Events in 2016

.     Years     Events to Commemorate
.     Ago

  • 30           Space shuttle Challenger explodes (1986)
  • 30           Voyager 2 visits Uranus (1986)
  • 35           Launch of Columbia, the first space shuttle (1981 April 12)
  • 35           Voyager 2 visits Saturn (1981)
  • 40           Viking probes photograph surface of Mars (1976)
  • 55          American satellite Transit A crashes and kills a cow in Cuba: cow gets state funeral as a “victim of American aggression” (1961)
  • 55          First quasars identified (1961)
  • 55          Union Observatory renamed Republic Observatory (1961)
  • 60          ASSA name change from “Astronomical Society of South Africa” to “Astronomical Society of Southern Africa” (1956)
  • 65         AD Thackeray and AJ Wesselink discover RR Lyrae variables in the Magellanic Clouds (1951)
  • 95         Geomagnetic storm damages communications networks worldwide (1921 May 15)
  • 105        Closure of Natal Observatory due to lack of funds (1911)
  • 175        Magnetic Observatory established at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope (1841)
  • 180        Charles Darwin dines with John Herschel in Cape Town (1836 June 15)
  • 185        Astronomical Society of London becomes the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) (1831)
  • 185        John Herschel knighted (1831)
  • 195        Fearon Fallows arrives in Cape Town as the first His Majesty’s Astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope (1821 August 12)
  • 200        William Herschel knighted (1816)
  • 215        Giuseppe Piazzi discovers first asteroid – Ceres (1801 January 01)
  • 235        Charles Messiers final catalogue of nebulae is published (1781)
  • 235        William Herschel discovers Uranus (1781 March 13)
  • 255        Mason and DIxon observe Transit of Venus from Cape Town (1761)
  • 265        Nicolas Louis de La Caille arrives in Cape Town (1751 April 19)
  • 440        Tycho Brahe established his observatory at Hven (1576)

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