Apollo–Soyuz: a handshake in orbit
Three languages aboard: Russian, English and 'Oklahomski'
On 17 July 1975 Soyuz and Apollo docked and Leonov shook hands with Stafford. NASA had expected the handshake over the English resort of Bognor Regis; a delay put it over Metz in France. Teasing Stafford's drawl, Leonov said three languages were spoken: Russian, English and 'Oklahomski'.
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The first man to walk in space was, ten years later, the first to shake an American's hand in orbit. Alexei Leonov stepped out of Voskhod 2 in 1965 and in 1975 greeted Thomas Stafford through the Soyuz hatch. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Whole world
- 1980 Smallpox declared eradicated — 5 years later
- 1981 AIDS first described — 6 years later
Europe
- 1953 Discovery of the DNA double helix — 22 years earlier
- 1961 Berlin Wall built — 14 years earlier
- 1968 May 1968 in France — 7 years earlier
- 1989 Invention of the World Wide Web — 14 years later
- 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall — 14 years later
Middle East
- 1978 Camp David Accords — 3 years later
- 1979 Iranian Revolution — 4 years later
- 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War — 5 years later
- 1990–1991 Gulf War — 15 years later
- 1993 Oslo Accords — 18 years later
Africa
- 1963 The Organisation of African Unity is founded — 12 years earlier
- 1967 First human heart transplant — 8 years earlier
- 1967–1970 Nigerian Civil War and Biafra — 8 years earlier
- 1974 Lucy is discovered — 1 year earlier
- 1983–1985 The Ethiopian famine — 8 years later
Asia
- 1953 First ascent of Everest — 22 years earlier
- 1966–1976 Cultural Revolution in China — 9 years earlier
- 1975–1979 The Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian genocide — same year
- 1976 Tangshan earthquake — 1 year later
- 1978 Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening-up — 3 years later
Americas
- 1969 Moon landing — 6 years earlier
- c. 1970 Mass deforestation of the Amazon begins — 5 years earlier
- 1973 Chilean coup d'état — 2 years earlier
- 1980 Eruption of Mount St. Helens — 5 years later
- 1983 Birth of the Internet: ARPANET adopts TCP/IP — 8 years later
Oceania
- 1954 The Castle Bravo test at Bikini — 21 years earlier
- 1959 The Antarctic Treaty — 16 years earlier
- 1992 The Mabo decision — 17 years later
Alive at the time
- Charlie Chaplin (aged 86)
- Mao Zedong (aged 82)
- Nelson Mandela (aged 57)
- Neil Armstrong (aged 45)
- Haile Selassie (aged 83)
- Golda Meir (aged 77)
- Jorge Luis Borges (aged 76)
- Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa) (aged 74)
- Dmitri Shostakovich (aged 69)
- Leonid Brezhnev (aged 69)