Wally Schirra was an American naval aviator and astronaut and the only man to fly Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. Originally a naval pilot and later a test pilot, he was selected for the first astronaut training programme and became one of the original Mercury Seven. Schirra spent a total of 12 days 7 hours and 12 minutes in space. He retired from the navy after his Apollo 7 flight.
The six-game tournament between IBM supercomputer Deep Blue and Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov was played in New York City in 1997. One year earlier, Kasparov defeated Deep Blue 4–2. In the rematch he was not so lucky. He lost 3½–2½. It was the first defeat of a reigning world chess champion by a computer under tournament conditions.
GOES-G was a weather satellite heading into geostationary orbit and intended for operation by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Seventy-one seconds after launch, the first stage main engine shut down prematurely due to an electrical fault and the rocket was automatically destroyed. This had been NASA's first launch following the Challenger disaster.