On June 16, 1963, aboard Vostok 6, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space. After
48 orbits and 71 hours, she returned to earth, having spent more
time in space than all U.S. astronauts combined to that date.

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was born to a peasant family
in Maslennikovo, Russia, in 1937. She began work at a textile
factory when she was 18, and at age 22 she made her first
parachute jump under the auspices of a local aviation club.

Her enthusiasm for skydiving brought her to the attention of the
Soviet space program, which sought to put a woman in space in
the early 1960s as a means of achieving another “space first”
before the United States.

    
Tereshkova, and Nikita Khrushchev at Lenin’s Mausoleum
on 22 June 1963.

Tereshkova (87) in 2024.

SANDY KOZEL

FEEDING TUBE REMOVED ON THIS DAY IN 1990.

Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman whose condition sparked an epic legal, medical and political battle 
that gripped America, died 13 days after her feeding tube 
was removed by the wishes of her husband and the orders
of several courts.

On June 16, 1963, aboard Vostok 6, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space. After
48 orbits and 71 hours, she returned to earth, having spent more
time in space than all U.S. astronauts combined to that date.

Before her selection for the Soviet space program, Tereshkova
was a textile factory. She joined  the Air Force as part of the
Cosmonaut Corps and was commissioned as an officer after
completing her training.   

SANDY KOZEL

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

On this day in 1994, the U.S. Figure Skating Association stripped
Tonya Harding of the 1994 national championship and banned her
from the organization for life for an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.

Tonya Maxene Price (Harding) will be 49 in November. She was
born in Portland, Oregon.