2016 – Died: David Bowie, Cultural Starman. “Ashes to ashes, dust to stardust. Your brilliance inspired us all. Goodbye Starman.” — Commander Chris Hadfield
1969 – Venera 6 (USSR) launched. It arrived at Venus on May 17, 1969. This atmospheric probe returned data down to within 11km of the surface before being crushed by the pressure on Venus.
1962 – NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket launch vehicle. It became better known as the Saturn V Moon rocket, which launched every Apollo Moon mission.
1946 – The US Army’s Signal Corps successfully bounces the first radar waves off the Moon.
Birthdays
1936 – Robert W. Wilson‘s birthday, co-discoverer with Arno Penzias of the cosmic microwave (3 degree) background and 1978 Physics Nobel Laureate winners for their 1965 detection of long-wavelength, low-temperature radio emissions coming from the entire universe. Their measurements of the wavelength of the background radiation corresponded with the theorists’ predictions. This result supports the big bang theory, which describes an explosion that gave rise to all the matter and radiation in the universe.
1573 – Simon Mayr who observed the moons of Jupiter at nearly the same time as Galileo and gave them the Greek names in use today.