With December 15 comes another famous space factoid. This time again from Venus. It was on this very day, in 1970, that the Soviet spacecraft mission Venera 7 made the first ever successful soft landing on another planet. When it did so on the Venusian surface, it was a monumental feat for various reasons in addition to being the first. The space mission conclusively proved that humans would not be able to survive on the planet. It also gathered enough data to know for a fact that the surface of Venus does not contain liquid water. The probe also measured the surface temperature as 475 degree Celsius. Interestingly, the space probe gathered all these details within a mere 23 minutes. After that amount of time, it made its last contact and then stopped sending any signals.
December 15 is also famous for being the day when the epic movie Gone With the Wind premiered in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1939. The film was directed by Victor Fleming and was based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell. The movie, with romance as its central theme, is set in southern USA in the backdrop of the American Civil War. It received 10 Academy Awards, including wins for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. It is, perhaps, best known for being the highest grossing movie at that time and amazingly, is still the highest grossing film when adjusted for inflation. While it was made on a budget of $3.85 million, it went on to collect 100 times that, with over $390 million. In today's value, it is worth almost 10 times more with an estimated $3.74 billion. And to imagine, all this came during the end of the Great Depression. What a legendary flick indeed!
The date is also famous for being the birthday of famous retired Indian footballer Baichung Bhutia. The Sikkim-born striker is the third highest goalscorer for the National Football Team with 26 strikes in 80 appearances. When he joined English club Bury FC in 1999, he became the first Indian footballer to sign a contract with a European club.