Brazil's capital is younger than the first satellite.
Brasília was inaugurated in April 1960, two and a half years after Sputnik 1, having been built almost from scratch in 41 months.
The events
- Inauguration of Brasília1960 · Brasília, Brazil. President Juscelino Kubitschek promised 'fifty years of progress in five' and moved the capital from the coast to the empty interior. The city, laid out by Lúcio Costa in a plan resembling a plane with outspread wings and filled with Oscar Niemeyer's buildings, was built in under four years. Brasília became the capital on 21 April 1960 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
- Sputnik 1, the first satellite1957 · Baikonur. On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union put the first artificial Earth satellite into orbit, its radio beeps picked up around the world. The launch opened the Space Age and started the space race between the USSR and the United States.
More amazing facts
- 1956 In autumn 1956 the world watched two crises at once: the Anglo-French landing at the Suez Canal and Soviet tanks in Budapest.
- 1957 1957: the USSR launched the first satellite, and six countries signed the Treaty of Rome, the seed of the future EU.
- 1957 1957: Ghana became one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to throw off colonial rule, and the USSR launched the first satellite.
- 1957 · 1966 The name of the man behind Sputnik and Gagarin's spacecraft was a state secret.
- 1957 · 1958 The first Sputnik beeped for only three weeks, until its batteries died, then circled the Earth silently for over two more months.
- 1957 The Soviets recruited space dogs from the streets, reasoning that Moscow strays were already used to cold and hunger.