1066: 18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

1903: The Wright brothers file a patent request for a powered flying machine based on the second (modified) version of their 1902 glider successfully tested at Kill Devil Hill.

1908: French industrialist Lazare Weiller signs a contract with the Wrights establishing a Wright airplane company in France, on condition that the brothers make two demonstration flights covering 50 km (31.1 miles) within a hour’s flying time. They will receive FF500, 000 and half the founders’ share.

1921: Lieutenant Arthur Hamilton sets a new world record when he jumps by parachute from 24,400 feet.

1932: Flying a Bleriot 110, French aviators Lucien Bossoutrot and Maurice Rossi take off for a record closed-circuit distance of 6,587.442 miles at Oran, Algeria.

1948: Test pilot Gp. Capt. John Cunningham sets a new Federal Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) ratified world altitude record of 18,118 m (59446 ft.) during tests with the third production D. H. 100 Vampire (serial no. TG278).

1965: Gemini 3 launched, 1st U.S. 2-man space flight (Grissom and Young).

1994: A RAL-Russian Airlines Airbus A310-304, operating Aeroflot Flight 593 from Moscow-Hong Kong crashed with 75 passengers in Mezhdurechensk, Kemerovo Oblast, Russia after the auto-pilot partially shut off while the captain's 15-year-old son was allowed to sit in the pilot seat and handle the controls. There were no survivors.

2001: Russian Mir space station is crashed into the Pacific during a controlled re-entry.

2009: FedEx Express Flight 80, a McDonnell-Douglas MD-11F, registration N562FE, crashes on landing at Narita International Airport, Tokyo, killing both crew members.