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.

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.

The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe.

Galileo Galilei is tried before the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for teaching that the Earth orbits the Sun.

Lexell's Comet passed closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 a.u.

The Earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.

Project Vanguard: A launchpad explosion of Vanguard TV3 thwarts the first United States attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit.

Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit.

The Explorer 2 spacecraft launches and fails to reach Earth orbit.

Pioneer program: NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 (the probe falls back to Earth and burns up).

Vanguard 3 is launched into Earth orbit.

The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.

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).

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.

Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes.

Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the ''Aurora 7'' space capsule.

The Soviet ''Zond 5'' spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

Apollo program: ''Apollo 7'' safely splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times.

Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.

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.

Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.

Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.

Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned moon landing.

Apollo program: The last manned lunar flight, ''Apollo 17'', crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.

After 84 days in space, the crew of the first American space station Skylab returns to Earth.

The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.

Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.

The Comet Hale-Bopp has its closest approach to Earth.

Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.

The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth.

A powerful solar flare, later named the Bastille Day event, causes a geomagnetic storm on Earth.

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).

Near-Earth asteroid 2002 MN misses the Earth by convert 75000, about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

The asteroid 4179 Toutatis passes within four lunar distances of Earth.

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.

Asteroid 2004 XP14 flies within convert 432308 of Earth.