The Soviet Union launched its second reconnaissance satellite, Kosmos 4.
While launched under the name Kosmos 7, the spy satellite was actually a Zenit 2 satellite, the USSR’s first generation of recon satellites. Its four-day mission was largely for reconnaissance purposes, although it was also used to record various radiation levels for future missions. Its launch marked the first successful use of the Soviet Vostok-2 expendable rocket, with the previous attempt failing catastrophically.