10 August
1960: On 10 August 1960, a capsule ejected from the US Discoverer 13 satellite was recovered when it returned from orbit; it was the first human-made object recovered from space.
27 FEB. 2004
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1999: Up to 350 million people in Europe and Asia witnessed the last total solar eclipse of the 20th century.
The phenomenon began over the Atlantic, a few hundred miles east of Boston, North America. The only part of mainland Britain to witness totality (the full blacking out of the Sun by the Moon) was Cornwall in south-west England.
After Britain the eclipse was seen throughout Europe and Asia. In northern France, there were clear skies as there were in Munich, Germany. But at the moment of totality, a torrential downpour spoiled the view.
The totality could be seen the longest in Ramnicu Valcea, the south-central city in Romania.
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9 August
1975:On 9 August 1975, ESA launched COS-B. COS-B was the first ESA mission to study gamma-ray sources. Its results created a catalogue of these sources, known as the 2CG catalogue, ...
8 August
1989:On 8 August 1989, ESA launched its Hipparcos mission. Hipparcos pinpointed the positions of one hundred thousand stars. It turned slowly on its axis and repeatedly scanned right around the ...
7 August
2000:On 7 August 2000, astronomers from the University of Texas and other members of an international planetary research team discovered a new gas planet in a solar system only 10.5 ...
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