New Issue: Orbital Catastrophe Ahead? Read Now

50, 100 & 150 Years Ago: First Satellite, Canine Treachery and Unlucky Ship

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!


On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


NOVEMBER 1957
SPACE AGE BEGINS— “The earth’s first man-made satellite, called sputnik (Russian for
 ‘fellow traveler’), became spaceborne around midnight (Moscow time) on October 4. The U.S.S.R. gave no advance notice of the launching, and in the first days of sputnik’s flight little information about the satellite was released to the rest of the world. The ‘bird’ itself was a sphere with a diameter of 58 centimeters (about 23 inches). It carried two radio transmitters. Whether the bird carried other instruments was not clear: Soviet scientists said the satellite was recording temperature, and U.S. scientists were certain that it was transmitting coded signals.”

NOVEMBER 1907
VALUABLE ROADS— “Good roads in the Mississippi Valley pay better than almost anywhere else in the country, owing to the vivid contrast between them and the natural poor roads. The increase in valuation of property along the line of macadam roads in this section has been up to sixty per cent, and many new, thriving towns are to-day making strenuous efforts to attract settlers and investors through improving roads. It has proved an economical success to increase road taxation in order to secure higher real estate values.”

NOVEMBER 1857
BUST— “The recent financial crisis, which fell upon us so suddenly, has been very disastrous in its results to the industry of our country. Manufactures have been paralyzed, and no one but an eye-witness can have a conception of their complete and overwhelming prostration. Factories are closed, forge fires are extinguished; the hammer, the saw, the spindle and loom are silent; and men walk about the streets with anxious, care-worn countenances, for although they have willing hearts and ready hands, there is no work for them to do.”

Scientific American Magazine Vol 297 Issue 5This article was published with the title “First Satellite -- Canine Treachery -- Unlucky Ship” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 297 No. 5 ()
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican112007-6R3HULv32QRgJ0qoXCdYbg

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American

Subscribe