UPCOMING IMPORTANT CALENDAR DATES
Attention Docents, Teachers, Educators: As you know, I keep track of the anniversary dates for milestone events in aviation and Space exploration, along with dates for notable events and people, to help engage learner interest with familiar connections. It can be worthwhile to look ahead to see keys dates in 2025 that you may wish to use, or avoid, when planning educational programs, class activities, or other outreach interactions. Having info you don’t need is better than needing info you don’t have!
2026 ANNIVERSARY-RELATED PROGRAMMING OPPORTUNITIES! Round-number anniversaries/birthdays, etc. for 2026 can be found in the Archive: Other Stuff section of the website. Such dates likely attract media and other attention, and can be used in aviation, astronomy, and Space exploration programming to engage audiences.
Upcoming Round-Number Calendar Anniversaries
September 8 is the 60th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek (TOS), inspiring a generation of scientists and engineers. Given also than Roddenberry’s and Orville’s birthdays are exactly 50 years apart, now would be a great time to engage an audience with how Space exploration, fact and fiction, has benefitted everyone!
September 11 is the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, a good day to remember, but a bad day for using aviation/Space events for education and public outreach.
September 12 is the 60th anniversary of the premiere of The Monkees, which has absolutely no relationship with any thing related to aviation and Space, except for the 75th anniversary of the first successful launch-and-recovery of a Space Monkey, on September 20. The monkey’s name was “Yorick,” which might indicate some pessimism on the part of the rocketeers who sent him up (“Ah Yorick, we launched thee well….). Still, the name was much cooler than “Alpha,” “Beta,” “Enos,” and “Ham!”
September 23 is the 180th anniversary of the discovery of Neptune by astronomers Galle and d’Arrest, guided by a prediction made by Urbain LeVerrier. Englishman John C. Adams had made a similar prediction earlier, but it was LeVerrier’s that led to the discovery. Both share credit today, but some recent claims seem to favor LeVerrier. In any case, it was Galle and d’Arrest who actually saw Neptune first! This would be a good time for programming relating to the credit for scientific discovery…!
October 25 is the 355th anniversary of the discovery of Saturn’s unusual moon, Iapetus, by Giovanni Cassini. It appears to be six times brighter when it’s seen on one side of Saturn than the other, leading Cassini to think he had discovered two separate moons!
October 29 is the 35th anniversary of our getting the first close-up look of an asteroid, when the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft flew closely by asteroid 951 Gaspra.
November 7 is the 30th anniversary of the launch of the phenomenally-successful Mars Global Surveyor orbiter.