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May 26
5 moments across history
Apollo 10 returns to Earth
On May 26, 1969, the Apollo 10 command module Charlie Brown splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after an eight-day mission that flew within 8.4 nautical miles of the lunar surface. The successful dress rehearsal cleared the way for Apollo 11's Moon landing two months later.
USS Princeton recovers the Apollo 10 capsule, May 1969.
Lauda Air Flight 004 crash
Lauda Air Boeing 767-3Z9ER OE-LAV — the aircraft lost in the 1991 accident — at Vienna, 1989.
A Lauda Air 767-300ER at London Gatwick, 1995.
On May 26, 1991, Lauda Air Flight 004, a Boeing 767-3Z9ER, broke up in flight over Phu Toei National Park, Thailand, after an uncommanded thrust reverser deployment on the left engine. All 223 passengers and crew died. The accident triggered a global redesign of 767 reverser systems.
Guyana gains independence
Forbes Burnham, Guyana's first prime minister, 1966.
Queen Elizabeth II during a state visit to British Guiana, February 1966.
On May 26, 1966, British Guiana became the independent nation of Guyana after 150 years of British colonial rule. Forbes Burnham was sworn in as the first prime minister at midnight in Georgetown.
US and USSR sign ABM Treaty
Nixon and Brezhnev sign the ABM Treaty and SALT I Interim Agreement, Moscow, May 26, 1972.
Nixon and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin during the Moscow Summit, May 1972.
On May 26, 1972, in Moscow, US President Richard Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the SALT I Interim Agreement, the first major arms-control accords of the Cold War. The ABM Treaty stood for three decades until the US withdrew in 2002.
SpaceX Dragon docks with ISS
SpaceX Dragon C2+ approaches the ISS, May 2012.
Dragon C2+ berthed to the Harmony module of the ISS.
On May 25, 2012, the SpaceX Dragon C2+ became the first commercial spacecraft to be captured and berthed at the International Space Station, with hatch opening on May 26. The mission ended NASA's reliance on government-only resupply and opened the era of private orbital cargo flight.