1971 –Kosmos 419 (USSR) Launched. Due to an upper stage malfunction it failed to leave Earth
orbit.
1482 – Death of Toscanelli who is noted for his observations of comets. Among these was the comet of 1456; only named Halley’s comet when Halley predicted its return in 1759. Toscanelli was born in Florence in 1379 and educated at the University of Padua as a doctor of medicine. He had many interests. Christopher Columbus carried Toscanelli’s maps as he searched for the Spice Islands.
Birthday
1939 – Birthday, Franco Pacini was an Italian astrophysicist and professor at the University of Florence.(d. January 25, 2012)At the 25th General Assembly of the IAU, held in Sydney in 2003, he proposed to designate 2009 the International Year of Astronomy as a way to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first telescopic observations.
