This week has been a remarkably eventful week:

Early on in the week, there was a horrendous mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, which left 59 dead and over 400 injured; the shooter died on the scene. On top of this being a terrible tragedy, it has also reignited the controversial debate on gun control.

There is also a tropical depression brewing which is currently projected to be another hurricane by the time it makes landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast over the weekend. As the storm is only a tropical depression, it currently doesn’t have a name other than “Tropical Depression 16.”

The region of Catalonia, in North Eastern Spain, recently held a controversial referendum for independence. Spanish courts in Madrid have thrown out the referendum as unconstitutional; however, local authorities still plan to go through with separating from the rest of Spain. It is unclear whether or not they will succeed with their secession, and it is also unclear how an independent Catalonia would interact with Spain or the rest of Europe.

On a brighter note, archaeologists in Turkey claim to have identified the body of Saint Nicholas in a tomb under a church in Demre, Turkey.

In a look back into history, on this day in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, sparking the Space Race which would end with the United States putting Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on the Moon.