Above is the U.S. promo poster for Port Afrique, which we’ve shared today to follow up the French poster we shared last year when we talked about the movie in detail. Shorter version: plenty of style, not enough substance, and nowhere near enough character. You can blame the latter problem on the casting of the male lead. But that French poster is nice, so you should have look. It’s here. Port Afrique premiered today in 1956.
1961—Soviets Launch Venus Probe
The U.S.S.R. launches the spacecraft Venera 1, equipped with scientific instruments to measure solar wind, micrometeorites, and cosmic radiation, towards planet Venus. The craft is the first modern planetary probe. Among its many achievements, it confirms the presence of solar wind in deep space, but overheats due to the failure of a sensor before its Venus mission is completed.