Humanity first saw the far side of the Moon in 1959.

1959

The Soviet probe Luna 3 took 29 pictures in 40 minutes, developed the film on board and transmitted the images to Earth.

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The event

• 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.

20th century

More amazing facts

• 1957 1957: the USSR launched the first satellite, and six countries signed the Treaty of Rome, the seed of the future EU.
• 1958 Lemmings do not commit mass suicide.
• 1959 · 1974 Hiroo Onoda was not the last soldier of World War II. Private Teruo Nakamura held out even longer and was arrested in Indonesia on 18 December 1974.
• 1960 In 1960, 17 African countries gained independence — more than in any other single year in history.
• 1960 · 1969 · 2012 Until 2012, only two people had been to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, six times fewer than had walked on the Moon.
• 1960 No camera caught Khrushchev banging his shoe at the UN. On 12 October 1960 a photo shows a shoe on his desk, but whether he pounded it is still debated; biographer William Taubman, after interviewing witnesses, concluded he did.

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