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Laika depicted on a postage stamp
Laika depicted on a postage stamp

Laika (c. 1954 – 1957) was one of the first animals in space and the first animal to orbit Earth. A stray mongrel from Moscow, she was selected as the occupant of Sputnik 2 which launched into low orbit on 3 November 1957. The mission aimed to prove that a living passenger could survive being launched into orbit and endure a micro-g environment, leading to human spaceflight and providing data on how living organisms react to spaceflight environments. Laika died within hours from overheating, possibly caused by a failure of the central R-7 sustainer to separate from the payload. The true cause and time of her death were not made public until 2002; instead, it was reported that she died when her oxygen ran out on day six or, as the Soviet government initially claimed, she was euthanised prior to oxygen depletion. On 11 April 2008, a monument to Laika was unveiled near the military research facility that prepared her flight to space. She also appears on the Monument to the Conquerors of Space. (Full article...)

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In the news

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in July 2022
​Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

On this day

November 3: Culture Day in Japan

Remains of the trenches at Majdanek where Jews were shot
Remains of the trenches at Majdanek where Jews were shot
More anniversaries:
Skyline of the Pudong district of Shanghai, seen from the water at dusk.

Shanghai is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China. The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowing through it. With a population of 24.89 million as of 2021, Shanghai is the most populous urban area in China and among the most populous cities proper in the world. It is the only city in East Asia with a GDP greater than its corresponding capital. As of 2018, the Greater Shanghai metropolitan area, which includes Suzhou, Wuxi, Nantong, Ningbo, Jiaxing, Zhoushan, and Huzhou, was estimated to produce a gross metropolitan product (nominal) of nearly 9.1 trillion RMB ($1.33 trillion). Shanghai is divided into 16 county-level districts, including the Pudong district pictured here.

photograph by Tony Jin

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