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September 29
5 moments across history
Space Shuttle Discovery Returns NASA to Flight
On September 29, 1988, NASA launched Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-26, the first shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster in 1986. The flight mattered because it restored NASA’s human spaceflight program after a 32-month suspension and major safety and management reforms. STS-26 marked a cautious return to shuttle operations during an era when the United States relied on the reusable spacecraft for crewed missions and satellite deployment.
Space Shuttle Discovery Returns NASA to Flight
Canada Launches Alouette 1
Canada Launches Alouette 1
Year: 1962
On September 29, 1962, Canada’s Alouette 1 scientific satellite was launched into orbit from California by a U.S. rocket to study Earth’s ionosphere. It mattered because Canada became the third country, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to design and build a satellite successfully placed in orbit. The mission marked Canada’s entry into the early Space Age, when satellite research was expanding amid the Cold War space race.
CERN Is Established
CERN Is Established
Year: 1954
On September 29, 1954, the convention establishing the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) entered into force after ratification by its member states. CERN created a shared European center for fundamental nuclear and particle-physics research, enabling countries to pool expertise and the high costs of advanced facilities. Its founding reflected postwar efforts to rebuild European science, encourage peaceful international cooperation, and regain competitiveness in research.
Babi Yar Massacre Begins
Babi Yar Massacre Begins
Year: 1941
On September 29–30, 1941, Nazi German forces and collaborators murdered nearly 34,000 Jews at the Babi Yar ravine near occupied Kyiv. The massacre was one of the largest mass shootings of Jews during World War II and devastated Kyiv’s Jewish community. It became a defining atrocity of the “Holocaust by bullets,” the systematic mass murder carried out across Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe.
Mandate for Palestine Takes Effect
Mandate for Palestine Takes Effect
Year: 1923
On September 29, 1923, the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine formally took effect, placing the territory under British administration. It mattered because it incorporated Britain’s commitment to a Jewish national home while requiring protection of the civil and religious rights of all inhabitants. Created after the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in World War I, the mandate shaped Palestine’s political future and the growing conflict between Arab and Jewish national movements.