Rescuers reach the Donner Party, Edison patents the phonograph, the Soviet Union launches the Mir space station, and Fidel Castro resigns as Cuban president, all on this day.
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1473: Mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who formulated a comprehensive heliocentric model which placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center of the universe, is born in Torun, Royal Prussia, Kingdom of Poland.