theLogBook.com is a chronicle of how we used to imagine the future – an ever-expanding
logbook of what our entertainment, our culture, and even our brightest minds thought would happen.
It’s nostalgia – and some real history – that gives factual context to the fiction, cultural
context to the factual, and always looks to the future.

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Published On: April 18, 2018

The ExpanseThe 25th episode of the science fiction series The Expanse, based on the series of novels by James S.A. Corey (a pseudonym for writers Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham), is broadcast on cable channel Syfy. Raven Dauda (Star Trek: Discovery) and Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost, V) guest star.

Published On: April 18, 2014

SpaceX DragonThe third SpaceX Dragon unmanned resupply mission to the International Space Station lifts off, testing a new version of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster rocket which incorporates landing legs and an attitude control system designed to return the booster’s first stage safely to Earth for possible reuse. The attitude control system succeeds in cancelling out the booster’s roll and brings the first stage down for a controlled splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. The Dragon capsule goes on to dock with the ISS two days later.

Published On: April 18, 2010

K-9UK cable channel Disney XD airs the ninth episode of K-9. The Australian-made series features no Doctor Who-related characters other than K-9. Read more

Published On: April 18, 1997

Doctor WhoVirgin Publishing releases the 61st book in the Doctor Who: The New Adventures range, Lance Parkin’s The Dying Days. This is the first and only book in the series to feature the eighth Doctor introduced in the previous year’s TV movie, and marks the end of Virgin’s Doctor Who license, as BBC Books has brought the license in-house in the wake of the 1996 movie. The New Adventures books will continue with no direct Doctor Who references and focusing on the original character of Dr. Bernice Summerfield. Read more

Published On: April 18, 1980

The Empire Strikes BackIn contrast to 1977, where no toy licensee had a lock on the right to make Star Wars toys until weeks after the movie’s premiere, Kenner rolls out the first toys for The Empire Strikes Back nearly a month ahead of the movie; kids (and their long-suffering parents) make the first wave of figures an immediate sell-out, despite not knowing anything about the movie’s plotline. Read more Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast

Published On: April 18, 1972

Weather BulletinStudents and seasoned weather researchers at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma embark on the Tornado Intercept Project (TIP), a concerted effort to gather film footage of developing or active tornadoes in an effort to study wind and debris patterns. Though believed by some to be of limited scientific value, TIP is the beginning of “storm chasing” and yields major breakthroughs in scientific understanding of the formation of tornadoes just one year later.

Published On: April 18, 1952

Tales Of TomorrowThe 29th episode of ABC’s science fiction anthology series, Tales Of Tomorrow, airs on ABC, with each episode’s opening titles proclaiming that the series is produced “in cooperation with the Science-Fiction League of America”, a collective of sci-fi writers including Isaac Asimov and Theodore Sturgeon among its members. This episode stars Sylvia Sidney.

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Absolutely no generative AI was used in the creation of the content on this website.
It’s mostly just some guy named Earl.

EG