On this day · archive
Around the Moon and back into the air
Zond 5 launched in 1968 on a route no spacecraft had completed before: around the Moon and back into Earth’s atmosphere. The mission made return, not merely arrival, part of the lunar challenge.
8
events in todayish file
1968
Zond 5 launches on the first mission to circle the Moon and return to Earth’s atmosphere.
The mission drew a complete arc across the space race — departure, lunar passage, and the difficult promise of coming home.
The Soviet Zond 5 spacecraft launched on September 15, 1968, beginning a mission that would fly around the Moon and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. It made the lunar journey a loop: outward through darkness, around another world, and home through air.
Space records often privilege departure because rockets make the brightest pictures. Return is the harder grammar. A craft must navigate distance, speed, heat, and the narrowing corridor back to the planet that launched it.
Zond 5’s place in the record rests on that completed curve. The Moon was no longer only something to reach; it had become something a spacecraft could pass behind and survive leaving.
The full record
8 entries from the day’s archive, filed year by year with a note on what each one leaves behind.
The Parsons Green bombing takes place in London.
An explosive device on a London train injures commuters and brings the city’s transit system into a security emergency.
Violence
Four miners are killed in the Gleision Colliery mining accident in the Swansea Valley, Wales.
Floodwater inundates the mine, leaving rescuers unable to save the four workers.
Disaster
Malaysia Airlines Flight 2133 crashes at Tawau Airport in Malaysia, killing 34 people.
The Fokker 50 overruns the runway during an attempted landing at Tawau.
Disaster
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice.
The unanimous committee vote advances a barrier-breaking Supreme Court nomination.
Law
Muhammad Ali outpoints Leon Spinks in New Orleans to become the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title three times.
Ali’s rematch victory establishes an unprecedented third reign as heavyweight champion.
Sports
The Soviet spacecraft Zond 5 launches on the first mission to circle the Moon and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.
The flight makes a lunar journey and atmospheric return part of the same pioneering mission.
Space
Chen Duxiu establishes New Youth magazine in Shanghai, helping launch China’s New Culture Movement.
The magazine becomes an influential forum for arguments about language, culture, science, and political renewal.
Culture
The U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs is renamed the Department of State and receives a range of domestic duties.
The change gives the young federal government a department whose name and diplomatic role endure.
Civic