Events that took place on this day in history 8 January

*In 1973,
Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launche
Luna 21 (Ye-8 series) was an unmanned space mission, and its spacecraft, of the Luna program, also called Lunik 21, in 1973. The spacecraft landed on the Moon and deployed the second Soviet lunar rover, Lunokhod 2. The primary objectives of the mission were to collect images of the lunar surface, examine ambient light levels to determine the feasibility of astronomical observations from the Moon, perform laser ranging experiments from Earth, observe solar X-rays, measure local magnetic fields, and study mechanical properties of the lunar surface material.

*In 1981,
The Trans-en-Provence case was an event in which an unidentified flying object is claimed to have left physical evidence, in the form of burnt residue on a field. The event took place on 8 January 1981, outside the town of Trans-en-Provence in the French department of Var. It was described in Popular Mechanics as "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time."