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Period: to
Ancient?
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1690 - Uranus
John Flamsteed discovered what is now known today as Uranus, but misidentified it to be a star, naming it '34 Tauri'. -
DECEMBER 1758
German farmer and astronomer-in-training Johann Georg Palitzsch was the first to observe the return of Halley's Comet, 1 year after Edmond Halley predicted it would. -
1899 - AAS
Foundation of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) by 50 astronomers at a meeting at Yerkes Observatory. -
Period: to
1900s
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NOVEMBER 1957
A dog named Laika becomes the first living creature to be sent from Earth into space, aboard Russia's Sputnik 2. -
JANUARY 1961
NASA launches a chimp named Ham into space aboard a Mercury rocket. -
DECEMBER 1962
NASA'S Mariner 2 scans the surface of Venus. -
JUNE 1963
Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space aboard Vostok 6 -
MARCH 1965
Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov makes the first space walk. -
JANUARY 1967
A fire on the launch pad of Apollo 1 kills three US astronauts. Oops. -
APRIL 1967
First death in space (yet another Soviet cosmonaut named Vladimir Komorov) -
JULY 1969
US astronaut becomes the first person to walk on the Moon. -
NOVEMBER 1970
Russian rover the first vehicle to drive on the moon. -
JULY 1976
First successful landing on Mars by space probe Viking 1. -
JANUARY 2004
Twin Mars Exploration Rover missions Spirit and Opportunity land on Mars -
Period: to
Modern
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OCTOBER 2009
Water was found on Earth's moon. -
NOVEMBER 2011
NASA's Curiosity Rover is launched. -
AUGUST 2012
Curiosity Rover lands on Mars.