This Day In History : November 26

1985 United States

NASA Launches Atlantis 2 on 23rd Space Shuttle Mission (61-B)

On November 26, 1985, NASA's Atlantis 2 embarked on its 23rd mission, known as 61-B. This Space Shuttle mission aimed to deploy communication satellites and conduct scientific experiments in orbit. Atlantis 2 played a crucial role in advancing space exploration capabilities during its journey into space.

Also on This Day in History November 26

Discover what happened on November 26 with HISTORY's summaries of major events, anniversaries,
famous births and notable deaths.

Births on This Day, November 26
  • 1810 William George Armstrong

    Baron of Cragside, William George Armstrong was an English inventor, engineer and industrialist in hydraulic engineering, shipbuilding and artillery.

  • 1837 John Alexander Newlands

    John Alexander Reina Newlands was an English chemist who first established an order of elements by the atomic weights, and observed a periodicity in the properties.

  • 1817 Charles-Adolphe Wurtz

    French chemist and educator noted for his research on organic nitrogen compounds, hydrocarbons, and glycols.

  • 1898 Karl Ziegler

    German chemist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Giulio Natta “for their discoveries in the field of the chemistry and technology of high polymers” improving the quality of plastics.

  • 1895 Bertil Lindblad

    Swedish astronomer who contributed greatly to the theory of galactic structure and motion and to the methods of determining the absolute magnitude (true brightness, disregarding distance) of distant stars.

Deaths on This Day, November 26
  • 2012 Joseph E. Murray

    American surgeon who shared (with E. Donnall Thomas) the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1990 for discoveries concerning “organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease.”

  • 1896 Benjamin Apthorp Gould

    American astronomer whose star catalogs helped fix the list of constellations of the Southern Hemisphere Gould's early work was done in Germany, observating the motion of comets and asteroids.

  • 1915 W. Atlee Burpee

    Washington Atlee Burpee was an American horticulturist who founded the world's largest mail-order seed company.

  • 1836 John Loudon McAdam

    John Loudon McAdam was born in Ayr, Scotland, and was the inventor of of macadamized roads.

  • 1991 David Shemin

    American biochemist who pioneered the use of radioactive and stable isotopes to trace chemical pathways by which the body creates its own materials, such as blood.

1966

Tidal power

In 1966, President Charles de Gaulle opened the world's first tidal power station at Rance estuary, in Brittany. La Rance is the most powerful tidal power plant in the world.
1983

World's greatest robbery

It all began with six men in a van. On the 26 November 1983, half a dozen armed men broke into the Brink’s-Mat depot near London’s Heathrow Airport, where they were expecting to find a million pounds worth of foreign currency.Instead, they stumbled upon gold bullion worth £26m. At the time, it was the largest robbery in world history and changed British policing forever.
1965

France Launches Astérix Satellite

France launched the Astérix satellite on November 26, 1965, marking its independent entry into space exploration. Astérix became France's first satellite, demonstrating the nation's technological prowess in the space race era. This achievement bolstered France's standing in international space efforts and paved the way for future advancements in satellite technology.
2011

NASA Launches Mars Science Laboratory, Largest Rover to Date

On November 26, 2011, NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory, a robotic rover designed to explore Mars. The mission's goal is to investigate the Martian surface and search for evidence of past or present life, making it a pivotal step in understanding the Red Planet's history and potential habitability.
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