This week in history

August 24, 2006 – Pluto is declassified as a planet

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) declassified Pluto as a planet and classified it as a dwarf planet. According to the IAU definition, a dwarf planet is neither a planet nor a natural satellite.


August 25, 1991 – Michael Schumacher makes his Formula One debut

The German race car champion competed in his first Formula One race in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps. While he did not win that race, he would go on to win 91 Formula One Grand Prix races.


August 26, 1955 – First tennis match to be telecast in colour

The Davis Cup match between Australia and the U.S. from the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York, was telecast on NBC.


August 27, 2003 – World’s biggest battery is plugged in

The battery, which takes up about 2,000 square metres of space and weighs about 1,300 tonnes is set up to provide emergency electricity to the residents of Fairbanks in Alaska, for about seven minutes.


August 28, 1937 – Toyota Motor Corporation is formed

The car company was first founded in 1933 as a subsidiary of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd. The division was headed by Kiichiro Toyoda, the son of the Toyota founder, Sakichi Toyoda.


August 29, 1966 – Beatles’ last commercial performance

Popular British rock group, the Beatles, played their last live concert in front of a paying public at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California.


August 30, 1983 – Guion Stewart Bluford is launched into Space

Bluford, a fighter pilot for the U.S. Air Force and part of the crew of STS-8, the third flight of NASA’s space shuttle Challenger, was the first African-American to go into space.

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