1720: Edmund Halley appointed 2nd Astronomer Royal of England.
1923: An experimental night flight arrives to Le Bourget, France, from Croydon, England. The pilot has given his position by radio and used the aviation light beacons to make his approach.
1941: Britain uses paratroopers for the first time in an attack on Tragino, Italy.
1952: Maj George A. Davis Jr is killed while attacking a group of 12 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s that were about to attack other US aircraft over Korea for which he is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
1962: American U-2 pilot Gary Powers, shot down and arrested in the U.S.S.R. in May 1960, is released in exchange for Soviet spy Colonel Rudolf Abel.
1967: First flight of the Dornier Do 31.
1986: Air Atlanta Icelandic is formed.
1993: McDonnell Douglas delivers its 10,000th aircraft, a US Navy F/A-18 Hornet.
1995: The first prototype of Antonov’s new An-70 large prop-powered transporter is destroyed after a mid-air collision with an An-72 chase plane. All seven aboard are killed in the crash.
1995: Two Peruvian Sukhoi Su-22Ms are shot down by a pair of Ecuadorian Mirage F.1JAs. Almost simultaneously, a Peruvian Cessna A-37B is also shot down by an Ecuadorian Kfir C.2.
1995: The prototype Antonov An-70 is destroyed after a mid-air collision with an An-72 chase plane. All seven aboard are killed.
1997: Comet Shoemaker-Holt 2 Closest Approach to Earth (1.9245 AU).
1997: Soyuz TM-25 launches to the MIR.
2009: The communications satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collide in orbit 490 miles above Siberia at a speed of 26,170 mph.
2011: Manx2 Flight 7100 from Belfast, operated by Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner EC-ITP leased from Flightline BCN of Barcelona, overturns on its third attempt to land at Cork, Ireland in fog, killing six and injuring six.