On this Day in Weather History, a new era in space flight began on April 12, 1981, when Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off into near-earth orbit from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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It was supposed to be routine. The space race was at such a furious pace already that even the media had grown weary of all the success. The plan was to land on the moon, explore the Imbrium Basin and conduct geological experiments. And then head home. That, however, is NOT what happened this day in weather history.

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On this Day in Weather History, for some reason, it would take almost 14 years before it would become an official world record, but still on April 10, 1996, the Earth's strongest surface wind, not including tornadoes, was measured.

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On this Day in Weather History, on April 9, 1959, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduced America’s first astronauts to the world.

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On this Day in Weather History, a bridge on a normally busy provincial road in northern Italy collapsed on April 8th, 2020; however, with virtually no traffic anywhere because of the crippling restrictions brought on because of the coronavirus lockdown, there were just two people who suffered minor injuries.

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