Today Is...Sputnik I Launched

Today in 1957, mankind took the first of many big steps when The Soviet Union launched a satellite a little smaller than a football from Kazakhstan into into orbit around the Earth but that journey began 72 years before that date when in 1885, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, described in his book, Dreams of Earth and Sky, how such a satellite could be launched into a low altitude orbit using rockets.
His theory greatly influenced later rocketeers and was the blueprint for the Soviet Union's accomplishments in it's early efforts in space flight and changed the course of human history forever.
The small beeping satellite transmitted for three weeks before the on-board batteries failed but the shiny sphere continued circling the Earth for a further three months before burning up while re-entering Earth's atmosphere, having completed 1,440 orbits of the Earth, and travelling a distance of 43,000,000 miles gathering crucial data on the Earth's upper atmosphere and gave birth to an era of technological innovations and space exploration as it also sent the first radio signals back to Earth.
Apart from the Symbolism and propaganda during the Cold War, being beaten to the punch by the Soviets spurred America into a Space Race which culminated in the Apollo 11 landing in 1969.
Since Sputnik humanity has come a long way in terms of space exploration, having launched manned missions to the moon, rovers on Mars, and spacecraft that have traveled to the edge of the Solar System. All of these accomplishments were only possible due to the historic launch of Sputnik which must rank as one of the most important chapters of human history.