The first pulsar was jokingly named LGM-1, for 'little green men'. In 1967 Cambridge student Jocelyn Bell spotted radio pulses so regular that the team seriously checked whether they could be signals from aliens.
More amazing facts
- 1966 · 1973 · 2008 The architect of the Sydney Opera House never saw it finished.
- 1966 · 1970 · 1983 The Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen twice.
- 1966 · 1967 One of the first computer-versus-computer chess matches was won by a program from Moscow.
- 1967 · 1974 Humanity's most famous ancestor is named after a Beatles song.
- 1968 Almost every high jumper today goes over the bar backwards, thanks to one American.
- 1968 · 1974 Sticky notes came from a glue that didn't stick well.