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Pathfinders To Venus: S.O.S. From Venus
British broadcaster ABC premieres the first episode of Pathfinders To Venus, a follow-up series to Pathfinders In Mars, produced by future Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman. George Colouris and Gerald Flood (City Beneath The Sea) star; the script is written by Malcolm Hulke (Doctor Who) and Eric Paice (Star Maidens). Though the original master tape of this episode was later wiped for reuse, film recordings of all eight episodes will be recovered and released on DVD in the 21st century.
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The 107th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is part two of the story now collectively known as 
The 24th episode of the time travel sitcom It’s About Time, created by Sherwood Schwarz (I Dream Of Jeannie) and starring Frank Aletter, Jack Mullaney, and Imogene Coca, is broadcast on CBS. Alan DeWitt guest stars.
The 82nd episode of Irwin Allen’s adventure series Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea airs on ABC, starring Richard Basehart and David Hedison. Michael Dunn (Star Trek: Plato’s Stepchildren) guest stars.
Future Star Trek: Enterprise co-star Jolene Blalock is born in California. After a career in modeling, she will move into acting, with her role as Enterprise’s resident Vulcan crew member T’Pol standing out as her most recognized work. She will also appear in such TV series as Legend Of The Seeker, G vs. E and Stargate SG-1.
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At Anvil Studios in Denham, England, John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra convene for the first recording session for the Star Wars soundtrack. Over the course of the next 11 days, and with director George Lucas in attendance in the recording booth, all of the music for Lucas’ movie is rehearsed and recorded. Williams and Lucas had been introduced by their mutual friend Steven Spielberg, with whom Williams had worked on 1975’s Jaws (whose score had gone on to win Williams his second Oscar); Lucas’ original plan was to “score” Star Wars entirely with classical pieces. The first scene scored by Williams and the LSO is the rapid-fire chase through the Death Star, culminating in Luke and Princess Leia swinging across a chasm; other pieces recorded on the first day include the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi and the iconic theme music.
NASA launches Landsat 3, the latest in a constellation of satellites derived from the design of the experimental Nimbus weather satellites. This is the last Landsat to use the Nimbus framework, and the last to be managed exclusively by NASA; Landsat 3 remains in service through 1983.
The unmanned NASA/JPL space probe Voyager 1 makes its closest approach to the giant planet Jupiter, a little over 200,000 miles away. While Voyager’s higher-resolution cameras trump any of the Pioneer images of Jupiter, the real revelation proves to be Jupiter’s four largest moons, revealing a smooth-but-cracked icy surface on Europa, craters on Ganymede and Callisto, and the colorful mountains of Io, whose biggest secret goes undiscovered until a few days after Voyager 1’s closest flyby.
The sixth episode of the series Salvage 1 airs on ABC, starring Andy Griffith, Joel Higgins (Silver Spoons), and Trish Stewart. Richard Jaeckel (Spenser For Hire) and Severn Darden (Battle For The Planet Of The Apes) guest star.
Attempting to build a TV franchise onto the 1973 hit movie Westworld, the 
NBC airs the 
The Soviet Union’s unmanned Venera 14 space probe successfully lands on the planet Venus, its landing module enduring almost an hour in temperatures of nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit and air pressure nearly 100 times that experienced at sea level on Earth. A soil sampling experiment is thwarted by an unforseen problem, namely the lens cap of Venera 14’s camera popping off and landing precisely where its sampling arm was designed to gather Venusian soil for testing.
Actor Jake Lloyd, who will become famous (or, depending upon who you ask, infamous) as the face of the young Anakin Skywalker in 
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Though its extended mission was cut short by a mishap in 1994, NASA’s ill-fated Clementine lunar orbiter returned data with significant implications for further manned visits to the moon. NASA announces that craters near the north and south poles of Earth’s moon may harbor enough water ice to allow long-term colonization, and could also be used to create propellant on-site. While this promising announcement occurs as the 30th anniversary of the first manned moon landing approaches, any further manned visits exist strictly on paper.
Sci-Fi Channel premieres 
Pay cable channel Showtime premieres the 
Sci-Fi Channel premieres 
An unusual paralyzing condition strikes actor David Prowse, first leaving one of his arms paralyzed and then his back, robbing him of his ability to walk. Prowse, who portrayed Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, has made numerous other larger-than-life appearances (including a brief guest shot as the legendary Minotaur in a 1972 episode of Doctor Who), and has lately been a frequent guest on the convention circuit. A spokesman for Mr. Prowse says that doctors have ruled out a stroke as the cause of his condition, but still have yet to identifty what exactly has happened. 
The 116th episode of Joss Whedon’s supernatural series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, airs on UPN. James Marsters, Anthony Stewart Head, and Alyson Hannigan also star.
The 
BBC2 premieres the 
The 
The U.S. Air Force launches a second unmanned X-37B spacecraft into Earth orbit atop an Atlas V rocket. Designated USA-226, this is the second Boeing-built X-37B to reach orbit, and is the first to remain in orbit for over a year, re-entering the atmosphere and successfully conducting an automated landing in June 2012. This X-37B also features a solar panel array that is deployed from its cargo compartment, allowing it to generate constant power during its classified 15-month mission.
To allay public fears that the next level might not be reached, NASA offers an explanation for an enigmatic 2010 image from the Hubble Space Telescope, showing a galaxy cluster, Abell 68, approximately 2,000,000,000 light years away. In the middle of that cluster, however, is what appears to be an alien from the video game Space Invaders. NASA explains that it’s a visual artifact of gravitational lensing caused by the gravity influence of the foreground galaxies upon the light of galaxies further away in the image. Earth breathes easy once more.
The 38th episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Caity Lotz (Mad Men, Legends Of Tomorrow) guest stars.
The CW airs the 46th episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, starring Caity Lotz, Brandon Routh, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Tala Ashe. Arthur Darvill (Doctor Who) and Neal McDonough guest star.