Science & Discovery
Scientific breakthroughs, inventions, and exploration of the natural world
History: January 3 (#3)
January 3, 2020 Iranian General Qasem Soleimani is killed by an American airstrike near Baghdad International Airport, igniting global concerns of a potential armed conflict....
History: January 4 (#5)
January 4, 2000 A Norwegian passenger train departing from Trondheim, collides with a local train coming from Hamar in Åsta in Åmot Municipality; 19 people are killed and 68 injured in the accident....
History: January 5 (#4)
January 5, 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....
History: January 10 (#1)
January 10, 2019 A 13-year-old American girl, Jayme Closs, is found alive in Gordon, Wisconsin, having been kidnapped 88 days earlier from her parents' home whilst they were murdered....
History: January 12 (#3)
January 12, 2007 Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught), one of the brightest comets ever observed is at its zenith visible during the day....
History: January 12 (#5)
January 12, 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 ...
History: January 19 (#1)
January 19, 2024 The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's probe lands on the moon, making Japan the 5th country to land a spacecraft on the moon....
History: January 20 (#4)
January 20, 2018 Syrian civil war: The Government of Turkey announces the initiation of the Afrin offensive and begins shelling Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) positions in Afrin Region....
History: January 25 (#1)
January 25, 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....
History: January 25 (#4)
January 25, 2011 The first wave of the Egyptian revolution begins throughout the country, marked by street demonstrations, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, riots, labour strikes, and violent clas...
History: January 27 (#5)
January 27, 2011 Within Ursa Minor, H1504+65, a white dwarf with the hottest known surface temperature in the universe at 200,000 K, was documented....
History: January 29 (#2)
January 29, 2022 Canadian truck drivers and pedestrians gathered to rally and protest on Parliament Hill against Canadian COVID-19 restrictions, which caused traffic and closures around the city....
History: January 30 (#5)
January 30, 1975 The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is established as the first United States National Marine Sanctuary....
History: February 3 (#1)
February 3, 2026 Islamist militants massacred at least 162 while injuring and kidnapping dozens in two villages in Kwara State, Nigeria....
History: February 5 (#4)
February 5, 2004 Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion....
History: February 7 (#2)
February 7, 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....
History: February 7 (#5)
February 7, 2001 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-98, carrying the Destiny laboratory module to the International Space Station....
History: February 11 (#4)
February 11, 2013 Militants claiming to be from the Sultanate of Sulu invade Lahad Datu District, Sabah, Malaysia, beginning the Lahad Datu standoff....
History: February 11 (#5)
February 11, 2011 Arab Spring: The first wave of the Egyptian revolution culminates in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 17 days of prot...
History: February 12 (#1)
February 12, 2026 In the first general election since the July Revolution in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Tarique Rahman, wins a landslide victory upon returning to power afte...
History: February 13 (#2)
February 13, 2012 The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana....
History: February 14 (#5)
February 14, 2005 Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit Makati, Davao City, and General Santos, all in the Philippines....
History: February 17 (#3)
February 17, 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....
History: February 18 (#3)
February 18, 2014 Revolution of Dignity: At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kyiv, Ukraine....
History: February 20 (#2)
February 20, 2014 Dozens of Euromaidan anti-government protesters die in Ukraine's capital Kyiv, many reportedly killed by snipers....
History: February 22 (#2)
February 22, 2014 President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine is impeached by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by a vote of 328–0, fulfilling a major goal of the Euromaidan rebellion....
History: February 22 (#3)
February 22, 2011 Bahraini uprising: Tens of thousands of people march in protest against the deaths of seven victims killed by police and army forces during previous protests....
History: February 22 (#5)
February 22, 2006 The Securitas depot robbery was the UK's largest heist. Almost £53m (about $92.5 million or €78 million) was stolen from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent....
History: February 23 (#3)
February 23, 2010 Unknown criminals pour more than 2+1⁄2 million liters of diesel oil and other hydrocarbons into the river Lambro, in northern Italy, sparking an environmental disaster....
History: February 24 (#5)
February 24, 2008 Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba and the Council of Ministers after 32 years. He would remain as head of the Communist Party for another three years....
History: February 25 (#2)
February 25, 2009 Soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles mutiny at their headquarters in Pilkhana, Dhaka, Bangladesh, resulting in 74 deaths, including 57 army officials....
History: February 25 (#5)
February 25, 1986 People Power Revolution: President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the Philippines' first female president....
History: February 26 (#2)
February 26, 2021 A total of 279 female students aged between 10 and 17 are kidnapped by bandits in the Zamfara kidnapping in Zamfara State, Nigeria....
History: February 28 (#2)
February 28, 2024 Prime Minister Modi of India inaugurates the 2nd Space Port of India - Kulasekarapattinam Spaceport....
History: March 5 (#2)
March 5, 2018 Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) pause the Deir ez-Zor campaign due to the Turkish-led invasion of Afrin....
History: March 5 (#5)
March 5, 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....
History: March 6 (#5)
March 6, 1988 Three Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers are shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar in Operation Flavius....
History: March 9 (#5)
March 9, 1997 Comet Hale–Bopp: Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day....
History: March 11 (#3)
March 11, 2011 An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130 km (81 mi) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people. This event also triggered the second largest nu...
History: March 13 (#1)
March 13, 2020 President Donald Trump declares the COVID-19 pandemic to be a national emergency in the United States....
History: March 19 (#4)
March 19, 2011 Libyan Civil War: After the failure of Muammar Gaddafi's forces to take Benghazi, the French Air Force launches Opération Harmattan, beginning foreign military intervention in Libya....
History: March 20 (#3)
March 20, 2015 Syrian civil war: The Siege of Kobanî is broken by the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Free Syrian Army (FSA), marking a turning point in the Rojava–Islamist conflict....
History: March 20 (#4)
March 20, 2012 At least 52 people are killed and more than 250 injured in a wave of terror attacks across ten cities in Iraq....
History: March 23 (#5)
March 23, 2014 The World Health Organization (WHO) reports cases of Ebola in the forested rural region of southeastern Guinea, marking the beginning of the largest Ebola outbreak in history....
History: March 24 (#2)
March 24, 2018 Syrian civil war: The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and Syrian National Army (SNA) take full control of Afrin District, marking the end of the Afrin offensive....
History: March 25 (#1)
March 25, 2018 Syrian civil war: Following the completion of the Afrin offensive, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) initiate an insurgency against the Turkish occupation of the Afrin District....
History: March 31 (#2)
March 31, 2005 The dwarf planet Makemake is discovered by a team led by astronomer Michael E. Brown at the Palomar Observatory....
History: March 31 (#4)
March 31, 1995 Selena is murdered by her fan club president Yolanda Saldívar at a Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas....
History: April 1 (#1)
April 1, 2026 The Artemis II lunar flyby mission launches, marking the first crewed deep-space mission since Apollo 17 in 1972....
History: April 5 (#2)
April 5, 2010 Up to 50 people are killed and another 100 injured in two militant suicide bombings and attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan: the first on an Awami National Party rally in...
History: April 6 (#3)
April 6, 2011 In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, over 193 victims of Los Zetas were exhumed from several mass graves....
History: April 8 (#4)
April 8, 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 seve...
History: April 9 (#3)
April 9, 2020 Soyuz MS-16 is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying the Expedition 62/63 crew to the International Space Station....
History: April 14 (#4)
April 14, 2003 The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%....
History: April 16 (#1)
April 16, 2018 The New York Times and the New Yorker win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for breaking news of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal....
History: April 17 (#1)
April 17, 2014 NASA's Kepler space telescope confirms the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star....
History: April 19 (#5)
April 19, 2001 Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-100 carrying the Canadarm2 to the International Space Station....
History: April 21 (#5)
April 21, 2010 The controversial Kharkiv Pact (Russian Ukrainian Naval Base for Gas Treaty) is signed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, by Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and Russian president Dmitry Medved...
History: April 24 (#2)
April 24, 2004 The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction....
History: April 26 (#3)
April 26, 2005 Cedar Revolution: Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country (Syria...
History: April 28 (#5)
April 28, 1991 Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-39, the first unclassified shuttle mission for the United States Department of Defense....
History: May 6 (#3)
May 6, 2013 Three women, kidnapped and missing for more than a decade, are found alive in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States....
History: May 8 (#3)
May 8, 2019 British 17-year-old Isabelle Holdaway is reported to be the first patient ever to receive a genetically modified phage therapy to treat a drug-resistant infection....
History: May 9 (#1)
May 9, 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War: United States President Joe Biden signs the 2022 Lend-Lease Act into law, a rebooted World War II-era policy expediting American equipment to Ukraine and other Easter...
History: May 14 (#1)
May 14, 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 Atlanti...
History: May 18 (#4)
May 18, 2005 A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons, Nix and Hydra....
History: May 19 (#4)
May 19, 2015 The Refugio oil spill deposited 142,800 U.S. gallons (3,400 barrels) of crude oil onto an area in California considered one of the most biologically diverse coastlines of the west coast....
History: May 20 (#1)
May 20, 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war: Russia claims full control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege....
History: May 27 (#5)
May 27, 1999 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-96, the first shuttle mission to dock with the International Space Station....
History: May 30 (#3)
May 30, 2012 Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in atrocities committed during the Sierra Leone Civil War....
History: June 2 (#4)
June 2, 2012 Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing of demonstrators during the 2011 Egyptian revolution....
History: June 2 (#5)
June 2, 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....
History: June 8 (#2)
June 8, 2007 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-117 carrying two truss segments and solar arrays to the International Space Station....
History: June 10 (#3)
June 10, 2018 Opportunity rover, sends it last message back to Earth. The mission was finally declared over on February 13, 2019....
History: June 10 (#5)
June 10, 2002 The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom....
History: June 14 (#3)
June 14, 2002 Near-Earth asteroid 2002 MN misses the Earth by 75,000 miles (121,000 km), about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon....
History: June 20 (#1)
June 20, 2019 Iran's Air Defense Forces shoot down an American surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz amid rising tensions between the two countries....
History: June 24 (#4)
June 24, 2012 Death of Lonesome George, the last known individual of Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise....
History: June 25 (#3)
June 25, 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War: The Battle of Sievierodonetsk ends after weeks of heavy fighting with the Russian capture of the city, leading to the Battle of Lysychansk....
History: June 27 (#5)
June 27, 2008 In a highly scrutinized election, President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe is re-elected in a landslide after his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn a week earlier, citing violence aga...
History: June 29 (#4)
June 29, 1995 Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time....
History: June 30 (#1)
June 30, 2023 A Tajik citizen with ISIS connections, wanted in Tajikistan for murder and kidnapping, kills two people at Chișinău International Airport in Moldova, after being denied entry to the cou...
History: July 2 (#3)
July 2, 2000 Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revoluciona...
History: July 4 (#3)
July 4, 2012 The discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is announced at CERN....
History: July 4 (#5)
July 4, 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 ...
History: July 5 (#5)
July 5, 2009 The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered in Britain, consisting of more than 1,500 items, is found near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, Staffordshire....
History: July 8 (#2)
July 8, 2014 Israel launches an offensive on Gaza amid rising tensions following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers....
History: July 9 (#1)
July 9, 2025 Earth completes its shortest recorded day due to a slight acceleration in rotation, with July 9 lasting approximately 1.3 to 1.6 milliseconds less than 24 hours....
History: July 11 (#4)
July 11, 1991 Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 passengers and crew on board....
History: July 12 (#3)
July 12, 2001 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-104, carrying the Quest Joint Airlock to the International Space Station....
History: July 15 (#1)
July 15, 2009 Space Shuttle program: Endeavour is launched on STS-127 to complete assembly of the International Space Station's Kibō module....
History: July 15 (#3)
July 15, 2002 The Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan sentences British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to death, and three others suspected of murdering The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl to li...
History: July 15 (#4)
July 15, 1996 A Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying the Royal Netherlands Army marching band crashes on landing at Eindhoven Airport....
History: July 19 (#3)
July 19, 2012 Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) capture the city of Kobanî without resistance, starting the Rojava conflict in Northeast Syria....
History: July 20 (#5)
July 20, 2013 Seventeen government soldiers are killed in an attack by FARC revolutionaries in the Colombian department of Arauca....
History: July 21 (#1)
July 21, 2025 A Bangladesh Air Force Chengdu FT-7BGI crashes shortly after takeoff into Milestone School campus in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 35 people and injuring 173....
History: July 21 (#3)
July 21, 2023 The Barbenheimer phenomenon begins as two major motion pictures, Greta Gerwig's fantasy comedy Barbie and Christopher Nolan's epic biographical thriller Oppenheimer, are released in the...
History: July 22 (#3)
July 22, 2012 Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) captured the cities of Serê Kaniyê and Dirbêsiyê, during clashes with pro-government forces in Al-Hasakah....
History: July 23 (#3)
July 23, 2012 The Solar storm of 2012 was an unusually large coronal mass ejection that was emitted by the Sun which barely missed the Earth by nine days. If it hit, it would have caused up to US$2.6...
History: July 26 (#2)
July 26, 2011 A Royal Moroccan Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashes near Guelmim Airport in Guelmim, Morocco. All 80 people on board are killed....
History: July 26 (#4)
July 26, 2005 Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission: Launch of Discovery, NASA's first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster in 2003....
History: July 27 (#1)
July 27, 2002 Ukraine airshow disaster: A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes during an air show at Lviv, Ukraine killing 77 and injuring more than 500 others, making it the deadliest air show disaster in h...
History: July 29 (#2)
July 29, 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....
History: July 29 (#3)
July 29, 2015 The first piece of suspected debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is discovered on Réunion Island....
History: July 30 (#3)
July 30, 2003 Three years after the death the last Pyrenean ibex, Celia, a clone of her is born only to subsequently die from lung defects. Within minutes, the Pyrenean ibex becomes the first and so-...
History: July 31 (#5)
July 31, 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....
History: August 3 (#3)
August 3, 2007 Former deputy director of the Chilean secret police Raúl Iturriaga is captured after having been on the run following a conviction for kidnapping....
History: August 7 (#4)
August 7, 1997 Space Shuttle Program: The Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-85 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida....
History: August 10 (#3)
August 10, 2018 An anti-government rally turns into a riot when members of the Romanian Gendarmerie attack the 100,000 people protesting in front of the Victoria Palace, leading to 452 recorded injur...
History: August 14 (#4)
August 14, 2015 The U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba re-opens after 54 years of being closed when Cuba–United States relations were broken off....
History: August 15 (#4)
August 15, 2013 The Smithsonian announces the discovery of the olinguito, the first new carnivorous species found in the Americas in 35 years....
History: August 16 (#1)
August 16, 2015 More than 96 people are killed and hundreds injured following a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the rebel-held market town of Douma....
History: August 22 (#4)
August 22, 2006 Grigori Perelman is awarded the Fields Medal for his proof of the Poincaré conjecture in mathematics but refuses to accept the medal....
History: August 23 (#4)
August 23, 2011 Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the Libyan Civil War....
History: August 24 (#4)
August 24, 2016 Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to Earth, is discovered by the European Southern Observatory....
History: August 27 (#4)
August 27, 2003 Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant....
History: August 27 (#5)
August 27, 2003 The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, convene to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns of the North Kor...
History: August 28 (#3)
August 28, 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, ...
History: August 29 (#1)
August 29, 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war: Ukraine begins its southern counteroffensive in the Kherson Oblast, eventually culminating in the liberation of the city of Kherson....
History: August 29 (#4)
August 29, 2003 Sayed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf....
History: September 1 (#3)
September 1, 1985 The wreck of the Titanic is discovered by an American-French expedition led by Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel....
History: September 4 (#4)
September 4, 2007 Three terrorists suspected to be a part of Al-Qaeda are arrested in Germany after allegedly planning attacks on both the Frankfurt International airport and US military installation...
History: September 6 (#2)
September 6, 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war: Ukraine begins its Kharkiv counteroffensive, surprising Russian forces and retaking over 3,000 square kilometers of land, recapturing the entire Kharkiv Oblast ...
History: September 7 (#1)
September 7, 2021 The National Unity Government of Myanmar declares a people's defensive war against the military junta during the Myanmar civil war....
History: September 10 (#4)
September 10, 2008 The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in history, is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland....
History: September 14 (#2)
September 14, 2015 The first observation of gravitational waves is made, announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016....
History: September 17 (#1)
September 17, 2016 Two bombs explode in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and Manhattan. Thirty-one people are injured in the Manhattan bombing....
History: September 18 (#3)
September 18, 2007 Buddhist monks join anti-government protesters in Myanmar, starting what some call the Saffron Revolution....
History: September 18 (#4)
September 18, 1992 An explosion rocks Giant Mine at the height of a labor dispute, killing nine replacement workers in Yellowknife, Canada....
History: September 19 (#4)
September 19, 2016 In the wake of a manhunt, the suspect in a series of bombings in New York and New Jersey is apprehended after a shootout with police....
History: September 22 (#5)
September 22, 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....
History: September 24 (#3)
September 24, 2014 The Mars Orbiter Mission makes India the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit, and the first nation in the world to do so in its first attempt....
History: September 24 (#5)
September 24, 2007 Between 30,000 and 100,000 people take part in anti-government protests in Yangon, Burma, the largest in 20 years....
History: September 28 (#1)
September 28, 2023 The 2023 Rotterdam shootings occurred, during which two people were killed in a shooting and arson incident at a residence in Delfshaven, Rotterdam. Additionally, one person lost t...
History: September 30 (#4)
September 30, 1999 The Tokaimura nuclear accident causes the deaths of two technicians in Japan's second-worst nuclear accident....
History: October 4 (#1)
October 4, 2017 Joint Nigerien-American Special Forces are ambushed by Islamic State militants outside the village of Tongo Tongo....
History: October 5 (#4)
October 5, 1970 The British Trade Commissioner, James Cross, is kidnapped by members of the Front de libération du Québec, triggering the October Crisis in Canada....
History: October 6 (#3)
October 6, 1990 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-41, and deploys the Ulysses space probe to study the Sun's polar regions....
History: October 13 (#4)
October 13, 1976 The first electron micrograph of an Ebola virus is taken at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by Dr. F. A. Murphy....
History: October 15 (#1)
October 15, 2018 13-year-old American girl, Jayme Closs, is kidnapped from her Barron, Wisconsin home after her parents were both murdered....
History: October 18 (#1)
October 18, 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....
History: October 20 (#2)
October 20, 2011 Libyan Crisis: Rebel forces capture Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and his son Mutassim in his hometown of Sirte and kill them shortly thereafter, ending the first Libyan civil war....
History: October 20 (#3)
October 20, 2005 The general conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passes the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cult...
History: October 20 (#4)
October 20, 2003 The Sloan Great Wall, once the largest cosmic structures known to humanity, is discovered by students at Princeton University....
History: October 22 (#5)
October 22, 1999 Maurice Papon, an official in the Vichy government during World War II, is jailed for crimes against humanity....
History: October 24 (#3)
October 24, 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....
History: October 28 (#4)
October 28, 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 Is...
History: October 31 (#2)
October 31, 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, Californ...
History: November 2 (#5)
November 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 remain...
History: November 9 (#5)
November 9, 2005 The Venus Express mission of the European Space Agency is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan....
History: November 10 (#2)
November 10, 2019 President of Bolivia Evo Morales and several of his government resign after 19 days of civil protests and a recommendation from the military....
History: November 11 (#1)
November 11, 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War: Ukrainian armed forces enter the city of Kherson following a successful two-month southern counteroffensive....
History: November 12 (#5)
November 12, 2014 The Philae lander, deployed from the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, reaches the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko....
History: November 13 (#5)
November 13, 1996 As part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) project, Joel Armengaud discovers the project's first Mersenne prime number,...
History: November 15 (#4)
November 15, 2007 Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5,000 people and destroying parts of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans....
History: November 16 (#2)
November 16, 2009 Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-129 to the International Space Station....
History: November 16 (#4)
November 16, 2004 Half-Life 2 is released, a game winning 39 Game of the Year awards and being cited as one of the best games ever made....
History: November 16 (#5)
November 16, 1997 After nearly 18 years of incarceration, China releases Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons....
History: November 18 (#1)
November 18, 2020 The Utah monolith, built sometime in 2016 is discovered by state biologists of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources....
History: November 20 (#5)
November 20, 1998 The first space station module component, Zarya, for the International Space Station is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan....
History: November 21 (#5)
November 21, 2013 Massive protests start in Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovych suspended signing the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement....
History: November 23 (#1)
November 23, 2019 The last Sumatran rhinoceros in Malaysia, Imam, dies, making the species officially extinct in the country....
History: November 24 (#2)
November 24, 2016 The government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army sign a revised peace deal, bringing an end to the country's more than 50-year-long civil war....
History: December 1 (#5)
December 1, 2000 Vicente Fox Quesada is inaugurated as the president of Mexico, marking the first peaceful transfer of executive federal power to an opposing political party following a free and demo...
History: December 2 (#5)
December 2, 1993 Space Shuttle program: STS-61: NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope....
History: December 6 (#3)
December 6, 2006 NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars....
History: December 6 (#4)
December 6, 2005 An Iranian Air Force C-130 military transport aircraft crashes into a ten-floor apartment building in a residential area of Tehran, killing all 94 on board and 12 more on the ground....
History: December 8 (#4)
December 8, 2010 The Japanese solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS passes the planet Venus at a distance of about 80,800 km (50,200 mi)....
History: December 11 (#1)
December 11, 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....
History: December 15 (#4)
December 15, 2010 A boat carrying 90 asylum seekers crashes into rocks off the coast of Christmas Island, Australia, killing 48 people....
History: December 17 (#1)
December 17, 2010 Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire. This act became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring....
History: December 17 (#3)
December 17, 2003 The Soham murder trial ends at the Old Bailey in London, with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend, Maxine Carr, is found guilty of perverting the cours...
History: December 20 (#5)
December 20, 2007 Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch in the history of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years and 243 days....
History: December 21 (#2)
December 21, 2020 A great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs, with the two planets separated in the sky by 0.1 degrees. This is the closest conjunction between the two planets since 1623....
History: December 21 (#5)
December 21, 1999 The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts a van loaded with 950 kg of explosives that ETA intended to use to blow up Torre Picasso in Madrid, Spain....
History: December 22 (#3)
December 22, 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....
History: December 24 (#4)
December 24, 2003 The Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station....
History: December 25 (#3)
December 25, 2007 A Siberian tiger named Tatania escapes her exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo and attacks three people, killing one and injuring two more....
History: December 25 (#4)
December 25, 2004 The Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005....
History: December 25 (#5)
December 25, 2003 The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express spacecraft on December 19, stops transmitting shortly before its scheduled landing....
History: December 26 (#5)
December 26, 2004 Orange Revolution: The final run-off election in Ukraine is held under heavy international scrutiny....
History: December 27 (#4)
December 27, 2004 Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet....
History: December 28 (#1)
December 28, 2025 Unrest in the form of mass protests erupt across Iran, the largest uprising in the country since the Iranian Revolution....
History: December 31 (#4)
December 31, 2011 NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon....