Sputnik

Fifty years ago today, the Space Age was born. That's conventional wisdom. Nazii V-rockets would occasionally reach the edge of space, but we tend to ignore that, which is probably just as well.

Sputnik was certainly the first human venture into Earth orbit, and certainly sparked the subsequent history we know. Without Sputnik, there would have been no Apollo 11 a mere twelve years later.

That line of reasoning can be over done, however. Absent Sputnik, there likely still would've been a Space Age. The Soviets were first into space only because the U. S. had not given Werner Von Braun's team the go ahead. That, of course, assumes a successful first American launch. Had America been first into space, the Soviets almost certainly would have responded with Sputnik, but the ensuing superpower competition would have been twisted from what we know. Where it might have led is impossible to say.