1884: Built by Frenchmen Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs, the airship La France is powered by a 9 hp electric motor driving one large propeller. It makes a fully-controlled circular flight while traveling about 5 miles at 14 mph.

1896: Otto Lilienthal crashes in his No.11 glider while flying from the Rhinower Hill range and dies the next day. He made approximately 2,500 flights in his various gliders.

1945: Bock’s Car, a Boeing B-29 dropped the second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki.

1949: US Navy Lt. J. L. Fruin loses control of his F2H-1 Banshee and ejects, becoming the first American pilot to use an ejector seat during an actual in-flight emergency.

1952: Four Royal Navy piston-engined Hawker Sea Furies encounter eight MiG-15s near Pyongyang, Korea, and Lieutenant Peter Carmichael of No. 802 Squadron FAA aboard HMS Ocean shoots one down. It is the Fleet Air Arm's first kill of the Korean War and first MiG-15 kill.

1956: The Fiat G.91, produced for NATO as a light strike-fighter, makes its first flight.

1970: LANSA Flight 502, a Lockheed L-188A Electra, crashes shortly after takeoff from Cusco, Peru, killing all but one of the 100 on board, including 49 students from upstate New York. Two farmers on the ground also perish. Investigators find that an engine failure combined with improper engine-out procedures carried out by the crew, as well as inadequate loading procedures, led to the accident.

1976: First flight of the Boeing YC-14 72-1873.