On this day: October 4

POSTED: 05:01 PM PDT Oct 03, 2012    UPDATED: 11:00 PM PDT Oct 03, 2012 

Work begins on Mount Rushmore, Sputnik is launched into space, the pope visits America for the first time, Janis Joplin is found dead of an overdose, all on this day.

OTD October 4 - Sputnik
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Gregory R Todd/Wikimedia Commons

1957: Russia's Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, is launched. The satellite would set off the Cold War-era "Space Race" between America and Russia.

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