Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
		1      162 years ago, in 1801: Giuseppe Piazzi of Italy discovers the largest asteroid, Ceres.	2      4 years ago, in 1959: Luna 1 is the first craft to reach Earth escape velocity or Trans Lunar Injection.	3       1 year ago, in 1962: OSCAR 1, the first amateur radio satellite, ceases communication.	4      5 years ago, in 1958: Sputnik 1 burns up after re-entering Earth's atmosphere.      4 years ago, in 1959: Luna 1 misses the moon, and is the first craft to go into orbit around the sun.        This year: Luna E-6 No.2 (Sputnik 25) is launched to perform a soft landing on the Moon, but the upper stage malfunctions.	5      58 years ago, in 1905: At the Lick Observatory, Charles D. Perrine discovers Elara, the eighth largest moon of Jupiter.
6	7      353 years ago, in 1610: Galileo sees three of the four "Galilean" moons of Jupiter for the first time through a telescope.      173 years ago, in 1790: Caroline Herschel discovers her third comet, Comet C/1790 A1 (Herschel).      75 years ago, in 1888: James Edward Keeler is the first to view what is known as the Encke Gap in Saturn's A ring, using the 36 inch telescope at Lick Observatory.	8      321 years ago, in 1642: Galileo Galilei dies at age 77 in Arcetri, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Italy.      21 years ago, in 1942: Theoretical physicist Stephen William Hawking is born in Oxford, England.	9	10      353 years ago, in 1610: Galileo noticies one of the three "Galilean" moons has disappeared; leading to his belief they were moons.	11      176 years ago, in 1787: William Herschel discovers two moons of Uranus, Oberon and Titania.	12      56 years ago, in 1907: Sergei Korolev, the Soviet "chief designer", is born in Zhytomyr, Russian Empire.
13      353 years ago, in 1610: Galileo discovers the fourth "Galilean" moon of Jupiter.	14	15	16	17      177 years ago, in 1786: Comet 2P/Encke is first viewed by French astronomer Pierre Mechain.	18	19
20      3 years ago, in 1960: The maiden flight of the Soviet Molniya carrier rocket is launched.	21      4 years ago, in 1959: The Project SCORE communications satellite burns up in Earths atmosphere.	22	23	24	25	26      14 years ago, in 1949: The 200-inch Hale Telescope sees "first light".       1 year ago, in 1962: Ranger 3 is launched to the Moon, but misses it and settles into a heliocentric orbit.
27      55 years ago, in 1908: Pasiphae, the largest retrograde moon of Jupiter, is discovered by Philibert Jacques Melotte.	28      14 years ago, in 1949: The first flight for X-ray research is made with a U.S. launched V-2, and it detects X-rays from the Sun.	29	30	31      178 years ago, in 1785: NGC 2359 (Thor’s Helmet), a bright nebula in the constellation Canis Major, is discovered by William Herschel.      5 years ago, in 1958: The first successful U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, is launched and discovers the Van Allen radiation belts.      2 years ago, in 1961: Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2) is launched with Ham the chimp.       1 year ago, in 1962: OSCAR 1, the first amateur radio satellite, burns up in re-entry.