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Flashback calendar

American astronaut Eugene Andrew Cernan dies

Eugene Cernan was an astronaut, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot. He became the 11th person to walk on the Moon. He died in a hospital in Houston at the age of 82. Cernan was laid to rest with full military honors at Texas State Cemetery.

Spacecraft Stardust returns to Earth with comet dust

It was a robotic probe launched 1999. Its primary mission was to collect dust samples from the coma of comet Wild 2, as well as samples of cosmic dust, and return these to Earth for analysis. It was the first sample return mission of its kind. En route to comet Wild 2, the craft also flew by and studied the asteroid 5535 Annefrank.

The Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew blasted off

STS-107 was the 113th flight of the Space Shuttle program and the disastrous final flight of Space Shuttle Columbia. During its time in orbit, the mission conducted a multitude of international scientific experiments. The members of the crew were killed when Columbia disintegrated during reentry into the atmosphere.

Lunakhod 2 lands on Moon

It was a robotic rover deployed by the Luna 21 spacecraft. The primary objectives of the mission were to collect images of the lunar surface, examine ambient light levels to determine the feasibility of astronomical observations from the Moon, perform laser ranging experiments from Earth, observe solar X-rays and measure local magnetic fields.

Crab pulsar is detected

The Crab pulsar is a remnant of a supernova observed in 1054. It lies seven thousand light years from the Sun. It was a first pulsar connected with a supernova. It could be discovered 19 years earlier. In 1950 it was spotted by a woman at the University of Chicago's telescope. She told it to the astronomer, but he did not believe her.

First docking of two manned spacecrafts

Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 docked with her sister Soyuz 5. The radio call sign of the crew was 'Amur', while Soyuz 5 was 'Baikal'. This referred to the trans-Siberian railway project called the Baikal-Amur Mainline, which was under construction at the time. Cosmonauts Aleksei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov have been transferred between the vessels.

American engineer Robert Van de Graaff dies

He is noted for his design and construction of high-voltage Van de Graaff generator. It is a device which uses a moving belt to accumulate an electric charge on a hollow metal globe on the top of an insulated column, creating very high electric potentials. This inspired the band of the same name, founded in 1967.

Angioplasty is first performed by Charles Dotter

Dotter saved a leg to 82-year-old woman with painful leg ischemia and gangrene. Angioplasty is a minimally invasive, endovascular procedure to widen narrowed or obstructed arteries or veins, typically to treat arterial atherosclerosis. A deflated balloon attached to a catheter s passed over a guide-wire into the narrowed vessel and then inflated to a fixed size.

The first non-stop around the world flight

Three United States Air Force Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses became the first jet aircraft to circle the world nonstop. They made the journey in 45 hours and 19 minutes, using in-flight refueling to stay aloft. The mission was intended to demonstrate that the United States had the ability to drop a hydrogen bomb anywhere in the world.

Anniversaries of the (in)famous

born 1932

Dian Fossey

died 2017

Eugene Cernan

died 1794

Edward Gibbon

born 1965

Jeff Skoll