2 June 1966 Surveyor 1, the first of the Surveyor robotic spacecraft, soft lands on the Moon. It was the first American spacecraft to...

13 May 1861 John Tebbutt discovers the Great Comet of 1861, also known as Comet C/1861 J1, one of the most brilliant comets known. He...

12 April 1633 The inquisition of Galileo by the Roman Catholic church begins. He was ordered to turn himself in to the Holy Office to...

7 March 1831 The Royal Astronomical Society receives its Royal charter from King William IV. The society was founded in 1820 as the...

7 January 1610 Galileo discovers four moons orbiting the planet Jupiter. Looking at what he thought were a group of stars, he noted the...

11th December 1972 Apollo 17, the last of the Apollo missions, lands on the Moon. Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, still holds the...

27th November 1783 The first reference to black holes is mentioned by John Michell, an English natural philosopher, in a paper for the...

EVENTS 31st October 1992 Pope John Paul II pardons Galileo for his views. The Catholic church condemned Galileo in 1633 for his...

26th September 1905 Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity is published. It is the generally accepted and experimentally confirmed...

5th July 1687 The book Principia is published by Sir Isaac Newton. Written in Latin with the title Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia...