1999 – Cassini‘s Earth Flyby at 8:28 PDT brings the spacecraft 1,166 kilometers (727 miles) over the eastern South Pacific. This is one of four planetary flybys (Venus, Venus, Earth, and Jupiter) which achieve a
gravity assist for the spacecraft destined for distant
Saturn in 2004. The flyby gave Cassini a 12,000 mph boost in speed. Opponents to the Cassini and its plutonium sighed a breath of relief. Cassini is an international mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. It is managed for NASA’s Office of Space Science by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, Calif.
1980 – After over 1400 orbits, Viking 1 Mars Orbiter, was powered down. Launched on August 25, 1975, the Viking mission provided science with its most detailed views of Mars. One of its famous images is the “Face On Mars.
1970 – Venera 7 (USSR) launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Venus lander. It arrived at Venus on December 15, 1970. It was the first spacecraft to return data to Earth. Venera 7 also had a sister probe, launched on August 22, it remained stuck in Earth orbit.
1966 – Pioneer 7 launch.
1877 – Mars‘s moon Phobos first seen by Asaph Hall of the U.S. Naval Obs.
Birthdays
1953 – 
Dr Robert Brent Thirsk was born in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. Selection Group: 1983 NRC Group, NASA Group 17 (1998). Time in space: 204 days, 18 hours, 29 minutes. Missions: STS-78, Soyuz TMA-15 (Expedition 20/21).
1952 – Dr Kathryn Ryan Cordell ‘Kathy’ Thornton was born in Montgomery, Alabama. Selection: NASA Group 10 (1984). Time in space: 40d 15h 14m. Missions STS-33, STS-49, STS-61, STS-73
