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Important dates in space exploration

By julianab1

  • Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution.

  • Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden

  • The term ecology is coined in German as Oekologie by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel

  • The term acid rain is coined by Robert Angus Smith in the book Air and Rain

  • The term smog is coined by Henry Antoine Des Voeux in a London meeting to express concern over air pollution

  • US Congress created the National Park Service

  • 4 October 1957 - The world's first artificial satellite

    4 October 1957 - The world's first artificial satellite
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35326827
    Sputnik 1 satellite was launched by the USSR

  • 28 May 1959 - First creatures to return alive from space

    28 May 1959 - First creatures to return alive from space
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35326827
    Two monkeys, Able and Baker, became the first living creatures to survive a space flight.

  • 12 April 1961 - The first man in space

    12 April 1961 - The first man in space
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35326827
    He made a single orbit of Earth in 108 minutes, traveling at more than 17,000 miles per hour.

  • Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring

  • 16 June 1963 - The first woman in space

    16 June 1963 - The first woman in space
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35326827
    the first woman to be launched into space by the Soviet Union. She circled the Earth 49 times during three days in space, was injured when landed

  • 18 March 1965 - First-ever spacewalk

    18 March 1965 - First-ever spacewalk
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35326827
    Alexei Leonov carried out the first-ever spacewalk from the two-man Voskhod spacecraft.

  • The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise

  • 20 July 1969 - First man on the Moon

    20 July 1969 - First man on the Moon
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35326827
    American Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the Moon.

  • Earth Day – April 22., millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day organized by Gaylord Nelson, former senator of Wisconsin, and Denis Hayes, Harvard graduate student. US Environmental Protection Agency established

  • 19 April 1971 - The first space station is launched

    19 April 1971 - The first space station is launched
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35326827
    Russia launched Salyut, the first space station.

  • 7 February 1984 - 'Free-flying' in space

    7 February 1984 - 'Free-flying' in space
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35326827
    first person to do a spacewalk without being attached to the spacecraft. He tested a manned maneuvering unit, which allowed him to travel away from the orbiter, during a 90-minute spacewalk.

  • Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force

  • The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases

  • 20 November 1998 - Assembly of ISS begins

    20 November 1998 - Assembly of ISS begins
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35326827
    largest artificial body in space

  • U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol

  • 28 April 2001 - First space tourist

    28 April 2001 - First space tourist
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35326827
    billionaire businessman from California, became the first paying passenger to go to outer space.