1784: The first balloon flight made in Italy takes place from the grounds of a villa owned by Chevalier Paul Andreani near Milan and uses a modified Montgolfière hot air design built by the brothers Charles and Augustin Gerli.
1929: The world’s first major air evacuation comes to an end when Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) flies out the last of 586 civilians from Kabul to the safety to India. The airlift involves nationals of about 20 countries.
1930: Ralph O’Neil lands in Miami on the first mail service of America airline New York, Rio and Buenos Aires Line (NYRBA) between Buenos Aires and New York after a difficult 6-day flight from Argentina.
1932: Russia’s civil airline changes its name to “Aeroflot” as we know it today.
1933: USS Ranger (CV-4) is launched as the first American ship actually designed to be an aircraft carrier. (Earlier conventional ships had been converted to carriers).
1963: First flight of the Transall C.160.
1964: Eastern Air Lines Flight 304, a Douglas DC-8 (N8607), crashes into Lake Pontchartrain after departing New Orleans. All 58 aboard perish due to an abnormal trim component which led to instability when experiencing turbulence while climbing through 16,000ft.
1965: The Douglas DC-9 makes its first test flight.
1970: TWA becomes the first airline to fly a “Jumbo Jet” within the US, when it inaugurates a Boeing 747 service between Los Angeles and New York.
1975: Brig. General Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, flies his final US Air Force sortie.
1979: Soyuz 32 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station is launched.
1982: American Airlines cancels 15 Boeing 757-200 orders.
1990: Smoke-free flights become mandatory throughout North America for all US airlines.
2008: Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 crashes short of the runway while on approach to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. A faulty altimeter on the Boeing 737-800 (TC-JGE) led to a decrease in the autothrottle to idle. Noticing too late, the crew was unable to recover, and the aircraft broke apart while landing in the mud. Among the 135 people on-board, 9 die, including the two pilots.
