Reuters: Sky high price for space capsule 18 June

The Soyuz spacecraft, which blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan last week, reached the station in textbook style. About 90 minutes later, hatches between the two vessels opened and NASA's Peggy Whitson, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, an orthopaedic surgeon and part-time model from Malaysia, floated aboard.

The price tag is most ever paid for a piece by Russian jeweller Peter Carl Faberge. It is also a record amount for any Russian art object and any timepiece.

Cameras record each phase of the historic flight of Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr. in the "Friendship Seven" beginning with his pre-dawn entry into the Mercury capsule at Cape Canaveral. After the successful rocket launching, Colonel Glenn gets a "Go!" from mission control. A camera within the capsule shows the astronaut as he travels in space and his reactions are heard as he orbits the earth 3 times. He returns within a few miles of the pre-determined area and is picked up by helicopter and taken to the aircraft carrier Randolph - completing a mission that makes him the first American ever to orbit in space.

Three weeks after the Russians put a man in orbit, the United States attempts to launch a man into space. Unlike the secrecy that surrounded the Soviet achievement, the U.S. endeavor is broadcast to the world. Hundreds of newsmen look on as the countdown begins at Cape Canaveral, and at 10.34 a huge rocket sends 37-year-old Commander Alan B. Shepard aloft in a Mercury capsule. It is a successful launch. Commander Shepard reports to ground control that everything is "A-OK". Remarkable pictures show him in the capsule as he takes over control of the Freedom 7 for a 15-minute flight, becoming the first man to pilot a space craft, and show the recovery of pilot and capsule by helicopters from the carrier Lake Champlain. Commander Shepard shows no ill-effects from the flight, arousing hopes that the U.S. may be able to orbit a man around the earth before the end of the year.

The gem was bought by founder of Guess Jeans, George Marciano, at Sotheby's autumn semi-annual jewel sale in Geneva.

It was sold by The Perot Foundation, an organisation created by billionaire former U.S. presidential candidate Ross Perot to make philanthropic grants. The money from the sale of the document will be used for Perot Foundation charities.

The price of a barrel of oil may be at a record level...but oil companies say that doesn't necessarily mean they are hauling in record profits. Access to new supplies. A weak dollar. Rising raw materials costs. Are all having an impact on their business.

It's graced the Parisian skyline since 1889, and now a lucky Dutchman owns part of the Eiffel Tower. Tourists and locals stopped to look at steps of the Eiffel Tower that were on display before they headed to auction. Sarah Irwin reports.

The inimitable Vincent Price stars as an eccentric millionaire who, along with his wife, invites five diverse guests to a 'haunted house' party. The guests are offered $10,000 each to spend the night in the house with a murderous past

A 1960s television advertisement for GI Joe Space Capsule / Deep Sea Divers.