1908: The 1st fatality in a powered airplane occurs when Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge is killed while flying with Orville Wright at Fort Meyer, Virginia.

1946: Scandinavian Air System (SAS) commences flight operations.

1947: The United States Army Air Forces are separated from the United States Army and become an independent armed service, the United States Air Force.

1959: The North American X-15 rocket plane makes its 1st powered flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

1960: East African Airways launches jet service between Nairobi and London.

1976: NASA unveils the Space Shuttle Enterprise, the first space shuttle orbiter. Though not constructed to enter space (it was not built with engines or a proper heat shield), it was used for approach and landing tests Dryden Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. The Enterprise currently resides as a museum piece at the Steve F. Udvar-Hazy Museum outside Dulles International Airport.

1993: The F/A-18 Hornet logs its 2 millionth flying hour - achieved in only ten years of operations.

2013: The first flight of the Boeing 787-9 from Paine Field, in Washington. The flight lasted five hours and fifteen minutes and landed at Boeing Field.