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Luna Uncrewed Spaceflight

Luna 12

Luna 12The Soviet Union launches unmanned space probe Luna 12 toward the moon, a near-identical twin of the earlier Luna 11 spacecraft. Luna 12 returns images and observations from lunar orbit for three months until its batteries are exhausted.

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Uncrewed Spaceflight Venera

Venera 9: first pictures from another planet

VeneraThe Soviet Venera 9 unmanned space probe touches down on the surface of Venus, the first spacecraft to soft-land on another planet and send back pictures. With atmospheric pressure measured at almost 100 times Earth sea level pressure, and temperatures over 900 degrees Fahrenheit, Venera 9 manages to stay intact for barely an hour, sending back a single panoramic picture of Venus before the environment overcomes its systems.

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Video Games

Crazy Climber

Crazy ClimberBoasting a tricky dual-joystick control scheme allowing players fine-tuned control over their on-screen character’s movements, Crazy Climber invades arcades in the States following its introduction in Japan. Cheerfully urging players to “Go for it!”, the cult arcade classic makes splattering on the sidewalks seem fun.

More about Crazy Climber in Phosphor Dot Fossils

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Books

The Policeman’s Beard Is Half Constructed

The Policeman's Beard Is Half ConstructedThe first edition of the collection of prose, poetry and blank verse titled The Policeman’s Beard Is Half Constructed – supposedly “written” by an artificial intelligence called RACTER – is published by Warner Books. When a commercial version of RACTER is made available, some users cry foul – it doesn’t output anything remotely like the book attributed to it.

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Television

Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense: In Possession

Hammer House Of Mystery And SuspenseThe fifth episode of the Hammer Studios-produced horror anthology series Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense airs on ITV; the series will be shown later in the U.S. under the title Fox Mystery Theatre. Carol Lynley (The Night Stalker) and Judy Loe (Ace Of Wands) guest star.

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Television

Superboy: Back To Oblivion

SuperboyThe third episode of the syndicated Alexander and Ilya Salkind-produced Superboy series, starring John Haymes Newton and Stacy Haiduk, airs. Abe Vigoda (Barney Miller) guest stars in an episode written by Fred Freiberger.

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Columbia Crewed Spaceflight Space Shuttle

STS-52

STS-52Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off on the shuttle program’s 51st flight, a ten-day mission to launch Laser Geodynamic Satellite II and the cargo-bay-mounted U.S. Microgravity Payload experiment package. Aboard Columbia for her 13th flight are Commander James Wetherbee, Pilot Michael Baker, mission specialists Charles Veach, William Shepherd and Tamara Jernigan, and payload specialist Steven MacLean.

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Television

Torchwood: Everything Changes / Day One

TorchwoodBBC3 premieres the first and second episodes of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood. Starring John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness (a character originating in the first season of the revived Doctor Who), the series deals with a nexus point of strange phenomena, and a team assembled to deal with those unusual occurrences, in Cardiff, Wales. Kai Owen and Tom Price guest star.

More about Torchwood in the LogBook and theLogBook.com Store
Torchwood now streaming on HBO Max