50 years ago, Mariner 4 sent back first pictures from Mars

Earth to Mars in 229 days — The longest recorded journey in the history of man will reach its goal on Wednesday, July 14 — and keep on going. The Mariner 4 spacecraft … will have covered more than 325 million miles in order to take a few television pictures and transmit some experimental radio signals. Together, these two activities should add a great deal to man’s sketchy knowledge of the planet Mars… Despite equipment failures, meteor showers, solar flares, and perhaps even “little green men,” Mariner seems to be doing just fine. — Science News Letter, July 10, 1965

UPDATE 

Mariner 4 buzzed Mars right on schedule, sending back the first up-close pictures of another planet. The grainy images showed a desiccated, moonlike surface lacking in little green men. Since that first visit, 19 additional probes have flown past, orbited or landed on the Red Planet. Even more Mars probes — 25 — have failed. More recent missions have revealed that Mars was once warm and wet. Today there are seven active missions on or above our planetary neighbor.