When was the first spacecraft to land on Venus?

The Soviet Venera 7 probe landed on Venus on 15 December 1970. It was the first spacecraft to survive landing on another planet and send information back to Earth, although only for about 23 minutes. The extreme heat and pressure on Venus made the achievement remarkable. Venera 7 proved that robotic landers could operate beyond the Moon and opened the way for later Venus landers and atmospheric probes.