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.

You can manually look up any date or any year, or go through the whole timeline.
Scroll down for today’s events in history.

The ongoing remodel of the site, the ongoing video series, and more are powered by your support!
Join our Patreon, get access to our Discord, and help the site grow!

Follow our socials or contact us:

Facebook     Instagram     Threads     BlueSky     Mastodon     YouTube     YouTube

Support us or buy stuff:

Patreon     PayPal     TeePublic     Amazon Wish List

Featured Articles

Explore theLogBook

It happened on this date…

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

Published On: August 20, 2020

Star Trek: Lower DecksStreaming service CBS All Access premieres the third episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, created by Mike McMahan (Rick & Morty) and starring Tawny Newsome (Space Force), Jack Quaid (The Boys), Noel Wells (Craig Of The Creek), Eugene Cordero (Other Space), Dawnn Lewis (A Different World, Futurama), and Jerry O’Connell (Sliders). Neil Casey (Other Space, Avenue 5) guest stars. Read more

Published On: August 20, 2010

EurekaSyfy airs the 50th episode of the science fiction series Eureka, starring Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, and Joe Morton. Debrah Farentino (Earth 2), James Callis (Battlestar Galactica), and Tembi Locke (Sliders) guest star.

More about Eureka in the LogBook and theLogBook.com Store

Published On: August 20, 1995

The Outer LimitsPremium cable channel Showtime airs the 21st episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of Leslie Stevens’ 1960s science fiction anthology series. Beginning a tradition that will last much of the series’ run, the first season finale is a clip show whose bookend segments attempt to weave all of the season’s stories together into a larger narrative.

This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could join theLogBook team and write this guide or support the webmaster’s efforts to expand the site.

Published On: August 20, 1989

Nick KnightCBS airs the pilot movie Nick Knight, starring Rick Springfield and John Kapelos, involving a police detective who lives a double life as a vampire. Though Nick Knight does not immediately lead to a series, the concept will be reworked (and largely recast, with only Kapelos appearing in both versions) as Forever Knight in 1992, which will run for three seasons.

More about Forever Knight in theLogBook.com Store

Published On: August 20, 1982

Atari 2600Activision releases the Pitfall! cartridge for the Atari VCS home video game system. Subtitled “The Adventure of Pitfall Harry” (implying that further adventures are yet to come), this becomes one of the Atari VCS’ “killer app” games, and is ported to other systems and updated for more modern platforms for decades to come. Read more

Published On: August 20, 1977

Voyager 2NASA launches Voyager 2 (weeks ahead of Voyager 1), giving the unmanned space probe the best shot of taking advantage of a favorable planetary alignment known as the “Grand Tour”. Using a series of carefully calculated gravity assists, Voyager has the potential to visit all four of the major outer gas planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – in under 15 years without having to expend fuel to make the trip. If Voyager 2 survives long enough to visit Uranus or Neptune, it will become the first man-made spacecraft to visit either planet.

Published On: August 20, 1975

VikingThe Viking 1 unmanned space probe, built by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, lifts off en route to the planet Mars. Intended to gather and study soil samples on-site on the Martian surface, Viking 1 will take eleven months to reach the red planet. Viking 1 is not the first attempt to land a spacecraft on Mars; the Soviet Union has been attempting such a feat since the 1960s.

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

EG