Today in History, April 17th
On April 17, 1970, the crippled Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the Pacific. Plus the Bay of Pigs landing and the Ford Mustang's debut.
Published · Last updated
April 17 is best known as the day in 1970 when the crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft splashed down safely in the Pacific, ending NASA’s most famous near-disaster. The date also saw Cuban exiles land at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 and the Ford Mustang make its debut at the New York World’s Fair in 1964.
The big story: Apollo 13 Comes Home (1970)
Apollo 13 lifted off from Florida on April 11, 1970, with Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise aboard, headed for a landing in the Moon’s Fra Mauro highlands. About 56 hours into the flight, an oxygen tank in the service module burst. Swigert radioed the line everyone remembers: “Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” Power, oxygen and water were suddenly in short supply, and the landing was off. The crew moved into the lunar module, Aquarius, and used it as a lifeboat. Its descent engine handled the burns that swung them around the Moon and back toward Earth, and the astronauts improvised a fix to clear carbon dioxide from the air. Along the way they set a record for the farthest distance humans had traveled from Earth. On April 17 the command module splashed down in the South Pacific near the recovery ship USS Iwo Jima. The mission never reached the Moon, yet it showed how well a ground team and a crew could solve problems together.
More events on April 17
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1194 | Richard I, the Lionheart, was crowned king of England for a second time after his release from captivity in Germany. |
| 1521 | Martin Luther appeared before the Diet of Worms to defend his calls for church reform. |
| 1790 | Benjamin Franklin, printer, scientist and diplomat, died in Philadelphia at age 84. |
| 1895 | The Treaty of Shimonoseki ended the First Sino-Japanese War. China recognized Korea’s independence and gave up Taiwan to Japan. |
| 1907 | Ellis Island had its busiest day ever, processing 11,747 immigrants. |
| 1961 | About 1,200 CIA-trained Cuban exiles landed at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs in a failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. More than 1,100 were captured. |
| 1964 | Ford unveiled the Mustang at the New York World’s Fair, and about 22,000 were sold the first day. |
| 1975 | Khmer Rouge forces took Phnom Penh, and Cambodia’s government fell. City residents were forced into the countryside. |
| 1982 | Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed the Constitution Act, giving Canada full control of its own constitution. |
| 2003 | Anneli Jäätteenmäki was sworn in as Finland’s prime minister, making Finland the second country with women as both head of state and head of government. |
| 2011 | HBO’s Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin’s novels, premiered. |
Born on April 17
- 1894: Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet premier who steered the U.S.S.R. out of Joseph Stalin’s shadow.
- 1897: Thornton Wilder, American playwright and novelist of Our Town, the only writer to win Pulitzers for both fiction and drama.
- 1918: William Holden, American actor of Sunset Boulevard and an Academy Award winner.
- 1928: Cynthia Ozick, American novelist, short-story writer and essayist.
Sources
- Apollo 13 returns to Earth, History.com
- Apollo 13 Summary, NASA History
- On This Day: April 17, Britannica
- This Day in History: April 17, History.com
- The Bay of Pigs invasion begins, History.com
- Nikita Khrushchev, Britannica
- Thornton Wilder, Britannica
- William Holden, Britannica
- Cynthia Ozick, Britannica
