The Soviet probe Luna 9, launched from Baikonur on the steppe of today’s Kazakhstan, made the first soft landing on the Moon and sent back the first photographs from its surface.
Encyclopedia › Meanwhile in the world
In the Bible · c. AD 95 (by tradition) · Patmos, in the Aegean Sea
John on Patmos
On the small island of Patmos, off the coast of Asia Minor, John sees the visions written in the book of Revelation.
Gen 1:1–10
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, to separate the waters from the waters.” So God made the expanse and separated the waters beneath it from the waters above. And it was so. God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land “earth,” and the gathering of waters He called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.At the same time in the world
Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth’s orbit. In December 1968 it circled the Moon ten times in about twenty hours, and its crew were the first people to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes. Seven months later Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. Here is the world of the late 1960s.
Eastern Europe and the steppeLuna 9 landsFebruary AD 1966
EgyptAbu Simbel is movedAD 1964–1968
To save them from the waters of the new Aswan High Dam, engineers cut the temples of Abu Simbel, built by Ramesses II, into more than 1,000 blocks and rebuilt them some 65 meters higher up.
ElsewhereA new heart3 December AD 1967
In Cape Town the surgeon Christiaan Barnard and his team carried out the first human heart transplant. The patient, Louis Washkansky, lived for 18 days.
The AmericasThe first message on the network29 October AD 1969
A computer at the University of California, Los Angeles, sent the first message over ARPANET, the network from which the internet grew, to Stanford. The system crashed after two letters: “LO”.
IndiaThe Green Revolutionfrom AD 1966
In Punjab and other parts of northern India, farmers began sowing new high-yielding wheat and rice with more water and fertilizer. Harvests rose so fast that the change was called the “Green Revolution”.
ElsewhereConcorde flies2 March AD 1969
The supersonic airliner Concorde, built by France and Britain together, made its first flight at Toulouse. In service it would carry passengers across the Atlantic in about three and a half hours.
