November 3 – Launch of Sputnik 2, with a dog called Laika on board, the first animal sent into orbit. There is no technology available to return it to earth.
December 6 – The United States attempts launch of Vanguard TV3 which fails after just two seconds in the air.
Project Orion begins, a U.S. program to build a spacecraft powered by nuclear explosions.
April – IBM delivers the first compiler for the FORTRAN scientific programming language. It becomes the most widely used computer language for technical work.
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