2015 Event NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft ends its three-year orbit around Mercury with a planned crash into the planet's surface; originally, the probe was to orbit and collect data for one year, but fuel saving efforts extended its mission for two more years 2014 Event President Obama awards 24 Medals of Honor to veterans originally overlooked due to ethnic or racial bias 2012 Event Soyuz, a spacecraft originally designed for the Soviet space program, lands safely in Kazakhstan, with Oleg Kononenko of Russia, Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands, and Don Pettit of the United States, onboard 2010 Event Georgia changes its second language to English; Russian was originally its second language 1961 Event Britain's EMI Records originally rejects the Beatles 1954 Event Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock," is originally released 1927 Birthday Cecil Bodker, born in Fredericia, Denmark, writer, won Mildred L. Batchelder Award for her book titled, The Leopard, considered the most outstanding book originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, then published in the United States 1918 Event U.S.S.R. adopts New Style (Gregorian) calendar (originally Feb 1)
