2004 NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.
- 1960 Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia, with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey, on board.
January 22 3
- 1998 Space Shuttle program: space shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-89 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
- 1992 Space Shuttle program: The space shuttle Discovery launches on STS-42 carrying Dr. Roberta Bondar, who becomes the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist in space.
- 1968 Apollo Program: Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space.
January 24 2
- 1986 The Voyager 2 space probe makes its closest approach to Uranus.
- 1946 The United Nations General Assembly passes its first resolution to establish the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.
January 25 3
- 2018 An Ariane 5 rocket is launched carrying SES-14, Al Yah 3, and NASA's Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk, but the satellites end up in the wrong orbit.
- 1995 The Norwegian rocket incident: Russia almost launches a nuclear attack after it mistakes Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, for a US Trident missile.
- 1994 The spacecraft Clementine by BMDO and NASA is launched.
January 26 2
- 1962 Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. The space probe later misses the Moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
- 1949 The Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory sees first light under the direction of Edwin Hubble, becoming the largest aperture optical telescope (until BTA-6 is built in 1976).
January 27 3
- 1967 Apollo program: Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
- 1967 Cold War: The Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom sign the Outer Space Treaty in Washington, D.C., banning deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and limiting the usage of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.
- 1928 Bundaberg tragedy: a diphtheria vaccine is contaminated with Staph. aureus bacterium, resulting in the deaths of twelve children in the Australian town of Bundaberg.
January 28 1
- 1986 Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission: Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.
January 30 1
- 2013 Naro-1 becomes the first carrier rocket launched by South Korea.
January 31 3
- 1966 The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program.
- 1961 Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2: The chimpanzee Ham travels into outer space.
- 1958 Cold War: Space Race: The Explorer 1, the first successful American satellite, detects the Van Allen radiation belt.
February 1 1
- 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during the reentry of mission STS-107 into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
February 2 1
- 2000 First digital cinema projection in Europe (Paris) realized by Philippe Binant with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments.
February 3 4
- 1995 Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
- 1994 Space Shuttle program: STS-60 is launched, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard the Shuttle.
- 1984 Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.
February 4 2
- 1967 Lunar Orbiter program: Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft.
- 1859 The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt.
February 6 1
- 2018 SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, a super heavy launch vehicle, makes its maiden flight.
February 7 6
- 2016 North Korea launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into outer space violating multiple UN treaties and prompting condemnation from around the world.
- 2014 Scientists announce that the Happisburgh footprints in Norfolk, England, date back to more than 800,000 years ago, making them the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa.
- 2001 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-98, carrying the Destiny laboratory module to the International Space Station.
February 8 1
- 1974 The crew of Skylab 4, the last mission to visit the American space station Skylab, returns to Earth after 84 days in space.
February 9 3
- 1996 Copernicium is discovered by Sigurd Hofmann, Victor Ninov et al.
- 1975 The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.
- 1913 A group of meteors is visible across much of the eastern seaboard of the Americas, leading astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.
February 11 3
- 2015 The European Space Agency's Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle is launched on a Vega rocket.
- 2000 Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-99 to conduct the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission.
- 1997 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
February 12 1
- 2001 NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
February 13 3
- 2012 The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
- 2004 The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
- 1961 An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug.
February 14 2
- 2000 The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
- 1990 The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth that later becomes famous as Pale Blue Dot.
February 15 4
- 2003 The last Ariane 4 rocket is launched from the Guiana Space Centre, carrying Intelsat 907.
- 1996 At the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China, a Long March 3B rocket carrying Intelsat 708 veers off course and crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing somewhere between six and 100 people.
- 1946 ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, is formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
February 16 1
- 1978 The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago).
February 17 1
- 1996 NASA's Discovery Program begins as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lifts off on the first mission ever to orbit and land on an asteroid, 433 Eros.
February 18 2
- 2021 Perseverance, a Mars rover designed to explore Jezero crater on Mars, as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission, lands successfully.
- 1977 The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.
February 19 2
- 2002 NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
- 1960 China successfully launches the T-7, its first sounding rocket.
February 20 2
- 1986 The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years.
- 1968 The China Academy of Space Technology, China's main arm for the research, development, and creation of space satellites, is established in Beijing.
February 21 3
- 1972 The Soviet uncrewed spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
- 1958 The CND symbol, aka peace symbol, commissioned by the Direct Action Committee in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
- 1828 Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.
February 22 1
- 1997 In Roslin, Midlothian, British scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned.
February 23 2
- 2002 An Ariane 4 rocket is launched from the Guiana Space Centre carrying Intelsat 904.
- 1954 The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.
February 24 1
- 2011 Space Shuttle Discovery launches on its final mission, STS-133.
February 26 1
- 1966 Apollo program: Launch of AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket.
February 28 3
- 2024 Prime Minister Modi of India inaugurates the 2nd Space Port of India - Kulasekarapattinam Spaceport.
- 1990 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-36.
- 1966 A NASA T-38 Talon crashes into the McDonnell Aircraft factory while attempting a poor-visibility landing at Lambert Field, St. Louis, killing astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett.
February 29 1
- 1940 In a ceremony held in Berkeley, California, physicist Ernest Lawrence receives the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics from Sweden's consul general in San Francisco.
March 1 4
- 2002 The Envisat environmental satellite successfully launches aboard an Ariane 5 rocket to reach an orbit of 800 km (500 mi) above the Earth, which was the then-largest payload at 10.5 m long and with a diameter of 4.57 m.
- 2002 Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-109 to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
- 1966 Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
March 2 4
- 1998 Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
- 1995 Space Shuttle Endeavour launches from the Kennedy Space Center on STS-67, carrying the ASTRO-2 spacelab observatory.
- 1978 Czech Vladimír Remek becomes the first non-Soviet or non-American to go into space, when he is launched aboard Soyuz 28.
March 3 2
- 1969 Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module.
- 1938 Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.
March 4 1
- 1994 Space Shuttle program: The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-62.
March 5 1
- 1981 The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research and would go on to sell over 11⁄2 million units around the world.
March 6 1
- 1904 Scottish National Antarctic Expedition: Led by William Speirs Bruce, the Antarctic region of Coats Land is discovered from the Scotia.
March 7 1
- 1876 Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the "telephone".
March 8 1
- 2001 Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-102, carrying the Expedition 2 crew to the International Space Station.
March 9 3
- 2011 Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights.
- 1961 Sputnik 9 successfully launches, carrying a dog and a human dummy, and demonstrating that the Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.
- 1960 Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner implants for the first time a shunt he invented into a patient, which allows the patient to receive hemodialysis on a regular basis.
March 10 1
- 1977 Astronomers discover the rings of Uranus.
March 11 1
- 2008 Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-123, carrying the first component of the Japanese Kibō module to the International Space Station.
March 13 1
- 1989 Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-29 carrying the TDRS-4 satellite.
March 14 2
- 1995 Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle.
- 1663 According to his own account, Otto von Guericke completes his book Experimenta Nova (ut vocantur) Magdeburgica de Vacuo Spatio, detailing his experiments on vacuum and his discovery of electrostatic repulsion.
March 16 2
- 1966 Launch of Gemini 8 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott. It would perform the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit.
- 1926 History of rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
March 17 1
- 1979 The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers.
March 18 3
- 1980 A Vostok-2M rocket at Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43 explodes during a fueling operation, killing 48 people.
- 1965 Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
- 1899 Phoebe, a satellite of Saturn, becomes the first to be discovered with photographs, taken in August 1898, by William Henry Pickering.
March 19 1
- 1965 The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000 and said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is discovered by teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence, exactly 102 years after its destruction.
March 20 1
- 1964 The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organisation) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.
March 21 1
- 1965 Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9, the last in a series of uncrewed lunar space probes.
March 22 3
- 1996 NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on its 16th mission, STS-76.
- 1995 Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns to earth after setting a record of 438 days in space.
- 1982 NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia is launched from the Kennedy Space Center on its third mission, STS-3.
March 23 3
- 2001 The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.
- 1983 Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles.
- 1965 NASA launches Gemini 3, the United States' first two-man space flight (crew: Gus Grissom and John Young).
March 24 2
- 1998 Dr. Rüdiger Marmulla performs the first computer-assisted Bone Segment Navigation at the University of Regensburg, Germany.
- 1992 Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-45.
March 25 2
- 1979 The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.
- 1655 Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.
March 28 1
- 1802 Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid ever to be discovered.
March 29 3
- 1974 NASA's Mariner 10 becomes the first space probe to fly by Mercury.
- 1974 The Terracotta Army is discovered in Shaanxi province, China.
- 1968 The funeral of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, begins in Moscow, with thousands of people in attendance.
March 30 3
- 2017 SpaceX conducts the world's first reflight of an orbital class rocket.
- 1982 Space Shuttle program: STS-3 mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
- 1899 German Society of Chemistry issues an invitation to other national scientific organizations to appoint delegates to the International Committee on Atomic Weights.
March 31 4
- 2016 NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to Earth after a yearlong mission at the International Space Station.
- 2005 The dwarf planet Makemake is discovered by a team led by astronomer Michael E. Brown at the Palomar Observatory.
- 1966 The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
April 1 2
- 1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer, Inc.
- 1960 The TIROS-1 satellite transmits the first television picture from space.
April 2 1
- 1979 A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
April 3 2
- 2010 Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer.
- 1981 The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.
April 4 3
- 1997 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-83. However, the mission is later cut short due to a fuel cell problem.
- 1983 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space on STS-6.
- 1968 Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6.
April 5 2
- 2010 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-131 to resupply the International Space Station.
- 1991 The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-37 to deploy the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.
April 6 2
- 2026 The crew of Artemis II makes the first crewed circumlunar flight since Apollo 17 in 1972, returning humanity to the Moon's vicinity and breaking Apollo 13's record by ~4,000 miles as the furthest crewed spaceflight.
- 1973 Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft.
April 7 3
- 2001 NASA launches the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter.
- 1983 During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first Space Shuttle spacewalk.
- 1969 The Internet's symbolic birth date: Publication of RFC 1.
April 8 4
- 2002 The Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-110, carrying the S0 truss to the International Space Station. Astronaut Jerry L. Ross also becomes the first person to fly on seven spaceflights.
- 1993 The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on mission STS-56.
- 1959 A team of computer manufacturers, users, and university people led by Grace Hopper meets to discuss the creation of a new programming language that would be called COBOL.
April 9 5
- 2021 Soyuz MS-18 is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying three members of the Expedition 64 crew to the International Space Station.
- 2020 Soyuz MS-16 is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying the Expedition 62/63 crew to the International Space Station.
- 1994 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-59.
April 10 1
- 1972 Tombs containing bamboo slips, among them Sun Tzu's Art of War and Sun Bin's lost military treatise, are discovered by construction workers in Shandong.
April 12 4
- 1985 Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-51D to deploy two communications satellites.
- 1981 The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia) takes place: The STS-1 mission.
- 1961 Space Race: The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first crewed orbital flight, Vostok 1.
April 13 1
- 1996 Two women and four children are killed after an Israeli helicopter fires rockets at an ambulance in Mansouri, Lebanon.
April 14 3
- 2023 The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is launched by the European Space Agency.
- 1981 STS-1: The first operational Space Shuttle, Columbia, completes its first test flight.
- 1958 The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. This was the first spacecraft to carry a living animal, a female dog named Laika, who likely lived only a few hours.
April 17 3
- 2014 NASA's Kepler space telescope confirms the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star.
- 1998 Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-90, the final Spacelab mission.
- 1970 Apollo program: The damaged Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
April 19 2
- 2001 Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-100 carrying the Canadarm2 to the International Space Station.
- 1971 Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.
April 20 6
- 2023 SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time. It explodes four minutes into flight.
- 2007 Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips barricades himself with a handgun in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, before killing a male hostage and himself.
- 1985 University of California, Riverside 1985 laboratory raid: Animal Liberation Front rescues 467 animals being tested in a lab at University of California, Riverside in Riverside, California, causing $700,000 in damages to the laboratory, in advocacy for animal rights.
April 21 1
- 1972 Astronauts John Young and Charles Duke fly Apollo 16's Apollo Lunar Module to the Moon's surface, the fifth NASA Apollo Program crewed lunar landing.
April 23 2
- 1979 SAETA Flight 011 crashes in Pastaza Province, Ecuador, killing all 57 people on board. The wreckage was not discovered until 1984.
- 1967 Soviet space program: Soyuz 1 (Russian: Союз 1, Union 1), a crewed spaceflight carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov, is launched into orbit.
April 24 3
- 1990 STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
- 1967 Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.
- 1914 The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.
April 25 1
- 1859 British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.
April 26 5
- 1999 Outbreak of CIH computer virus.
- 1993 The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on mission STS-55 to conduct experiments aboard the Spacelab module.
- 1962 NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
April 28 2
- 1991 Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-39, the first unclassified shuttle mission for the United States Department of Defense.
- 1937 South African medical researcher Max Theiler develops the yellow fever vaccine at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City.
April 29 3
- 1985 Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on STS-51-B.
- 1953 The first U.S. experimental 3D television broadcast shows an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV.
- 1826 The galaxy Centaurus A or NGC 5128 is discovered by James Dunlop.
April 30 2
- 2008 Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei and Anastasia, two of the children of the last Tsar of Russia, whose entire family was executed at Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks.
- 1897 J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the atomic nucleus), at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London.
May 2 1
- 1963 Berthold Seliger launches a rocket with three stages and a maximum flight altitude of more than 100 kilometres (62 mi) near Cuxhaven. It is the only sounding rocket developed in Germany.
May 3 1
- 1848 The boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Benty Grange helmet is discovered in a barrow on the Benty Grange farm in Derbyshire.
May 4 2
- 1989 Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on mission STS-30 to deploy the Venus-bound Magellan space probe.
- 1988 The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire.
May 5 1
- 1961 Project Mercury: Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, on a sub-orbital flight.
May 6 1
- 1949 EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation.
May 7 5
- 2004 American businessman Nick Berg is beheaded by Islamist militants. The act is recorded on videotape and released on the Internet.
- 1992 Space Shuttle program: The Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its first mission, STS-49.
- 1952 The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer.
May 8 2
- 1950 The Tollund Man is discovered in a peat bog near Silkeborg, Denmark.
- 1886 Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.
May 10 1
- 1946 First successful launch of an American V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground.
May 11 3
- 2009 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
- 1998 India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran.
- 1997 Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.
May 12 3
- 2017 The WannaCry ransomware attack impacts over 400,000 computers worldwide, targeting computers of the United Kingdom's National Health Services and Telefónica computers.
- 1965 The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.
- 1941 Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
May 13 1
- 2012 Forty-nine dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal Highway 40.
May 14 2
- 2010 Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on the STS-132 mission to deliver the first shuttle-launched Russian ISS component — Rassvet. This was originally slated to be the final launch of Atlantis, before Congress approved STS-135.
- 1973 Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
May 15 3
- 2001 A CSX EMD SD40-2 8888 rolls out of a train yard in Walbridge, Ohio, with 47 freight cars, including some tank cars with flammable chemical, after its engineer fails to reboard it after setting a yard switch. It travels south driverless for 66 miles (106 km) until it is brought to a halt near Kenton. The incident became the inspiration for the 2010 film Unstoppable.
- 1997 The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
- 1963 Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone.
May 16 2
- 2011 STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour.
- 1969 Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus.
May 17 1
- 1902 Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
May 18 1
- 2005 A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons, Nix and Hydra.
May 19 3
- 2000 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-101 to resupply the International Space Station.
- 1996 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on mission STS-77.
- 1934 Zveno and the Bulgarian Army engineer a coup d'état and install Kimon Georgiev as the new Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
May 20 2
- 1983 First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by a team of French scientists including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Jean-Claude Chermann, and Luc Montagnier.
- 1943 The Luttra Woman, a bog body from the Early Neolithic period (radiocarbon-dated c. 3928–3651 BC), is discovered near Luttra, Sweden.
May 21 2
- 2010 JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launches the solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS aboard an H-IIA rocket. The vessel would make a Venus flyby late in the year.
- 1946 Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
May 22 1
- 2012 SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 launches a Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket in the first commercial flight to the International Space Station.
May 24 1
- 1962 Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
May 25 2
- 2012 The SpaceX Dragon 1 becomes the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station.
- 2008 NASA's Phoenix lander touches down in the Green Valley region of Mars to search for environments suitable for water and microbial life.
May 27 1
- 1999 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-96, the first shuttle mission to dock with the International Space Station.
May 28 1
- 2016 Harambe, a gorilla, is shot to death after grabbing a three-year-old boy in his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, resulting in widespread criticism and sparking various internet memes.
May 29 1
- 1999 Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.
May 30 2
- 2020 Crew Dragon Demo-2 launches from Kennedy Space Center, becoming the first crewed orbital spacecraft to launch from the United States since 2011 and the first commercial flight to the International Space Station.
- 1975 The European Space Agency is established.
May 31 2
- 2008 Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-124 carrying the second portion of the Japanese Kibō module to the International Space Station.
- 1986 The Ariane 2 rocket is launched on its maiden flight, carrying Intelsat VA F-14, but the mission ends in failure.
June 1 2
- 2011 Space Shuttle Endeavour makes its final landing after 25 flights.
- 1974 The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine.
June 2 3
- 2003 Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
- 1998 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-91, the final mission of the Shuttle-Mir program.
- 1966 Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.
June 3 1
- 1965 The launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Ed White, a crew member, performs the first American spacewalk.
June 4 1
- 2010 Falcon 9 Flight 1 is the maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40.
June 5 3
- 2024 The Boeing Starliner is launched on its first crewed flight, carrying astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams to the International Space Station.
- 2002 Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-111, carrying the Expedition 5 crew to the International Space Station to replace the Expedition 4 crew. Astronaut Franklin Chang-Díaz becomes the second person to have flown on seven spaceflights.
- 1991 Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-40, the fifth spacelab mission.
June 6 2
- 2024 The launch of SpaceX Starship integrated flight test 4 (IFT-4)
- 2002 Eastern Mediterranean event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at ten meters in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
June 8 2
- 2007 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-117 carrying two truss segments and solar arrays to the International Space Station.
- 1966 An F-104 Starfighter collides with XB-70 Valkyrie prototype no. 2, destroying both aircraft during a photo shoot near Edwards Air Force Base. Joseph A. Walker, a NASA test pilot, and Carl Cross, a United States Air Force test pilot, are both killed.
June 10 2
- 2003 The Spirit rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission.
- 2002 The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom.
June 11 3
- 2008 The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched into orbit.
- 1998 Compaq Computer pays US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the largest high-tech acquisition.
- 1936 Inventor Edwin Armstrong demonstrates FM broadcasting to an audience of engineers at the FCC in Washington, DC.
June 12 1
- 2026 South African-American businessman Elon Musk becomes the first US$ trillionaire with the initial public offering of SpaceX.
June 13 1
- 2010 A capsule of the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, containing particles of the asteroid 25143 Itokawa, returns to Earth by landing in the Australian Outback.
June 14 2
- 1962 The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency.
- 1949 Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rides a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first mammal and first monkey in space.
June 15 1
- 1988 The Ariane 4 rocket is launched on its maiden flight.
June 16 4
- 2012 China successfully launches its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, carrying three astronauts, including the first female Chinese astronaut Liu Yang, to the Tiangong-1 orbital module.
- 2012 The United States Air Force's robotic Boeing X-37B spaceplane returns to Earth after a classified 469-day orbital mission.
- 1995 The Astronomy Picture of the Day website is launched.
June 17 1
- 1985 Space Shuttle program: STS-51-G mission: Space Shuttle Discovery launches carrying Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a payload specialist.
June 18 5
- 2009 The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a NASA robotic spacecraft is launched.
- 2006 The first Kazakh space satellite, KazSat-1, is launched.
- 1983 Space Shuttle program: STS-7, astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
June 20 5
- 1996 Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-78 to conduct life science and microgravity research aboard the Spacelab module.
- 1990 Asteroid Eureka is discovered.
- 1945 The United States Secretary of State approves the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip.
June 21 3
- 2006 Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra.
- 2004 SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
- 1993 Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-57 to retrieve the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) satellite. It is also the first shuttle mission to carry the Spacehab module.
June 22 1
- 1978 Charon, the first of Pluto's satellites to be discovered, was first seen at the United States Naval Observatory by James W. Christy.
June 23 1
- 1994 NASA's Space Station Processing Facility, a new state-of-the-art manufacturing building for the International Space Station, officially opens at Kennedy Space Center.
June 25 3
- 2009 The death of American entertainer Michael Jackson triggers an outpouring of worldwide grief as reactions online cause the flow of internet traffic to surge to unprecedented and historic levels.
- 1997 An uncrewed Progress spacecraft collides with the Russian space station Mir.
- 1992 Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-50, the first shuttle mission to carry Extended Duration Orbiter hardware.
June 27 3
- 2013 NASA launches the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph space probe to observe the Sun.
- 1995 Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-71, the first space shuttle mission to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
- 1982 Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the final research and development flight mission, STS-4.
June 29 2
- 1995 Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.
- 1971 Prior to re-entry (following a record-setting stay aboard the Soviet Union's Salyut 1 space station), the crew capsule of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft depressurizes, killing the three cosmonauts on board. Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev are the first humans to die in space.
June 30 1
- 1971 The crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply escapes through a faulty valve.
July 1 4
- 2007 Smoking bans in the United Kingdom culminate in a prohibition on smoking in all public indoor spaces in England.
- 1997 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-94, a re-flight of the prematurely-ended STS-83 mission with the same crew.
- 1967 Merger Treaty: The European Community is formally created out of a merger between the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission.
July 3 1
- 1767 Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret.
July 4 6
- 2006 Space Shuttle program: Discovery launches STS-121 to the International Space Station. The event gained wide media attention as it was the only shuttle launch in the program's history to occur on the United States' Independence Day.
- 1998 Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation.
- 1997 NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
July 5 3
- 2023 The last Ariane 5 rocket is launched, carrying the Heinrich Hertz and Syracuse 4B satellites.
- 2016 The Juno space probe arrives at Jupiter and begins a 20-month survey of the planet.
- 2009 The Staffordshire Horde, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered in Britain, is found near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, Staffordshire.
July 6 1
- 1885 Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies on Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.
July 7 1
- 2003 NASA Opportunity rover, MER-B or Mars Exploration Rover–B, was launched into space aboard a Delta II rocket.
July 8 2
- 2011 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program.
- 1994 Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on an international science mission.
July 9 1
- 1997 An explosion aboard a Brazilian airline TAM Fokker 100 launches engineer Fernando Caldeira de Moura Campos into a 2,400 meters free fall.
July 10 1
- 1997 In London, scientists report the findings of the DNA analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton which supports the "out of Africa theory" of human evolution, placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
July 11 3
- 2021 Virgin Galactic launches its founder, Richard Branson, into space, the first company ever to do so.
- 1979 America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
- 1962 Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth.
July 12 2
- 2007 U.S. Army Apache helicopters engage in airstrikes against armed insurgents in Baghdad, Iraq, where civilians are killed; footage from the cockpit is later leaked to the Internet.
- 2001 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-104, carrying the Quest Joint Airlock to the International Space Station.
July 13 1
- 1995 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-70 to deploy the TDRS-7 satellite.
July 14 1
- 2015 NASA's New Horizons probe performs the first flyby of Pluto, and thus completes the initial survey of the Solar System.
July 15 2
- 2009 Space Shuttle program: Endeavour is launched on STS-127 to complete assembly of the International Space Station's Kibō module.
- 1975 Space Race: Apollo–Soyuz Test Project features the dual launch of an Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft on the first Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was the last launch of both an Apollo spacecraft, and the Saturn family of rockets.
July 16 1
- 1945 Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
July 17 2
- 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.
- 1867 Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the first dental school in the U.S. that is affiliated with a university.
July 18 1
- 1966 Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle.
July 19 2
- 1977 The world's first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal is transmitted from Navigation Technology Satellite 2 (NTS-2) and received at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at 12:41 a.m. Eastern time (ET).
- 1963 Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 meters (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention.
July 20 4
- 2021 American businessman Jeff Bezos flies to space aboard New Shepard NS-16 operated by his private spaceflight company Blue Origin.
- 2019 Soyuz MS-13 is launched to the International Space Station on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
- 1977 The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind-control experiments.
July 21 5
- 2011 NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
- 1972 The Troubles: Bloody Friday: The Provisional IRA detonate 22 bombs in central Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom in the space of 80 minutes, killing nine and injuring 130.
- 1961 Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 mission: Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).
July 22 4
- 2019 Chandrayaan-2, the second lunar exploration mission developed by Indian Space Research Organisation after Chandrayaan-1 is launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in a GSLV Mark III M1. It consists of a lunar orbiter, and also included the Vikram lander, and the Pragyan lunar rover.
- 1993 Great Flood of 1993: Levees near Kaskaskia, Illinois rupture, forcing the entire town to evacuate by barges operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.
- 1962 Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.
July 23 4
- 2015 NASA announces discovery of Kepler-452b by the Kepler space telescope.
- 1999 Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-93, with Eileen Collins becoming the first female space shuttle commander. The shuttle also carried and deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
- 1995 Comet Hale–Bopp is discovered; it becomes visible to the naked eye on Earth nearly a year later.
July 24 1
- 1950 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station begins operations with the launch of a Bumper rocket.
July 25 2
- 1984 Salyut 7 cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
- 1973 Soviet Mars 5 space probe is launched.
July 26 2
- 2005 Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission: Launch of Discovery, NASA's first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster in 2003.
- 1989 A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
July 27 1
- 1955 El Al Flight 402 is shot down by two fighter jets after straying into Bulgarian air space. All 58 people on board are killed.
July 28 2
- 1996 The remains of a prehistoric man are discovered near Kennewick, Washington. Such remains will be known as the Kennewick Man.
- 1939 The Sutton Hoo helmet is discovered.
July 29 6
- 2021 The International Space Station temporarily spins out of control, moving the ISS 45 degrees out of attitude, following an engine malfunction of Russian module Nauka.
- 2015 The first piece of suspected debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is discovered on Réunion Island.
- 2005 Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet Eris.
July 30 1
- 2020 NASA's Mars 2020 mission is launched on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
July 31 4
- 1999 Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector: NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the Moon's surface.
- 1992 Space Shuttle program: Atlantis is launched on STS-46 to deploy the European Retrievable Carrier and the Tethered Satellite System.
- 1964 Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
August 2 2
- 1991 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-43 to deploy the TDRS-5 satellite.
- 1932 The positron (antiparticle of the electron) is discovered by Carl D. Anderson.
August 3 1
- 1977 Tandy Corporation announces the TRS-80, one of the world's first mass-produced personal computers.
August 4 2
- 2007 NASA's Phoenix Mars lander is launched.
- 1984 The Ariane 3 rocket is launched for the first time, carrying the Eutelsat I F-2 and Télécom 1A satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit.
August 5 1
- 1966 A group of red guards at Experimental High in Beijing, including Deng Rong and Liu Pingping, daughters of Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi respectively, beat the deputy vice principal, Bian Zhongyun, to death with sticks after accusing her of counter-revolutionary revisionism, producing one of the first fatalities of the Cultural Revolution.
August 6 4
- 2012 NASA's Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars.
- 1996 NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.
- 1991 Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW makes its first appearance as a publicly available service on the Internet.
August 7 1
- 1997 Space Shuttle Program: The Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-85 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
August 8 2
- 2007 Space Shuttle program: STS-118 Mission: Endeavour takes off on a mission to the International Space Station.
- 1989 Space Shuttle program: STS-28 Mission: Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission.
August 9 1
- 1945 World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. Thirty-five thousand people are killed outright, including 23,200–28,200 Japanese war workers, 2,000 Korean forced workers, and 150 Japanese soldiers.
August 10 2
- 2001 Space Shuttle program: The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-105 to the International Space Station, carrying the astronauts of Expedition 3 to replace the crew of Expedition 2.
- 1990 The Magellan space probe reaches Venus.
August 12 6
- 1990 Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton found to date, is discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota.
- 1981 The IBM Personal Computer is released.
- 1977 The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
August 13 1
- 1942 Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorizes the construction of facilities that would house the "Development of Substitute Materials" project, better known as the Manhattan Project.
August 15 4
- 2020 Russia begins production on the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.
- 1998 Apple introduces the iMac computer.
- 1977 The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the "Wow! signal" from the notation made by a volunteer on the project.
August 16 1
- 1989 A solar particle event affects computers at the Toronto Stock Exchange, forcing a halt to trading.
August 17 2
- 1970 Soviet Union Venera program: Venera 7 launched. It will become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus).
- 1958 Pioneer 0, America's first attempt at lunar orbit, is launched using the first Thor-Able rocket and fails. Notable as one of the first attempted launches beyond Earth orbit by any country.
August 18 3
- 1903 German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright brothers.
- 1877 American astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Phobos, one of Mars's moons.
- 1868 French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium.
August 20 2
- 1977 Voyager program: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
- 1975 Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.
August 21 3
- 1993 NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.
- 1945 Physicist Harry Daghlian is fatally irradiated in a criticality accident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
- 1821 Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew of the ship, Eliza Frances.
August 23 1
- 2007 The skeletal remains of Russia's last royal family members Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and his sister Grand Duchess Anastasia are discovered near Yekaterinburg, Russia.
August 24 3
- 2017 The National Space Agency of Taiwan successfully launches the observation satellite Formosat-5 into space.
- 2016 Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to Earth, is discovered by the European Southern Observatory.
- 2006 The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term "planet" such that Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet.
August 25 4
- 2012 Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space, becoming the first man-made object to do so.
- 2003 NASA successfully launches the Spitzer Space Telescope into space.
- 1989 Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the last planet in the Solar System at the time, due to Pluto being within Neptune's orbit from 1979 to 1999.
August 26 1
- 2009 Kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard is discovered alive in California after being missing for over 18 years. Her captors, Phillip and Nancy Garrido, are apprehended.
August 27 3
- 1985 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-51-I to deploy three communication satellites and repair a fourth malfunctioning one.
- 1962 The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA.
- 1859 Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania, leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well.
August 28 4
- 2016 The first experimental mission of ISRO's Scramjet Engine towards the realisation of an Air Breathing Propulsion System is successfully conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.
- 2009 NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-128.
- 1999 The Russian space mission Soyuz TM-29 reaches completion, ending nearly 10 years of continuous occupation on the space station Mir as it approaches the end of its life.
August 29 5
- 1997 Netflix is launched as an internet DVD rental service.
- 1982 Meitnerium, a synthetic chemical element with the atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany.
- 1965 The Gemini V spacecraft returns to Earth, landing in the Atlantic Ocean.
August 30 3
- 1984 STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.
- 1983 STS-8: The Space Shuttle Challenger takes off on the first night launch of the shuttle program. Guion Bluford becomes the first African-American in space on this mission.
- 1909 Burgess Shale fossils are discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott.
September 1 4
- 1985 The wreck of the Titanic is discovered by an American-French expedition led by Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel.
- 1982 The United States Air Force Space Command is founded.
- 1939 J. Robert Oppenheimer and his student Hartland Snyder publish the Oppenheimer–Snyder model, proving for the first time in contemporary physics how black holes could develop.
September 2 2
- 2023 India's first solar observation mission: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launches Aditya-L1 from Satish Dhawan space centre.
- 1970 NASA announces the cancellation of two Apollo missions to the Moon, Apollo 15 (the designation is re-used by a later mission), and Apollo 19.
September 3 2
- 1976 Viking program: The American Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars.
- 1941 The Holocaust: Karl Fritzsch, deputy camp commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, experiments with the use of Zyklon B in the gassing of Soviet POWs.
September 5 2
- 1984 STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
- 1977 Voyager Program: NASA launches the Voyager 1 spacecraft.
September 6 2
- 2013 The first Minotaur V rocket is launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, carrying NASA's LADEE spacecraft.
- 1943 The Monterrey Institute of Technology is founded in Monterrey, Mexico as one of the largest and most influential private universities in Latin America.
September 7 1
- 1995 Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-69, the second flight of the Wake Shield Facility.
September 8 5
- 2016 NASA launches OSIRIS-REx, its first asteroid sample return mission. The probe visited 101955 Bennu and returned with samples in September 2023.
- 2004 NASA's uncrewed spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open.
- 2000 NASA launches Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-106 to resupply the International Space Station.
September 9 4
- 2012 The Indian space agency puts into orbit its heaviest foreign satellite yet, in a streak of 21 consecutive successful PSLV launches.
- 2006 Space Shuttle Program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-115 to resume assembling the International Space Station. It is the first ISS assembly mission after the Columbia disaster back in 2003.
- 1994 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-64.
September 10 2
- 2024 Polaris Dawn, the first private crewed spaceflight to involve a spacewalk, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
- 2008 The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in history, is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland.
September 11 4
- 2025 Progress MS-32 is launched to resupply the International Space Station. It is the 300th spacecraft launched to the ISS.
- 2024 Soyuz MS-26 is launched to the International Space Station, setting a record of 19 people in orbit at the same time.
- 1997 NASA's Mars Global Surveyor reaches Mars.
September 12 6
- 2013 NASA confirms that its Voyager 1 probe has become the first manmade object to enter interstellar space.
- 1993 NASA launches Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51.
- 1992 NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-47, which marks the 50th shuttle mission. On board are Mae Carol Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spacecraft, and Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space.
September 13 1
- 1956 The IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage.
September 14 2
- 1958 The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, reach the upper atmosphere.
- 1954 In a top secret nuclear test, a Soviet Tu-4 bomber drops a 40 kiloton atomic weapon just north of Totskoye village.
September 15 1
- 1968 The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
September 16 3
- 2021 Inspiration4, the first private orbital crewed spaceflight, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center.
- 1996 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-79 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
- 1961 Pakistan establishes its Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission with Abdus Salam as its head.
September 17 2
- 1991 The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet.
- 1976 The Space Shuttle Enterprise is unveiled by NASA.
September 18 1
- 1932 The body of actress Peg Entwistle is discovered by police, two days after her suicide by jumping off of the Hollywoodland sign.
September 19 1
- 1991 Ötzi the Iceman is discovered in the Alps on the border between Italy and Austria.
September 21 1
- 2003 The Galileo spacecraft is terminated by sending it into Jupiter's atmosphere.
September 22 1
- 1976 Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs.
September 23 1
- 1846 Astronomers Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune.
September 24 1
- 2023 NASA's OSIRIS-REx capsule containing samples from the asteroid 101955 Bennu successfully lands back on Earth.
September 25 2
- 1997 NASA launches Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-86 to the Mir space station.
- 1992 NASA launches the Mars Observer. Eleven months later, the probe would fail while preparing for orbital insertion.
September 26 2
- 1983 Soviet Air Force officer Stanislav Petrov identifies a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike, thus preventing nuclear war.
- 1983 Soyuz 7K-ST No. 16L, intended to launch a crew to the Salyut 7 space station, explodes on the launch pad. The launch escape system is activated before the Soyuz-U rocket explodes, saving the crew.
September 27 3
- 2008 CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang becomes the first Chinese person to perform a spacewalk.
- 2007 NASA launches the Dawn probe to the asteroid belt.
- 1998 The Google internet search engine retroactively claims this date as its birthday.
September 28 1
- 1928 Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
September 29 2
- 2004 Burt Rutan's Ansari SpaceShipOne performs a successful spaceflight, the first of two required to win the Ansari X Prize.
- 1988 NASA launches STS-26, the first Space Shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster.
September 30 1
- 1994 Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-68.
October 1 2
- 2001 3G wireless technology first becomes available when it is adopted by Japanese telecommunications company NTT Docomo.
- 1982 EPCOT Center (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) opens at Walt Disney World in Florida.
October 3 4
- 2024 "Thick of It", a single by British Internet personality and rapper KSI featuring Trippie Redd, is released.
- 2022 Svante Pääbo is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- 1985 The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight, carrying two DSCS-III Satellites on STS-51-J.
October 4 1
- 2004 SpaceShipOne wins the Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight.
October 5 1
- 1984 Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian in space.
October 6 2
- 1995 The first planet orbiting another sun, 51 Pegasi b, is discovered.
- 1990 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-41, and deploys the Ulysses space probe to study the Sun's polar regions.
October 7 2
- 2002 The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-112 to continue assembly of the International Space Station.
- 1958 The U.S. crewed space-flight project is renamed to Project Mercury.
October 8 1
- 1829 Stephenson's Rocket wins the Rainhill Trials.
October 9 1
- 2009 First lunar impact of NASA's Lunar Precursor Robotic Program.
October 10 3
- 2007 Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor becomes the first Malaysian in space on board Soyuz TMA-11.
- 1967 The Outer Space Treaty comes into force.
- 1846 Triton, the largest moon of the planet Neptune, is discovered by English astronomer William Lassell.
October 11 4
- 2000 NASA launches STS-92, the 100th Space Shuttle mission.
- 1984 Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.
- 1968 NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful crewed Apollo mission.
October 12 3
- 2005 The second Chinese human spaceflight, Shenzhou 6, is launched, carrying two cosmonauts in orbit for five days.
- 1994 The Magellan spacecraft burns up in the atmosphere of Venus.
- 1964 The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew, and the first flight without pressure suits.
October 13 1
- 1885 The Georgia Institute of Technology is founded in Atlanta, Georgia.
October 15 4
- 2003 China launches Shenzhou 5, its first crewed space mission.
- 2002 A Soyuz-U rocket carrying Foton-M No.1 fails after liftoff from Plesetsk Cosmodrome and crashes, killing one person and injuring eight others.
- 2001 NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles (180 km) of Jupiter's moon Io.
October 18 6
- 2019 NASA Astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch take part in the first all-female spacewalk when they venture out of the International Space Station to replace a power controller.
- 1993 Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-58 to perform life sciences research.
- 1989 The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-34 to deploy the Jupiter-bound Galileo space probe.
October 20 3
- 2018 The BepiColombo spacecraft is launched on an Ariane 5 rocket to study Mercury.
- 2003 The Sloan Great Wall, once the largest cosmic structures known to humanity, is discovered by students at Princeton University.
- 1995 Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-73.
October 21 1
- 1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower approves the transfer of all US Army space-related activities to NASA, including most of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.
October 22 4
- 1992 Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-52 to deploy the LAGEOS-2 satellite and microgravity experiments.
- 1975 The Soviet uncrewed space mission Venera 9 lands on Venus.
- 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: President Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation.
October 23 3
- 2007 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-120, with Pamela Melroy becoming the second female space shuttle commander.
- 2001 Apple Computer releases the iPod.
- 1970 Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame, fueled with natural gas.
October 24 5
- 2014 The China National Space Administration launches an experimental lunar mission, Chang'e 5-T1, which will loop behind the Moon and return to Earth.
- 1998 Deep Space 1 is launched to explore the asteroid belt and test new spacecraft technologies.
- 1960 Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100 people, including Field Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin.
October 26 1
- 1968 Space Race: The Soyuz 3 mission achieves the first Soviet space rendezvous.
October 27 1
- 1961 NASA tests the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.
October 28 4
- 2014 A rocket carrying NASA's Cygnus CRS Orb-3 resupply mission to the International Space Station explodes seconds after taking off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia.
- 2009 NASA successfully launches the Ares I-X mission, the only rocket launch for its short-lived Constellation program.
- 1971 Prospero becomes the only British satellite to be launched by a British rocket.
October 29 4
- 1998 Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space at that time.
- 1998 ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with live coverage of the launch of the STS-95 space shuttle mission.
- 1991 The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.
October 30 1
- 1985 Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS-61-A, its final successful mission.
October 31 2
- 2014 During a test flight, the VSS Enterprise, a Virgin Galactic experimental spaceflight test vehicle, suffers a catastrophic in-flight breakup and crashes in the Mojave Desert, California.
- 2000 Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been crewed continuously since then.
November 1 2
- 1963 The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opens.
- 1951 Operation Buster–Jangle: Six thousand five hundred United States Army soldiers are exposed to 'Desert Rock' atomic explosions for training purposes in Nevada. Participation is not voluntary.
November 2 2
- 2000 Expedition 1 arrived at the International Space Station for the first long-duration stay onboard. From this day to present, a continuous human presence in space on the station remains uninterrupted.
- 1988 The Morris worm, the first Internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from MIT.
November 3 2
- 1994 Space Shuttle program: Atlantis launches on STS-66.
- 1973 Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 10 toward Mercury. On March 29, 1974, it becomes the first space probe to reach that planet.
November 6 1
- 1971 The United States Atomic Energy Commission tests the largest U.S. underground hydrogen bomb, code-named Cannikin, on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians.
November 7 2
- 1996 NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.
- 1994 WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, launches the world's first internet radio broadcast.
November 8 2
- 1999 Bruce Miller is killed at his junkyard near Flint, Michigan. His wife Sharee Miller, who convinced her online lover Jerry Cassaday to kill him (before later killing himself) was convicted of the crime, in what became the world's first Internet murder.
- 1957 Pan Am Flight 7 disappears between San Francisco and Honolulu. Wreckage and bodies are discovered a week later.
November 9 4
- 2005 The Venus Express mission of the European Space Agency is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
- 1994 The chemical element darmstadtium is discovered.
- 1979 Cold War: Nuclear false alarm: The NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland, detect a purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled.
November 10 3
- 2008 Over five months after landing on Mars, NASA declares the Phoenix mission concluded after communications with the lander were lost.
- 1972 Southern Airways Flight 49 from Birmingham, Alabama is hijacked and, at one point, is threatened with crashing into the nuclear installation at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After two days, the plane lands in Havana, Cuba, where the hijackers are jailed by Fidel Castro.
- 1970 Luna 17: uncrewed space mission launched by the Soviet Union.
November 11 3
- 1982 Space Shuttle Columbia launches from the Kennedy Space Center on STS-5, the first operational mission of the Space Shuttle program.
- 1966 NASA launches Gemini 12.
- 1930 Patent number US1781541 is awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention, the Einstein refrigerator.
November 12 4
- 2014 The Philae lander, deployed from the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, reaches the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
- 1995 Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-74 to deliver the Mir Docking Module to the Russian space station Mir.
- 1981 Space Shuttle program: Mission STS-2, utilizing the Space Shuttle Columbia, marks the first time a crewed spacecraft is launched into space twice.
November 13 1
- 1996 As part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) project, Joel Armengaud discovers the project's first Mersenne prime number,
November 14 4
- 2012 Israel launches a major military operation in the Gaza Strip in response to an escalation of rocket attacks by Hamas.
- 2008 Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-126 to continue assembly of the International Space Station.
- 2003 Astronomers discover Sedna, a distant trans-Neptunian dwarf planet.
November 15 2
- 1990 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-38, a classified mission for the Department of Defense.
- 1988 In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle Buran makes its only space flight.
November 16 6
- 2022 Artemis Program: NASA launches Artemis 1 on the first flight of the Space Launch System, the start of the program's future missions to the moon.
- 2009 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-129 to the International Space Station.
- 1992 The Hoxne Hoard is discovered by metal detectorist Eric Lawes in Hoxne, Suffolk.
November 17 3
- 2020 A Vega rocket carrying SEOSat-Ingenio and TARANIS fails after liftoff.
- 1970 Luna programme: The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon. This is the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world and is released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.
- 1947 American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.
November 18 2
- 2020 The Utah monolith, built sometime in 2016 is discovered by state biologists of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
- 2013 NASA launches the MAVEN probe to Mars.
November 19 3
- 1999 Shenzhou 1: The People's Republic of China launches its first Shenzhou spacecraft.
- 1997 Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-87.
- 1996 Space Shuttle program: Columbia is launched on STS-80, which would become the longest mission in the program at 17 days. On this mission, astronaut Story Musgrave becomes the only astronaut to fly on all five space shuttles.
November 20 2
- 1998 The first space station module component, Zarya, for the International Space Station is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
- 1985 Microsoft Windows 1.0, the first graphical personal computer operating environment developed by Microsoft, is released.
November 22 1
- 1989 NASA launches Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-33, a classified mission for the United States Department of Defense.
November 23 3
- 2015 Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle became the first rocket to successfully fly to space and then return to Earth for a controlled, vertical landing.
- 2002 Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-113 to the International Space Station carrying the Expedition 6 crew and the P1 truss.
- 1972 The Soviet Union makes its final attempt at launching the N1 rocket.
November 24 2
- 1991 Space Shuttle program: Atlantis launches on STS-44.
- 1932 In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.
November 26 2
- 2011 The Mars Science Laboratory launches to Mars with the Curiosity Rover.
- 1944 World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's shop in New Cross, London, killing 168 people.
November 27 4
- 2020 Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, is assassinated near Tehran.
- 2001 A hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.
- 1985 Space Shuttle program: Atlantis launches on STS-61-B, with Rodolfo Neri Vela becoming the first Mexican astronaut.
November 28 4
- 1983 Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-9, the first mission to carry the European Space Agency's Spacelab module.
- 1967 The first pulsar (PSR B1919+21, in the constellation of Vulpecula) is discovered by two astronomers Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish.
- 1964 Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars.
November 29 1
- 1961 Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space. The spacecraft orbits the Earth twice and splashes down off the coast of Puerto Rico.
November 30 2
- 2000 NASA launches STS-97, the 101st Space Shuttle mission.
- 1954 In Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, the Hodges meteorite crashes through a roof and hits a woman taking an afternoon nap; this is the only documented case in the Western Hemisphere of a human being hit by a rock from space.
December 1 2
- 2020 The Arecibo Telescope collapses.
- 1984 NASA conducts the Controlled Impact Demonstration, wherein an airliner is deliberately crashed in order to test technologies and gather data to help improve survivability of crashes.
December 2 4
- 1993 Space Shuttle program: STS-61: NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
- 1992 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-53 for the United States Department of Defense.
- 1990 Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-35, carrying the ASTRO-1 spacelab observatory.
December 3 6
- 2014 The Japanese space agency, JAXA, launches the space explorer Hayabusa2 from the Tanegashima Space Center on a six-year round trip mission to an asteroid to collect rock samples.
- 2005 XCOR Aerospace makes the first crewed rocket aircraft delivery of U.S. Mail in Kern County, California.
- 1999 NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
December 4 3
- 1998 The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched.
- 1971 During a concert by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention at the Montreux Casino, an audience member fires a flare gun into the ceiling, causing a fire that destroys the venue. The incident served as the inspiration for Deep Purple's 1973 song Smoke on the Water.
- 1965 Launch of Gemini 7 with crew members Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. The Gemini 7 spacecraft was the passive target for the first crewed space rendezvous performed by the crew of Gemini 6A.
December 5 2
- 2001 Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-108, carrying the Expedition 4 crew to the International Space Station.
- 1848 California Gold Rush: In a message to the United States Congress, U.S. President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.
December 6 2
- 2006 NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.
- 1912 The Nefertiti Bust is discovered.
December 7 1
- 1995 The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.
December 8 3
- 2010 With the second launch of the Falcon 9, and the first launch of the Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.
- 2010 The Japanese solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS passes the planet Venus at a distance of about 80,800 km (50,200 mi).
- 1953 U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his "Atoms for Peace" speech, which leads to an American program to supply equipment and information on nuclear power to schools, hospitals, and research institutions around the world.
December 9 3
- 2006 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-116 carrying the P5 truss segment of the International Space Station.
- 1968 Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS).
- 1946 The subsequent Nuremberg trials begin with the Doctors' Trial, prosecuting physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia.
December 11 1
- 2020 The Food and Drug Administration issues an Emergency Use Authorization on the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the first COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by the agency.
December 13 1
- 1962 NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
December 14 1
- 1962 NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
December 15 2
- 1970 Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully lands on Venus. It is the first successful soft landing on another planet.
- 1965 Project Gemini: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7.
December 17 1
- 2003 SpaceShipOne, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first powered and first supersonic flight.
December 18 2
- 1999 NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.
- 1966 Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by astronomer Richard Walker.
December 19 2
- 2013 Spacecraft Gaia is launched by the European Space Agency.
- 1999 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-103, the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.
December 20 2
- 2019 The United States Space Force becomes the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces since 1947.
- 1984 Disappearance of Jonelle Matthews from Greeley, Colorado. Her remains were discovered on July 23, 2019, located about 24 km (15 mi) southeast of Jonelle's home. The cause of death "was a gunshot wound to the head."
December 21 2
- 2022 A Vega C rocket carrying two Pléiades Neo satellites fails after liftoff.
- 1968 Apollo program: Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans.
December 22 2
- 2016 A study finds the VSV-EBOV vaccine against the Ebola virus between 70 and 100% effective, making it the first proven vaccine against the disease.
- 1942 World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
December 24 1
- 1979 The first Ariane 1 rocket is launched from ELA-1 at the Guiana Space Centre.
December 25 3
- 2021 The James Webb Space Telescope is launched.
- 2003 The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express spacecraft on December 19, stops transmitting shortly before its scheduled landing.
- 1968 Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the first successful Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.
December 27 1
- 1966 The Cave of Swallows, the largest known cave shaft in the world, is discovered in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
December 30 1
- 1916 Russian mystic and advisor to the Tsar Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin is murdered by a loyalist group led by Prince Felix Yusupov. His frozen, partially-trussed body was discovered in a Petrograd river three days later.
December 31 2
- 2020 The World Health Organization issues its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine.
- 2011 NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon.