4 January
1958: On 4 January 1958, the Soviet Sputnik I satellite, the first man-made object to orbit Earth, fell back into the atmosphere and disintegrated, after 92 days in space.
Sputnik (meaning 'companion' or 'fellow traveller') was launched from Kazakhstan. The craft circled Earth every 95 minutes at over 40 000 kilometres per hour, 800 kilometres above the planet.
The satellite had transmitted a radio signal picked up around the world, and instrumentation for temperature measurement.
