August 23 is National Space Day in India, marking the anniversary of Chandrayaan-3's Moon landing — a date that also carries two very different anniversaries from the darker side of 20th-century diplomacy and justice.
On this day
1939Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in Moscow, a non-aggression treaty with a secret protocol carving up Eastern Europe into spheres of influence just days before World War II began.This Photo was taken by Reinhold Möller. Feel free to use my photos, but please mention me as the author and send me a message. This image is not public domain. Please respect the copyright protection. It may only be used according to the rules mentioned here. This specifically excludes use · CC BY-SA 4.0
1927Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Massachusetts for a 1920 robbery-murder, a conviction still widely regarded as unsafe and one of the most contested trials in US legal history.Unknown authorUnknown author via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
2023IndiaChandrayaan-3's Vikram lander touched down near the Moon's south pole, making India the first country to land in that region and the fourth to achieve a soft lunar landing at all — the achievement India now marks annually as National Space Day.NASA/Nichole Ayers via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Did you know
Chandrayaan-3's touchdown spot, roughly 600 km from the Moon's south pole, was later formally named Statio Shiv Shakti by the International Astronomical Union in March 2024 — a permanent entry on lunar maps.