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Spaceships Soyuz 19 and Apollo 18 are launched for joint flight

The mission was called Apollo–Soyuz Test Project. Its main purpose was political – to show that the Soviet Union and the USA can cooperate in a piece. It involved the docking of an American Apollo spaceship with the Soviet Soyuz. It was the last flight of the Apollo vehicle. The mission marked the end of the Space Race.

The Mariner 4 takes the first close-up photos of another planet

Mariner 4 performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first close-up pictures of the Martian surface. It captured the first images of another planet ever returned from deep space; their depiction of a cratered, seemingly dead world largely changed the scientific community's view of life on Mars

Wiley Post begins first solo flight around world

Wiley Post repeated his flight around the world, this time using the auto-pilot and compass in place of his navigator and becoming the first to accomplish the feat alone. Fifty thousand people greeted him on his return after 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes.

French chemist Hippolyte Mège Mouriés patents the margarine

Mouriés won the contest held by Emperor Napoleon III to find a substitute for butter used by the French Navy. His formula included a fatty component that mixed to a pearly luster, so he named his product after the Greek word for pearl - margaritári. In Europe margarine soon became a commercial success. In the U.S. it was prohibited for a long time.

Anniversaries of the (in)famous