Events
1977 - Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched
1984 - STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
Births
1787 - François Sulpice Beudant, French mineralogist and geologist
1792 - Pierre-Armand Dufrénoy, French geologist and mineralogist
1857 - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian rocket scientist and inventor
Deaths
1906 - Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist
1917 - Marian Smoluchowski, Polish physicist
1943 - AleÅ¡ HrdliÄka, Czech anthropologist
1948 - Richard C. Tolman, American mathematical physicist
2002 - David Todd Wilkinson, American astronomer
More like this
... and probably has been there for months, but new research is confirming the nature of this very interesting phenomenon.
A podcast from earlier in the year, celebrating Darwin's birthday.
A few essays focusing on Darwin's Voyage on The Beagle
Charles Darwin wrote a book called Geological Observations on South America.
And such closeness has not been achieved before or since. Voyager 2 passed very close to the funny-named planet 25 years ago today (plus or minus) and that is the only close fly by to date.