1914: The first regularly scheduled passenger airline in the United States begins service. The Benoist Company, flying its Benoist flying boat, runs a line between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida.
1927: In what would later become United Airlines, Boeing Air Transport is established, carrying airmail between San Francisco and Chicago.
1958: 4751st Air Defense Missile Wing to develop and conduct training program for Bomarc units, and the 864th Strategic Missile Squadron to be equipped with Jupiter IRBM, were both activated.
1963: First A-12 flight with dual J-58 engines. At speeds of Mach 2.4-2.8 the aircraft experienced such severe roughness that it was looking as if the program could not move forward. The trouble was diagnosed as being in the air inlet system of the engines. After a considerable period of experimentation the problem was solved.
1973: The last mission of a B-52 in the Vietnam War.
1973: Luna 21 lands on the Moon, carrying the Lunokhod 2 rover, the second robotic lunar rover.
1976: US-German Helios B solar probe launched into solar orbit.
1977: Linjeflyg Flight 618, a Vickers 838 Viscount (registered SE-FOZ) crashes on approach to Stockholm-Bromma Airport. The plane entered a steep dive from an altitude of 1,150ft due to ice that had developed on the horizontal stabilizer, killing all 22 aboard.
1982: SR-71B (956) flies its 1000th sortie.
1991: The first hot-air balloon to cross the Pacific Ocean takes off from Japan and eventually lands in Canada.
1992: A Lockheed U-2 belonging to the United States Air Force is lost in the Sea of Japan. FACTOID: The U-2 is still in active service 50 years after development, and has actually out-lived its own replacement, the SR-71, by more than a decade.
1997: Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with Mir Space Station.
2002: First flight of the Airbus A318.
2006: Stardust space mission returns dust from a comet to earth.
2009: US Airways Flight 1549, the "Miracle on the Hudson" Airbus A320 (registered N106US) makes a successful water landing in the Hudson River after Canada geese destroy both engines. All 155 on-board survive one of the few successful ditchings in recent history.
