1907: Henri Farman makes the 1st flight in Europe of over one minute in his Voisin-Farman I biplane in France.

1907: Louis Bleriot introduces what will become the modern configuration of the airplane. His No.VII has an enclosed or covered fuselage (body), a single set of wings (monoplane), a tail unit, and a propeller in front of the engine.

1972: Southern Airways Flight 49 from Birmingham is hijacked and, at one point, is threatened with crashing into the nuclear installation at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After two days, the plane lands in Havana, Cuba, where the hijackers are jailed by Fidel Castro. The hijacking, the most bizarre, prolonged and death-defying in the annals of U.S. aviation history, will be the subject of a true account reported by the author Ed Blair in the book Odyssey of Terror, published by Broadman Press in 1977.