April 1981 - April 14, 1981 (Tuesday)

April 14, 1981 (Tuesday)

• At 10:21 am PST (1821 UTC), the Columbia became the first manned spaceship to land in California. Sixty minutes earlier at an altitude of 172 miles over the Indian Ocean, astronauts Young and Crippen had taken the space shuttle orbiter out of orbit. During the first mission, the thermostat, the cargo doors and the zero-G toilet all malfunctioned, and some of the heat-shielding tiles had fallen off (though not from the underside of the orbiter). Columbia would fly 27 more missions. On February 1, 2003, the Columbia would be destroyed and its crew of 7 killed, after leading edge wing damage led to the orbiter burning up during its return to earth.
• Died: William Henry Vanderbilt, 79, tycoon and former Governor of Massachusetts;