While thousands of trick-or-treaters celebrated Halloween by collecting candy or attending parties, 70 years ago some Caltech students and local residents marked it by bringing rocket propulsion to Pasadena.

The seven men test fired a rocket in the Arroyo Seco at a site not far from the present-day Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

That first test more closely resembled a Keystone Kops episode than today's sophisticated launches, but it paved the way for space exploration.