1959    Project Mercury: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".

1962    Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the ''Aurora 7'' space capsule.

1962    Project Mercury: Sigma 7 is launched from Cape Canaveral, with Astronaut Wally Schirra aboard, for a six-orbit, nine-hour flight.

1965    Ranger 8 crashes into the moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.

1965    Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.

1967    Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.

1968    Apollo program: NASA launches ''Apollo 7,'' the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.

1973    Skylab program: NASA launches Skylab 4 with a crew of three astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 84-day mission.

1978    Sigmund Jähn becomes first German cosmonaut, on board Soyuz 31.

1983    Space Shuttle program: STS-7, Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.

1984    Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).

1985    Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.

1986    Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission – Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart after liftoff killing all seven astronauts on board.

1995    Space Exploration: Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut to ride to space on-board a Russian launch vehicle.

1995    Cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space.