TIM MAGUIRE

On February 3, 1966, the Soviet Union accomplished the first
controlled landing on the moon, when the unmanned spacecraft
Lunik 9 touches down on the Ocean of Storms.

After its soft landing, the circular capsule opened like a flower,
deploying its antennas, and began transmitting photographs
and television images back to Earth. The 220-pound landing
capsule was launched from Earth on January 31.

Lunik 9 was the third major lunar first for the Soviet space
program: On September 14, 1959, Lunik 2 became the first
manmade object to reach the moon when it impacted with
the lunar surface, and on October 7 of the same year Lunik
3 flew around the moon and transmitted back to Earth the
first images of the far side of the moon.

The first views from the Moon’s surface taken by the Soviet
Luna 9  lander, captured on Feb. 4, 1966.

The Moscow Summit of 1972 was a meeting between President
Richard M. Nixon (right) of the United States and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It
was held May 22–30, 1972. It featured the signing of the Anti-
Ballistic Missile Treaty(below) the first Strategic Arms Limitation
Treaty and the U.S.–Soviet Incidents at Sea agreement.

The summit is considered one of the hallmarks of the détente at
the time between the two Cold War antagonists.

Soviet aircraft forced a Korean Air Lines passenger jet to land
in the Soviet Union after the jet veers into Russian airspace.

Two people were killed and several others injured when the jet
made a rough landing on a frozen lake about 300 miles south
of Murmansk.

The jet was on a flight from Paris to Seoul when the incident
occurred.

 
ROSS SIMPSON