1578: Tycho Brahe 1st sketches "Tychonic system" of solar system.
1633: Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before Inquisition for professing belief that earth revolves around the Sun.
1913: At the second British Aero Show in London, the world’s first airplane specifically designed to carry a gun, 37-mm cannon on biplane, is displayed for the first time. Called Destroyer and built by Vickers, Sons & Maxim, it is officially called the Experimental Fighting Biplane No.1 (E.F.B.1).
1919: The first post-war French commercial service is established on a route from Paris to Lille for the carriage of food and clothing to France’s northern departments.
1935: Bruno Hauptmann is convicted of murder for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh’s 20-month-old son Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. He would be executed in the New Jersey’s infamous “Old Smokey” electric chair a year later.
1936: London-based Imperial Airways launches airmail service to West Africa.
1943: The Vought F4U Corsair naval fighter makes its operational debut in Solomon Island, escorting PB4Y-1 Liberators (the US Navy’s version of the B-24) raiding Bougainville.
1960: France detonates its first nuclear weapon.
1961: Soviet Union fires a rocket from Sputnik V to Venus.
1963: Pacific Southwest Airlines becomes a public corporation.
1972: The Soviet Union has started to use Cuba as a base from which to spy on the US. The first mission is flown by two Soviet Tu-95, which surveys part of the east coast.
1987: First flight of the Fokker 50.
1995: violent thunderstorm causes $5 million in damage at Miami International Airport. Four airliners and nine air-bridges are seriously damaged.
1997: Discovery captures Hubble Space Telescope.
2002: The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) takes over responsibilities for airport security from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
2002: SkyEurope commences flight operations.
2009: BA CityFlyer Flight 8456, an Avro RJ100, registration G-BXAR, is substantially damaged when the nosewheel collapses on landing at London City Airport. All 71 people on board are successfully evacuated via emergency chutes.