theLogBook.com is a chronicle of how we used to imagine the future – an ever-expanding
logbook of what our entertainment, our culture, and even our brightest minds thought would happen.
It’s nostalgia – and some real history – that gives factual context to the fiction, cultural
context to the factual, and always looks to the future.

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(You can also manually look up any other date, browse a year, or go through the whole timeline.)

Published On: May 31, 2025

Doctor WhoThe 894th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1 (the 195th episode since the series’ revival), starring Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu. Millie Gibson, Archie Panjabi, Bonnie Langford, Jemma Redgrave, Anita Dobson, and Ruth Madeley guest star in part two of the two-part season finale.

This entry is forthcoming.

Published On: May 31, 2013

Dream ChaserA full-sized structural test article of Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser spacecraft begins “tow tests” at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, verifying the vehicle’s handling on landing gear after touching down. Drop tests and glide tests are scheduled for later in 2013, though all such tests will be completely automated. Sierra Nevada Corporation also provides the main engines for Virgin Galactica’s SpaceShipTwo, and had already built the engines that propelled SpaceShipOne toward its X Prize-winning flight. The Dream Chaser design is based on an unused study vehicle, HL-20, studied by NASA in the 1980s and ’90s, which was in turn based upon a Soviet-era test vehicle called BOR4.

Published On: May 31, 2008

Space ShuttleSpace Shuttle Discovery is launched on the 123rd shuttle flight, a two-week mission to install a major laboratory module to the International Space Station. The pressurized module of Japan’s Kibo laboratory joins the unpressurized section installed on a previous flight, complete with its own robotic arm controlled inside. Aboard Discovery for her 35th flight are Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Ken Ham, mission specialists Karen Nyberg, Ron Garan and Mike Fossum, and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, who remains on the International Space Station. Station astronaut Garrett Reisman returns to Earth aboard Discovery.

Published On: May 31, 1991

Mike vs PS1After three years of joint development on a CD-ROM peripheral for Nintendo’s new video game system, Sony and Nintendo part ways, leaving the public and the press confused over what will happen next. Hours after Nintendo unveils the specs and price point for its Super Nintendo Entertainment System to the press, Sony announces that it will release a new system called the Play Station in 1992, which will play both SNES cartridges and disc-based systems made by Sony. Of course, Sony’s development curve isn’t that simple, and the first Sony video game system won’t arrive until a few years – and a whole generation of computer game hardware – later.

Published On: May 31, 1990

Mir / KristallThe Soviet Union launches the Kristall module, whose pre-programmed systems bring it to the Mir space station for an automated docking. With facilities for material science experiments, additional gyroscopic stabilizers to keep Mir properly oriented, and other equipment, Kristall also features an extended docking port intended to allow the Soviet-made Buran shuttle to dock at Mir. In time, that docking port will allow a space shuttle to berth at Mir… but not the one its designers anticipate.

This is the last expansion made to Mir prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the last new module to arrive for five years.

Published On: May 31, 1978

The Incredible HulkThe 12th episode of the live-action series based on Marvel’s comic The Incredible Hulk airs on CBS, starring Bill Bixby, Jack Colvin, and Lou Ferrigno. James Sikking (Hill Street Blues) guest stars in the first season finale.

This series is not yet fully chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.

Published On: May 31, 1969

Doctor WhoThe 250th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. Jane Sherwin, David Savile and Philip Madoc guest star. This is Patrick Troughton’s final story as the incumbent Doctor, the final Doctor Who story of the 1960s, and the final story made in black & white.

This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Published On: May 31, 1957

West PointAn episode of the military anthology series West Point is broadcast on CBS in the United States. This episode is an early TV script written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, one of the series’ staff writers. Hear more about it on the Gene-ology podcast

Absolutely no generative AI was used in the creation of the content on this website.
It’s mostly just some guy named Earl.

EG