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Artist's impression of Galileo's arrival at Jupiter

The Galileo project was an American robotic space program that studied Jupiter and its moons (including Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto), as well as several other Solar System bodies. Named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, the Galileo spacecraft consisted of an orbiter and an atmospheric entry probe. It was launched in 1989 by the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the STS-34 mission. Despite suffering major antenna problems, Galileo achieved the first asteroid flyby (of 951 Gaspra), discovered the first asteroid moon (Dactyl, around 243 Ida), and observed Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9's collision with Jupiter. After gravity-assisted flybys of Venus and Earth, Galileo became the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter. It then launched the first probe to directly measure Jupiter's atmosphere. In 2003, the mission was terminated by sending the orbiter into Jupiter's atmosphere to eliminate the possibility of contaminating the Jovian moons with terrestrial bacteria. (Full article...)

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Daron Acemoglu

Yahya Sinwar, the acting leader of Hamas, is killed in a firefight with Israeli forces in Gaza.
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded to Daron Acemoglu (pictured), Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson for their comparative studies of prosperity between nations.
The Europa Clipper spacecraft is launched to investigate Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter.
Kenyan Ruth Chepng'etich breaks the women's marathon world record at the Chicago Marathon.
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the Japanese atomic bomb survivors group Nihon Hidankyo.

October 18: Alaska Day (1867)

Bob Beamon

1565 – The first recorded naval battle between Europeans and the Japanese occurred when a flotilla of samurai attacked two Portuguese trade vessels at the Battle of Fukuda Bay in Nagasaki.
1748 – The War of the Austrian Succession ended with the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
1873 – Renton defeated Kilmarnock 2–0 in the opening match of the inaugural Scottish Cup.
1968 – At the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, American athlete Bob Beamon (pictured) achieved a distance of 8.90 m (29.2 ft) in the long jump event, setting a world record that stood for 23 years.

More anniversaries:

Ferrari FF

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... that manga artist Shinichi Ishizuka was told that becoming a manga artist would be "absolutely impossible"?
... that two Wisconsin radio stations purchased and reassembled the Wisconsin Pavilion from the 1964 New York World's Fair for use as their studios?
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... that Tonia Ko once composed a three-part concerto played on bubble wrap?

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