On October 4, 1947, the Russians successfully launched Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite.
On this day in 1952, the pacemaker, an external device developed by Dr. Paul Zoll of Harvard Medical School, was for the first time fitted to a human to control heartbeat.
On this day in 2010, test-tube baby pioneer Robert Edwards of Britain won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine for achievements in in-vitro fertilization research. The technology has helped created 4 million babies around the world.