The USSR began sending dogs into space in 1951, and a Russian mutt named Laika became the first (non-microbial) Earth-born animal to enter orbit on aboard Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957.

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Similar to the recent difficulty of identifying the seven billionth human born on earth (that prize went to Danica May Camacho, a girl born in the Philippine capital of Manila, symbolically chosen by the UN to mark the global population milestone), it is understandable if Apple used location as an important factor in calculating their tiebreaks.

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When Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, was born one fifth of the Earth's surface was covered by the British Empire.

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The portals, also known as X-points in Scudder-speak, are born from the mingling of Earth's magnetic field with incoming solar winds.

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But we can all remind ourselves that the richness of this country was not born in the resources of the earth, though they be plentiful, but in the men that took its measure.

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The silver lapel badge is being given to all UK-born spacefarers who get to orbit the Earth.

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"I'm always happiest flying, " I told him truthfully, for I was born in the air, and it was more home to me than earth.

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Mr Obama was not yet born in 1957, when the Soviet Union put the first satellite in orbit around the Earth, but the moment is remembered as a salutary shock to an America grown complacent.

ECONOMIST: Lexington