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Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
Timeline of Events
1178
6.18.1178
Five Canterbury monks see what is possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the Moon's distance from the Earth (on the order of metres) are a result of this collision.
1492
11.7.1492
The Ensisheim Meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France.
1633
6.22.1633
The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe.
9.20.1633
Galileo Galilei is tried before the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for teaching that the Earth orbits the Sun.
1770
7.1.1770
Lexell's Comet passed closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 a.u.
1910
5.18.1910
The Earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.
1957
12.6.1957
Project Vanguard: A launchpad explosion of Vanguard TV3 thwarts the first United States attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit.
1958
1.4.1958
Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit.
3.5.1958
The Explorer 2 spacecraft launches and fails to reach Earth orbit.
10.11.1958
Pioneer program: NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 (the probe falls back to Earth and burns up).
1959
9.18.1959
Vanguard 3 is launched into Earth orbit.
1960
5.10.1960
The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
1961
5.19.1961
Venera program: ''Venera 1'' becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data).
11.29.1961
Project Mercury: Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission – Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space. The spacecraft orbited the Earth twice and splashed-down off the coast of Puerto Rico.
1962
2.20.1962
Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes.
5.24.1962
Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the ''Aurora 7'' space capsule.
1968
9.15.1968
The Soviet ''Zond 5'' spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
10.22.1968
Apollo program: ''Apollo 7'' safely splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times.
1969
3.13.1969
Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
5.26.1969
Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.
1970
3.31.1970
Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.
4.17.1970
Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
1971
2.9.1971
Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned moon landing.
1972
12.19.1972
Apollo program: The last manned lunar flight, ''Apollo 17'', crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.
1974
2.8.1974
After 84 days in space, the crew of the first American space station Skylab returns to Earth.
1975
2.9.1975
The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.
1992
3.25.1992
Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.
1997
3.22.1997
The Comet Hale-Bopp has its closest approach to Earth.
1999
3.21.1999
Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
2000
1.18.2000
The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth.
7.14.2000
A powerful solar flare, later named the Bastille Day event, causes a geomagnetic storm on Earth.
2002
3.1.2002
The Envisat environmental satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800 kilometers (500 miles) above the Earth on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8500 kilograms (9.5 tons).
6.15.2002
Near-Earth asteroid 2002 MN misses the Earth by convert 75000, about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
2004
9.29.2004
The asteroid 4179 Toutatis passes within four lunar distances of Earth.
12.27.2004
Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet.
2006
7.3.2006
Asteroid 2004 XP14 flies within convert 432308 of Earth.