Leonid Kizim, cosmonaut, born 1941

Leonid Kizim, born August 5, 1941 in present-day Ukraine, was a veteran of three space flights.

His first flight was aboard Soyuz T-3 to the Salyut 6 space station in November 1980.  He stayed in space for almost 13 days before returning to Earth.

His second flight was on Soyuz T-10 to the Salyut 7 space station in February 1984.  He and his fellow cosmonauts had to enter Salyut 7 with flashlights until they could reactivate the station.  He returned to Earth aboard Soyuz T-11 in October 1984

His third and final flight was aboard Soyuz T-15 to Salyut 7 and Mir space stations in March 1986.  It was the first time a spacecraft visited two space stations in the same mission.  He returned to Earth in July 1986.

He spent more than 374 days in space.

He passed away in June 2010.

Maureen McGovern's "The Morning After" from The Poseidon Adventure reaches #1 1973

Maureen McGovern's performance of The Morning After from The Poseidon Adventure reached #1 on the Billboard charts August 4, 1973 and stayed there for two weeks.  It went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards in March 1973.

Apollo 15 launches subsatellite 1971

Shortly before the crew of Apollo 15 (Commander David Scott, Alfred Worden, James Irwin) left the moon after a successful mission, they launched a "subsatellite", the Apollo 15 Particles and Fields Subsatellite (PFS-1), August 4, 1971.  Its main objectives were to study the plasma, particle and magnetic field of the moon.  PFS-1 transmitted data until January 1973.  A series of failures resulted in the termination from the ground support.  It's assumed that it crashed on the moon sometime after that.

SpaceX Crew Dragon returned to Earth today!

Crew Dragon (L-R): Robert Behnken, Doug Hurley

SpaceX's Crew Dragon, consisting of Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico today about 2:48PM EDT!  The last time NASA had a mission splashdown was in 1975 when Tom Stafford, Vance Brand and Deke Slayton returned from the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

Bob and Doug spent 62 days aboard the International Space Station participating in Expedition 63.  Behnken conducted four EVAs with fellow astronaut Chris Cassidy during the mission.

Happy birthday, Aquaman!

Insanely sexy actor Jason Momoa, who played DC Comic's Aquaman on the big screen, was born August 1, 1979 in Honolulu, Hawaii and raised in Iowa.

He appeared in Game of Thrones as Khal Drogo, before landing the role of Aquaman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016 and Justice League in 2017.  He starred as Aquaman in his own movie in 2018 with a sequel planned for release in 2022.

He will play Duncan Idaho in the upcoming release of Frank Herbert's Dune.

"Guardians of the Galaxy" released 2014

Another Marvel comic burst onto the big screen, Guardians of the Galaxy, released August 1, 2014.  A gang of intergalactic criminals band together to protect a powerful orb, stolen by Peter Quill (played by Chris Pratt), from a villain bent on using it to destroy the universe.

It also starred Zoe Saldana (Uhura from the Star Trek movies), Dave Bautista, John C. Reilly and Glenn Close.  Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel provided voices for Rocket and Groot, respectively.

After its release, it became the third highest-grossing film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and garnered mainly positive reviews.

It was nominated for two Oscars and a Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media for its Awesome Mix Vol. 1, which reached #1 on the Billboard 200, the first soundtrack without original music to do so.

Lunar Orbiter 5 launched 1967

Lunar Orbiter 5, launched August 1, 1967, was the last of NASA's Lunar Orbiter program, designed to take images of the Moon's far side. It reached the Moon on August 5 and took pictures from August 6-18, including photos of Tranquility Base, the future site of the Apollo 11 landing.

NASA deorbited it and it struck the lunar surface on January 31, 1968.