Sputnik launch
1957 · Event
Soviet Union puts the first artificial satellite in orbit; opens the Space Age.
On these timelines: The Space Race, Master, Science & Technology, Spaceflight, Russia & the USSR
More from The Space Race
- Apollo 11 moon landing (1969)
- Yuri Gagarin: first human in space (1961)
- Apollo program announcement (1961)
- Kennedy's 'We choose to go to the Moon' speech (1962)
- 'One small step': the Moonwalk broadcast (1969)
- Apollo 17 leaves the Moon (1972)
- Gemini 6 and 7 rendezvous in orbit (1965)
- Apollo 1 fire (1967)
Around 1957
- Decolonisation of Africa (1952)
- Apartheid (1948)
- Indian independence and Partition (1947)
- US Civil Rights Movement (1954)
- Six-Day War (1967)
- Berlin Airlift (1948)
- Korean War (1950)
- Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
- Vietnam War (American phase) (1965)
- Cuban Revolutionary War (1953)