66: 5th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

1910: The first practical seaplane is flown. Built and flown by American Glenn Curtiss, it lands and takes off in the waters off San Diego, California.

1926: Ramón Franco takes off from Spain piloting a Dornier Do J and reaches Buenos Aires 59 hours later.

1945: McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom, the first jet aircraft to operate from a US Navy aircraft carrier.

1946: Col William Councill sets a new US transcontinental speed record of 4 hours 13 minutes in a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star.

1949: Garuda Indonesia is founded (as Garuda Indonesian Airways).

1951: First flight of Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket supersonic research aircraft is made. It is launched from underneath its B-29 mother-ship and exceeds Mach 1 (the speed of sound) in a dive.

1953: The first meeting of the Experimental Aircraft Association takes place at Curtis-Wright Field in Milwaukee.

1960: CIA orders an initial five A-12 OXCART aircraft. (Q)

1962: NASA launches the Ranger 3 moon probe aboard an Atlas-Agena rocket. After a series of malfunctions, the spacecraft would miss the moon by 22,000 miles.

1988: French Defense Ministry approves full-scale development of the Dassault Rafale.

1990: The first of two new VC-25 aircraft, the 747 variant used as Air Force One, is delivered to the United States Air Force.

1995: Outbreak of the Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador. Peruvian Mil Mi-8 and Mil Mi-25, as well as Ecuadorian Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopters begin ground attack operations.

2010: Spanish airline Quantum Air ceased operations.