What happened on October 4 in History

Launch of Soviet's Sputnik sparks space race: On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik-1, the world's first artificial satellite. Only about the size of a beach ball (22.8 inches or 58 cm. in diameter) and weighing 183.9 pounds (83.6 kg), it orbited the Earth in around 98 minutes.

The Sputnik launch marked the start of the space age and the US-USSR space race, and led to the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

This guide is intended to help direct the researcher to information on Sputnik and the space race as well as artificial satellites. in addition to suggested books on the topic, links to digitized primary resources and other online resources for information on the history of Sputnik are included.

This guide was originally compiled in 2007 on the anniversary of the Sputnik launch (1957), but has been updated with additional content.