360What happened in 2006?
3 moments from 2006 on 360n60, each told in 60 words or fewer.
- On this day · 19 January 2006
New Horizons sets off for Pluto
On 19 January 2006, NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft, the fastest ever to leave Earth. After a journey of more than nine years, it flew past Pluto in July 2015 and sent back the first close-up pictures, revealing icy mountains and a vast heart-shaped plain.
- On this day · 21 March 2006
The first tweet is sent
On 21 March 2006, the co-founder Jack Dorsey posted the first message on the service that became Twitter: 'just setting up my twttr'. Limited at first to 140 characters, Twitter became a place where news broke and public figures spoke directly to the world. It was renamed X in 2023.
- On this day · 24 August 2006
Pluto is reclassified as a dwarf planet
On 24 August 2006, the International Astronomical Union, meeting in Prague, adopted a new definition of a planet. Pluto did not qualify, because it has not cleared its orbit of other objects, and was reclassified as a dwarf planet. The solar system now officially has eight planets.