1609 
Galileo Galilei uses a telescope to study the night sky

1609                                                                             
Johannes Kepler publishes Astronomia Nuova

1659 
Christiaan Huygens publishes Systema Saturnium

12th February 1809
Charles Darwin is born (d 1882)

24th November 1859
Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of  Species"

2nd January 1959
The USSR launches Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the moon

12th September 1959
The USSR launches Luna 2, the first spacecraft to crash land on the moon

4th November 1959
The USSR launches Luna 3, the first spacecraft to photograph the far side of the moon

9th February 1969
First flight of Boeing 747 
Test pilots Jack Waddell and Brien Wygle at the controls and Jess Wallick at the flight engineer's station


2nd March 1969
First flight of Concorde 001 
Toulouse, France
piloted by Andre Turcat  

3rd to 13th March 1969
Apollo 9 tests all aspects of the Apollo and Saturn 5 spacecraft in earth orbit

James A McDivitt, David R Scott, Russell L Schweickart  

18th to 26th May 1969
Apollo 10 tests the lunar module in lunar orbit descending to within 15.6km of the lunar surface

Thomas P Stafford, John W Young, Eugene A Cernan
                                                                          
20th July 1969
Apollo 11 lands at the Sea of Tranquility, the Moon and return safely to earth fulfilling President John F Kennedy's challenge.

Neil Alden Armstrong, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin, Michael Collins

14th to 24th November 1969
Apollo 12 achieves a pin-point landing at the Ocean of Storms, the Moon

Charles Conrad, Richard F Gordon, Alan L Bean

30th April 2009
Venetia Phair dies
She named Pluto when a child