On This Day in 1970, an estimated 40 million people watched on television as Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the South Pacific. The lunar module was supposed to be the third mission to land on the moon, but an explosion in one of the oxygen tanks during the flight forced astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise to orbit the moon instead and return to earth. A few weeks afterward, Lovell and Swigert were honored in Chicago with a parade. See our collection of images.

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