12 years ago today
Philae Lander Touches Down on Comet 67P
On November 12, 2014, the European Space Agency's Philae lander separated from the Rosetta spacecraft and descended toward the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, becoming the first spacecraft in history to make a controlled landing on a comet. After a seven-billion-mile journey spanning more than ten years, Philae touched down — though harpoons designed to anchor it failed to deploy, and the lander bounced twice before coming to rest in a shadowy crater. It transmitted scientific data for 57 hours before its solar panels fell into shadow and it went silent. The mission provided unprecedented insights into the composition of comets and the early solar system, and the image of Philae drifting toward the comet's surface captivated the world.
Auguste Rodin
French sculptor
Auguste Rodin is the most celebrated sculptor of the modern era, whose works — including The Thinker, The Kiss, and The Gates of Hell — combined intense psychological depth with groundbreaking treatment of the human form. Though rejected by the École des Beaux-Arts and initially controversial, he ultimately transformed the art of sculpture and opened the door to modernism.
Neil Young
Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
Neil Young is one of rock music's most enduring and uncompromising voices, equally at home with delicate acoustic folk and ear-splitting electric guitar noise. His work with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, his solo albums including Harvest and After the Gold Rush, and his electric explorations earned him the title "Godfather of Grunge." His environmental and political activism has been as consistent as his musical output.
Grace Kelly
American actress, Princess of Monaco
Grace Kelly was one of Hollywood's most luminous stars of the 1950s, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Country Girl (1954) and starring in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window and To Catch a Thief. In 1956 she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco, giving up her acting career to become Princess consort of the principality. She died in 1982 after suffering a stroke while driving.
Sun Yat-sen
Chinese revolutionary, first President of the Republic of China
Sun Yat-sen dedicated his life to overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and establishing a modern Chinese republic, earning the title "Father of the Nation" in both the Republic of China and the People's Republic. His Three Principles of the People — nationalism, democracy, and people's livelihood — became the founding ideology of the Chinese Nationalist Party and shaped twentieth-century Chinese politics.
Ryan Gosling
Canadian actor
Ryan Gosling emerged as one of Hollywood's most versatile leading men with a string of acclaimed performances in films including The Notebook, Half Nelson, Drive, La La Land, and Barbie. His range spans intense dramatic roles to musical and comedic performances, and he received Academy Award nominations for Half Nelson and La La Land. He began his career as a child actor on The Mickey Mouse Club.
Anne Hathaway
American actress
Anne Hathaway won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her harrowing portrayal of Fantine in Les Misérables (2012), having first become a household name in The Princess Diaries (2001). Her range as an actress is remarkable, spanning comedy, drama, and musical performance in films including The Devil Wears Prada, Rachel Getting Married, and Interstellar.
Cnut the Great Dies
Cnut the Great, the Danish king who ruled England, Denmark, and Norway in a vast North Sea empire, died at Shaftesbury at approximately 40 years of age. He is best remembered for the apocryphal story of ordering the tide to stop — not out of arrogance, but to demonstrate to his flattering courtiers that no king could command the forces of nature.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Born
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, born in Johnstown, New York, became one of the most influential figures in the history of American feminism. She organized the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, drafted its Declaration of Sentiments demanding equal rights for women including the right to vote, and spent the rest of her life advocating for women's suffrage. She died in 1902, 18 years before the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified.
Trotsky Expelled from Soviet Communist Party
Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party by Joseph Stalin's faction, sealing his defeat in the struggle to succeed Lenin. Trotsky was subsequently exiled from the Soviet Union, and Stalin had him tracked down and assassinated in Mexico in 1940. The expulsion marked the consolidation of Stalinist totalitarianism and the end of the idealistic phase of the Russian Revolution.
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge Opens
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opened to traffic, connecting San Francisco to Oakland across the San Francisco Bay. At the time it was the longest and most expensive bridge ever built, consisting of two suspension bridge sections linked through a central island. It opened six months before the Golden Gate Bridge and remains one of the busiest bridges in the United States.
RAF Sinks the Tirpitz
RAF Lancaster bombers dropped Tallboy earthquake bombs on the German battleship Tirpitz moored in a Norwegian fjord, causing her to capsize and kill over 1,000 of her crew. The sinking of the Tirpitz — the most powerful battleship in the German navy — ended over three years of effort by the Royal Navy and Air Force to neutralize the threat she posed to Allied shipping in the North Atlantic.
Ellis Island Closes After Processing Millions
Ellis Island in New York Harbour, which had processed over 12 million immigrants to the United States between 1892 and 1954, officially closed as an immigration station. At its peak in 1907, it processed over a million people in a single year. Today it operates as a museum and is one of the most visited historical sites in America.
My Lai Massacre Story Breaks
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh broke the story of the My Lai Massacre to the American public, revealing that U.S. Army soldiers had murdered between 347 and 504 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians — mostly women, children, and elderly men — in March 1968. The story caused shock and outrage across America, deepening opposition to the Vietnam War and transforming public perception of the conflict.
Voyager 1 Reaches Saturn
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft made its closest approach to Saturn, providing the most detailed images yet of the ringed planet, its moons, and its complex ring system. The flyby confirmed that Saturn's rings were made of ice and rock particles, discovered new moons, and revealed the atmosphere of the moon Titan. Voyager 1 has since become the most distant human-made object ever launched.
Tim Berners-Lee Publishes World Wide Web Proposal
British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee circulated his proposal for an information management system at CERN, the document that became the founding blueprint for the World Wide Web. His concept of hypertext links connecting documents across a global network transformed how humanity communicates, shares knowledge, and conducts commerce.
Saudi–Kazakh Mid-Air Collision Kills 349
A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 collided in mid-air near Charkhi Dadri, India, killing all 349 people aboard both aircraft. It remains the deadliest mid-air collision in aviation history. The disaster exposed serious deficiencies in India's air traffic control system and led to major safety reforms.
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Start a conversation →Elizabeth Gaskell
English Victorian novelist
Elizabeth Gaskell was one of the most important novelists of the Victorian era, whose works — including Mary Barton, North and South, and Cranford — documented the human cost of industrialization and the lives of women with compassionate realism. She was also the first biographer of Charlotte Brontë. She died suddenly of heart failure while entertaining friends at her home in Hampshire.
Stan Lee
American comic book writer and publisher
Stan Lee co-created an extraordinary roster of Marvel Comics superheroes including Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, and the Hulk, revolutionizing the genre by giving his characters relatable human flaws and personal problems alongside their superpowers. As Marvel's public face for decades, he became beloved by fans worldwide, and his cameo appearances in Marvel films became a cherished tradition.
Wilma Rudolph
American sprinter, Olympic champion
Wilma Rudolph overcame childhood polio and scarlet fever — doctors said she would never walk normally — to become the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games, at Rome in 1960. Her speed earned her the nickname "The Black Gazelle" in Europe, and her triumphant return to Clarksville, Tennessee, prompted the town's first integrated public event.
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