2015 – The ASASSN-15lh supernova was first seen by two telescopes operated by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae and becomes the most extreme instance yet of a superluminous supernova. Astronomers led by Subo Dong at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University in Beijing reported that they caught it about nine days after its brightness peaked. Report here
2008 – Landing of STS-124 at 15:15 GMT.
1991 – Landing of STS-40 at 15:40 GMT.
1975 – Venera 10 (USSR) launched. Venus orbiter and lander mission. It arrived on October 25, 1974. The lander transmitted black and white pictures of the Venusian surface.
1967 – Mariner 5 (USA) launched. Venus flyby mission approached within 3900 km on October 19, 1967.
1963 – Vostok 5 Launch. It returned to Earth on 19 June, and was piloted by Valery Bykovsky.
1962 – The European Space Research Organization is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency
1949 – A V-2 flight carrying a live Air Force Aeromedical Laboratory monkey, Albert II, attained an altitude of 83 miles. The monkey died on impact when the parachute failed. Read about more animals in space.
1822 – Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled “Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables”.