TODAY IN HISTORY

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APRIL 25

1990:The Hubble Space Telescope, named for American astronomer Edwin Hubble, is put into orbit around the Earth by the space shuttle
Discovery, beginning its mission to collect data and photograph the most distant reaches of space. Exactly 21 years into its mission, the Hubble continues to orbit the earth every 97 minutes.

1719: Daniel Defoe's classic novel Robinson Crusoe, recounting the tale of a shipwrecked sailor who spends nearly three decades on an deserted tropical island, is published by William Taylor in London.

1983: The Soviet Union releases a letter sent by Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov to 10-year-old American schoolgirl Samantha Smith, who had written him the previous year to express her fears about nuclear war between the Cold War superpowers. Andropov invites Smith and her parents to visit the Soviet Union, which they will do in July.