** Leaders of the Soviet Union

** President of the Soviet Union

** Premier of the Soviet Union

** Theatre of the Soviet Union

** 114. flerovium, Fl, named after Soviet physicist Georgy Flyorov, founder of the JINR ( 1999 ).

** The Soviet Union launches 2 scientific satellites, Elektron I and II, from a single rocket.

** Soviet military forces shoot down an unarmed reconnaissance bomber that had strayed into East Germany ; the 3 U. S. flyers parachute to safety.

** U. S. President Lyndon Johnson in New York, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, simultaneously announce plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons.

** British businessman Greville Wynne, imprisoned in Moscow since 1963 for spying, is exchanged for Soviet spy Gordon Lonsdale.

** Spain beats the Soviet Union 2 – 1 to win the 1964 European Nations Cup.

** Soviet war in Afghanistan ( 1979 – 1989 )-Although taking place almost entirely throughout the 1980s, the war officially started on December 27, 1979.

** The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

** Soviet Union invades Poland, Finland, occupies Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Romanian region of Bessarabia from 1939 to 1941.

** Germany attacks the Soviet Union ( June 22, 1941 ).

** Yalta Conference, wartime meeting from 4 February 1945 to 11 February 1945 among the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union — President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Premier Joseph Stalin, respectively — for the purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization, intended to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe.

** A variety of Soviet space program paraphernalia are put to auction in Sotheby's New York, and sell for a total of US $ 6. 8M.

** Council for Mutual Economic Assistance ( CMEA or COMECON ) established by Soviet Union and other communist nations.

** The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, code named " Joe 1 ".

** Natalia Kuchinskaya, Soviet gymnast

** Konstantin Chernenko, President of the Soviet Union ( d. 1985 )

** Space Age – Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth.

** Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev are removed from the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

** The Soviet Union launches Venera 6 toward Venus.

** The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 4.

** Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River.

** Domestic: extensive microwave radio relay links ; domestic satellite system with 3 earth stations

** international: country code-56 ; submarine cables provide links to the US and to Central and South America ; satellite earth stations-2 Intelsat ( Atlantic Ocean ) ( 2007 )

** domestic: interisland microwave system and HF radio police net ; domestic satellite communications system

** international: satellite earth stations-2 Intelsat ( 1 Indian Ocean and 1 Pacific Ocean )

** International telephone system: landline connections to Latvia and Poland ; major international connections are to Denmark, Sweden, and Norway by submarine cable for further transmission by satellite

** Freeview digital free satellite with a dozen SD channels, with SD feeds of the terrestrial HD freeview channels.

** international: country code-82 ; 10 fiber-optic submarine cables-1 Korea-Russia-Japan, 1 Korea-Japan-Hong Kong, 3 Korea-Japan-China, 1 Korea-Japan-China-Europe, 1 Korea-Japan-China-US-Taiwan, 1 Korea-Japan-China, 1 Korea-Japan-Hong Kong-Taiwan, 1 Korea-Japan ; satellite earth stations-3 Intelsat ( 1 Pacific Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean ) and 3 Inmarsat ( 1 Pacific Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean )

** Ground track, the path on the surface of the Earth directly below an aircraft or satellite

** PoSAT-1 ( the first Portuguese satellite ) is launched on board French rocket Ariane 4.

** NASA launches Syncom 2, the world's first geostationary ( synchronous ) satellite.

** The United States launches the first weather satellite, TIROS-1.

** United States launches navigation satellite Transit I-b.

** Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches the satellite Sputnik 5, with the dogs Belka and Strelka ( the Russian for " Squirrel " and " Little Arrow "), 40 mice, two rats and a variety of plants.

** The Pioneer 10 spacecraft is launched from Cape Kennedy, to be the first man-made satellite to leave the solar system.

** MacDonald family massacre: Jeffrey R. MacDonald kills his wife and children at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, claiming that drugged-out " hippies " did it. February 11: Ōsumi ( satellite ) launched

** NASA's Explorer 1, the first American satellite and Explorer program spacecraft, reenters Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.

** The United Kingdom becomes the 6th nation to launch a satellite into orbit, the Prospero X-3, using a Black Arrow carrier rocket.

** The Early Bird communications satellite is launched.

** Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering debris over Canada's Northwest Territories.

** Charon, a satellite of Pluto, is discovered.

** The U. S. scientific satellite Seasat is launched.

** The Solar Maximum Mission research satellite, launched in 1980, crashes back to earth.

** The Envisat environmental satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800 km above the Earth using an Ariane 5 on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8, 500 kg.