141: 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

1345: Saturn/Jupiter/Mars-conjunction: thought "cause of plague epidemic."

1727: Isaac Newton, English physicist/astronomer, dies in London age 84.

1920: Two South African pilots complete the first flight from Britain to South Africa after a flying time of four days, 13 hours, 30 minutes.

1922: The CV-1 Langley, America’s first aircraft carrier, is commissioned into the U. S. Navy at Norfolk, Virginia under the command of Comdr. Kenneth Whiting.

1932: The airship Graf Zeppelin begins a series of flights between Germany and Brazil. Several round-trips are planned per year, embarkation being at Friedrichshafen bound for Recife and later to Rio de Janeiro.

1937: An attempted round-the-world flight by leading US woman aviator Amelia Earhart ends dramatically when the starboard tire of her Lockheed Electra airliner bursts during take-off from Honolulu, Hawaii. Because of damage, the expedition is temporary abandoned. The first leg from Oakland, California to Honolulu on March 17 was made in 16 hours, an east/west record.

1964: ESRO established, European Space Research Organization.

1979: Columbia flies on Shuttle carrier aircraft to Kennedy Space Center.

1987: NASA launches Palapa B2P.

2011: First flight of Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental in Everett, Washington.