1962 mercury atlas 8 the fifth united states crewed space missio 10 03
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1962 64 years ago Selected Events October 3 4 sources

Mercury-Atlas 8, the fifth United States crewed space mission, was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying astronaut Wally Schirra (pictured).

On October 3, in the year 1962, Mercury-Atlas 8, the fifth United States crewed space mission, was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying astronaut Wally Schirra (pictured). This event is recorded as a Selected Events event in the history of October 3, one of 426 recorded events on this date across all of history.

Mercury-Atlas 8 (MA-8) was the fifth United States crewed space mission, part of NASA's Mercury program. Astronaut Walter M. Schirra Jr., orbited the Earth six times in the Sigma 7 spacecraft on October 3, 1962, in a nine-hour flight focused mainly on technical evaluation rather than on scientific experimentation. This was the longest U.S. crewed orbital flight yet achieved in the Space Race, though well behind the several-day record set by the Soviet Vostok 3 earlier in the year. It confirmed the Mercury spacecraft's durability ahead of the one-day Mercury-Atlas 9 mission that followed in 1963.

Key Facts

  • This event took place on October 3, 1962 (AD era).
  • It is categorised as a Selected Events event in recorded history.
  • Referenced in 4 Wikipedia articles.
  • Wikipedia source last updated on 26 September 2026.

On This Date in History 426

Type Year Date Event
Notable Deaths 2025 Oct 3 Patricia Routledge, English actress and singer (born 1929)
Historical Events 2024 Oct 3 Bengali, Assamese, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit are accorded the Classical language status by the Government of India
Notable Deaths 2024 Oct 3 Michel Blanc, French actor, writer and director (born 1952)
Notable Deaths 2024 Oct 3 Pierre Christin, French comics creator and writer (born 1938)
Notable Deaths 2024 Oct 3 Cid Moreira, Brazilian journalist and television anchor (born 1927)
Notable Deaths 2024 Oct 3 Mary O'Rourke, Irish politician (born 1937)
Historical Events 2023 Oct 3 Wab Kinew is elected to be the first First Nations Premier of a Canadian province in the 2023 Manitoba general election
Notable Deaths 2023 Oct 3 Thomas Gambino, American mobster, Gambino crime family (born 1929)
Historical Events 2022 Oct 3 Svante Pääbo is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Historical Events 2021 Oct 3 Eight people are killed in an airplane crash near Milan, Italy.
Notable Deaths 2021 Oct 3 Todd Akin, American politician (born 1947)
Notable Deaths 2021 Oct 3 Dan Petrescu, Romanian businessman and billionaire (born 1953)
Historical Events 2015 Oct 3 Forty-two people are killed and 33 go missing in the Kunduz hospital airstrike in Afghanistan.
Notable Deaths 2015 Oct 3 Denis Healey, English soldier and politician, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (born 1917)
Notable Deaths 2015 Oct 3 Muhammad Nawaz Khan, Pakistani historian and author (born 1943)
Notable Deaths 2015 Oct 3 Javed Iqbal, Pakistani philosopher and judge (born 1925)
Notable Deaths 2014 Oct 3 Ewen Gilmour, New Zealand comedian and television host (born 1963)
Notable Deaths 2014 Oct 3 Benedict Groeschel, American priest, psychologist, and talk show host (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2014 Oct 3 Jean-Jacques Marcel, French footballer (born 1931)
Notable Deaths 2014 Oct 3 Kevin Metheny, American businessman (born 1954)
Notable Deaths 2014 Oct 3 Ward Ruyslinck, Belgian author (born 1929)
Historical Events 2013 Oct 3 At least 360 migrants are killed when their boat sinks near the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Notable Deaths 2013 Oct 3 Sari Abacha, Nigerian footballer (born 1978)
Notable Deaths 2013 Oct 3 Sergei Belov, Russian basketball player and coach (born 1944)
Notable Deaths 2013 Oct 3 Joan Thirsk, English cryptologist, historian, and academic (born 1922)
Selected Events 2013 Oct 3 A boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa, resulting in more than 360…
Notable Deaths 2012 Oct 3 Abdul Haq Ansari, Indian theologian and scholar (born 1931)
Notable Deaths 2012 Oct 3 Robert F. Christy, American physicist and astrophysicist (born 1916)
Notable Deaths 2012 Oct 3 Albie Roles, English footballer (born 1921)
Notable Deaths 2010 Oct 3 Ben Mondor, Canadian-American businessman (born 1925)
Notable Deaths 2010 Oct 3 Abraham Sarmiento, Filipino lawyer and jurist (born 1921)
Historical Events 2009 Oct 3 Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey join in the Turkic Council.
Notable Deaths 2009 Oct 3 Vladimir Beekman, Estonian poet and translator (born 1929)
Historical Events 2008 Oct 3 The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 for the U.S. financial system is signed by President George W. Bush.
Selected Events 2008 Oct 3 The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, establishing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, commonly referred to…
Notable Deaths 2007 Oct 3 M. N. Vijayan, Indian journalist, author, and academic (born 1930)
Notable Deaths 2006 Oct 3 Lucilla Andrews, Egyptian-Scottish nurse and author (born 1919)
Notable Deaths 2006 Oct 3 John Crank, English mathematician and physicist (born 1916)
Notable Deaths 2006 Oct 3 Peter Norman, Australian runner (born 1942)
Notable Deaths 2006 Oct 3 Alberto Ramento, Filipino bishop (born 1937)
Notable Deaths 2005 Oct 3 Ronnie Barker, English actor and screenwriter (born 1929)
Notable Deaths 2005 Oct 3 Nurettin Ersin, Turkish general (born 1918)
Notable Births 2004 Oct 3 Noah Schnapp, American actor
Notable Deaths 2004 Oct 3 John Cerutti, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1960)
Notable Deaths 2004 Oct 3 Janet Leigh, American actress (born 1927)
Notable Deaths 2003 Oct 3 Florence Stanley, American actress (born 1924)
Notable Deaths 2003 Oct 3 William Steig, American sculptor, author, and illustrator (born 1907)
Selected Events 2003 Oct 3 Roy Horn of the American entertainment duo Siegfried & Roy (both pictured) was mauled by a tiger during a performance…
Notable Deaths 2002 Oct 3 Bruce Paltrow, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1943)
Notable Births 2001 Oct 3 Anton Lundell, Finnish ice hockey player

This article draws on content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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