1947 – John Bardeen and Walter Brattain demonstrated their new discovery, the transistor, at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. William Shockley, who contributed to the invention, missed the presentation.
http://www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/events/miraclemo.html
1968 – Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders made the lunar-orbit-insertion maneuver on their way to becoming the first humans to orbit the Moon.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-4205/ch11-6.html
1986 – Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager touched down at Edwards Air Force Base in the experimental airplane Voyager, completing the first non-stop, round- the- world flight without refueling.
http://centennialofflight.net/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/rutan/EX32.htm
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.