1978 :
An Air India jumbo jet exploded in mid-air near Bombay, killing 213.
January 2nd
1839 : Louis Daguerre took the first photograph of the moon. 1999 : A U.N.-chartered cargo plane carrying nine people was downed in Angola's central highland war zone. There were no survivors.
January 3rd
1994 : 125 killed when an Aeroflot TU-154 crashed and exploded after take off in Irkhutsk, Russia.
January 5th
1972 : President Nixon ordered development of the space shuttle.
January 6th
1942 : The Pan American Airways Pacific Clipper arrived in New York after completing the first round-the-world trip by a commercial airplane.
January 7th
1610 : Galileo Galilei sighted four of Jupiter's moons. 1785 : French aeronaut/balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard successfully made the first air-crossing of the English Channel from the English coast to France.
January 8th
1973 : USSR launches Luna 21 for Moon landing. 1989 : Forty-seven people were killed when a British Midland Boeing 737-400 carrying 126 people crashed in central England. 1991 : Pan American Airways (Pan Am) filed for bankruptcy. 1998 : Scientists announce discovery that cosmos' galaxies are accelerating, flying apart at ever faster speeds.
January 9th
1793 : Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first successful balloon flight in the United States. Blanchard's balloon, filled with hydrogen, took off from Philadelphia, PA, soared to 5,800 feet and eventually wound up some 15 miles away, in Woodbury, New Jersey. 1839 : Thomas Henderson measured the first stellar parallax: Alpha Centauri. 1908 : Count Zeppelin announces plans for his airship to carry 100 passengers. 1912 : The world's first flying boat is designed by Glenn Curtiss and makes its maiden voyage at Hammond's Port, New York. 1923 : Don Juan de la Cierva, Spanish flier and inventor, made the first successful flight of an autogyro, forerunner of the helicopter. 1941 : The Avro Manchester III makes its first flight equipped with four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines in place of the two Rolls-Royce Vultures used on earlier marks. Ordered into production as the Lancaster, it becomes possibly the most famous RAF bomber of all time. 1968 : The Surveyor Seven space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface. 1969 : The supersonic Concorde jetliner made its first test flight at Bristol, England. 1990 : The space shuttle "Columbia" was launched on a ten-day mission that included the retrieval of a drifting scientific satellite. 1997 : a Comair commuter plane crashed 18 miles short of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing all 29 people on board. 1998 : Anatoly Solovyov & Pavel Vinogradov spacewalk record 3 hrs 8 mins.
January 10th
1910 : the first international air meet is held in Los Angeles. 1911 : Major Jimmie Erickson shot the first photograph from an airplane while flying over San Diego, California. 1912 : The World's first flying-boat airplane, designed by Glenn Curtiss, makes its maiden flight at Hammondsport. 1946 : the first manmade contact with the moon was made by the US Army from Belmar, NJ as radar signals were bounced off the lunar surface. 1951 : Donald Howard Rogers piloted the first passenger jet on a trip from Chicago to New York City. He got to the Big Apple in one hour and 42 minutes. 1978 : the Soviet Union launched two cosmonauts aboard a "Soyuz 27" capsule for a rendezvous with the "Salyut Six" space laboratory where two other cosmonauts had been living for a month. 1986 : Heavy rain at Cape Canaveral, Fla., forced a seventh delay in the flight of the space shuttle Columbia.
January 11th
1787 : Titania and Oberon, moons of Uranus, were discovered by William Herschel. 1935 : Amelia Earhart Putnam became the first person to fly solo from Honolulu Hawaii to Oakland California. She had also been the first woman to solo across the Atlantic three years earlier. 1975 : Soviets launched a manned spaceship "Soyuz 17" to rendezxous with the space laboratory "Salyut 4" sent into orbit around the Earth. 1978 : two Soviet cosmonauts abaord the Soyuz XXVII capsule linked up with the Salyut VI orbiting space station, where the Soyuz XXVI capsule was already docked. (first time 3 spacecraft link). 1995 : Fifty-two people were killed when a Colombian airliner crashed as it was preparing to land near the Caribbean resort of Cartagena; a nine-year-old girl survived. 1996 : The space shuttle Endeavour blasted off on a nine- day mission.
January 12th
1970 : The Boeing 747 Jumbo jet arrived at London's Heathrow airport after its first proving flight from New York. 1971 : President Richard M. Nixon ordered development of the NASA space shuttle. 1990 : The astronauts aboard the space shuttle "Columbia" retrieved an eleven-ton floating science laboratory in a rescue mission that kept the satellite from plunging to Earth. 1997 : the shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a mission to pick up American astronaut John Blaha from the Russian space station Mir.
January 13th
1982 : Air Florida Flight 90. Ice on the wings caused the plane to crash into the 14th bridge over the potomac river just after taking off from Washington National Airport. 72 people on the plane and 4 people in cars on the bridge died.
January 14th
1943 : U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane while in office. He flew from Miami to French Morocco.
January 16th
1942 : A TWA transport carrying film actress Carole Lombard, her mother, and 20 other passengers, crashed near Las Vegas. All aboard were killed.
January 18th
1957 : The first, non-stop, "round-the-world, jet flight came to an end at Riverside, California. The plane was refueled in mid-flight by huge aerial tankers. 1991 : Financially strapped Eastern Airlines shut down after 62 years in business.
January 19th
1937 : Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record, flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 Minutes and 25 seconds.
January 21st
1976 : The supersonic Concorde jet was put into service by Britain and France.
January 22nd
1968 : A B-52 crashed 7‚ miles south of Thule Air Force Base in Greenland, scattering the radioactive fragments of four hydrogen bombs over the terrain after a fire broke out in the navigator's compartment. The contaminated ice and airplane debris were sent back to the U.S., with the bomb fragments going back to the manufacturer in Amarillo, Tx. The incident outraged the people of Denmark (which owns Greenland and which prohibits nuclear weapons over its territory) and led to massive anti-U.S. demonstrations. 1970 : The first regularly scheduled commercial flight of the Boeing 747 began in New York and ended in London some 6 1/2 hours later.
January 24th
1966 : An Air India Boeing 707 jetliner crashed on Mont Blanc, 117 died. 1978 : A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada. 1986 : The Voyager II space probe swept past Uranus, coming within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system.
January 25th
1959 : American Airlines opened the jet age in the United States with the first scheduled transcontinental Flight of a Boeing 707. 1990 : An Avianca Boeing 707 ran out of fuel and crashed in Cove Neck, N.Y.; 73 of the 161 people aboard were killed
January 26th
1962 : The United States launched Ranger III to land scientific instruments on the moon; the probe missed its target by some 22,000 miles.
January 27th
1967 : Astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft at Cape Kennedy, Fla.
January 28th
1986 : The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members aboard.
January 29th
1613 : Galileo observes Neptune but fails to recognize what he sees. 1988 : United Airlines Boeing 747SP, circles world in 36h54m15s. 1996 : a Navy F-14 fighter jet crashed in Nashville, Tennessee, demolishing three houses and killing five people, including three on the ground.
January 30th
1964 : the United States launched Ranger 6, an unmanned spacecraft carrying television cameras that was to crash-land on the moon. 1992 : the space shuttle Discovery landed in California, ending an eight-day mission. 2000 : Kenya Airways plane crashes shortly after take off from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, killing 169 people.
January 31st
1958 : United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite from Cape Canaveral into orbit, the Explorer I, from Cape Canaveral, Fl. It discovered the radiation belt predicted by James Van Allen. 1961 : Ham the chimp is the first animal sent into space by the U.S. in test of the Mercury / Redstone 2 space capsule, 158 miles above the earth. 1966 : USSR launches Luna 9 toward the Moon. 1971 : astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell and Stuart A. Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14, the first U.S. moon mission since the ill-fated mission of Apollo 13, for a third lunar landing. Alan Shepard took the first golf shot on the moon. 1986 : President Reagan eulogized the seven crew members of the space shuttle Challenger during a memorial service at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, telling the astronauts' families that "the sacrifice of your loved ones has stirred the soul of our nation." 1987 : Discount airline pioneer People Express flew its last flights before merging into Continental Airlines. 1991 : Trans World Airlines (T.W.A.) declares bankruptcy. The airline, which is facing over $1 billion in debts, continues to fly however. 1992 : Trans World Airlines Inc (TWA) filed for bankruptcy protection. 1998 : Astronaut David Wolf returned to Earth aboard space shuttle Endeavour after four months on the Russian space station Mir. 2000 : An Alaska Airlines jet plummeted into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 88 people aboard.
February
February 1 st
1966 : Nicholas Piantanida sets unofficial world altitude record for manned balloon flight (123,800 ft or 37,700 m), but dies in descent. 1991 : 35 people were killed when a USAir jetliner crashed atop a Skywest Fairchild commuter plane at Los Angeles International Airport. 1986 : 4,000 people gathered at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., to bid farewell to the seven crew members of the space shuttle Challenger. 1994 : Large meteorite falls near Kusaie, Pacific Ocean.
February 2 nd
1949 : The airplane Lucky Lady II lands in Texas, completing the first non-stop flight around the world. The B-50 bomber refueled four times in mid-air during its 23,452-mile flight, which lasted ninety-four hours. 1962 : Eight of the nine planets lined up for the first time in 400 years. 1978 : Two Soviet cosmonauts carried out the first ever refueling in outer space of Salyut engines. 1986 : The seven crew members of the space shuttle Challenger were remembered at Sunday services across the country. 1995 : The Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on a history making mission from the Kennedy Space center in Florida. Discovery is being piloted by astronaut Eileen Collins, who is the first woman ever to fly a space shuttle. The high point of the mission is to be a rendezvous with the Russian space station MIR. 1998 : In the Philippines, a Cebu Pacific Air DC-9 crashed into a mountainside 40 miles (65 km) northeast of Cagayan de Oro airport, killing all 104 on board.
February 3 rd
1959 : A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, claimed the lives of rock-and-roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. 1995 : The space shuttle Discovery blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins, in the pilot's seat for the first time in NASA history.
February 4th
1997 : 73 killed in northern Israel when 2 military helicopters loaded with explosives collide.
February 5 th
1971 : Apollo 14, the third US manned Moon expedition, landed near Fra Mauro, Alan Shepard & Edward Mitchell (Apollo 14) walk on Moon for 4 hrs. 1974 : US Mariner 10 returns first close-up photos of Venus' cloud structure. 1984 : the crew of the space shuttle "Challenger" encountered another major setback when a target balloon launched from the shuttle exploded. (Two days earlier, a deployed satellite had gone into a useless orbit.). 1992 :
An Air National Guard transport jet crashes into an Evansville, Indiana motel which is hosting a convention. Sixteen are killed.
February 6 th
1971 : Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepherd takes a few shots at some golf balls while on the moon. The U.S. Apollo XIV astronauts prepared to head back to Earth after a 33-hour stay on the moon. 1984 : · a second satellite launched from the space shuttle Challenger misfired and went off course in the third major failure of the mission, following the faulty deployment of the first satellite and the explosion of a target balloon. 1992 : sixteen people were killed when a C-130 milityary transport plane crashed in Evansville, Indiana. 1995 : the United States Space Shuttle Discovery comes within forty feet of the Russian space station MIR in a practice run for an offical rendezvous between the two later this year. The meeting takes place one day after Russian officials declare it cancelled due to fuel leaking from the Discovery. 1996 : a Turkish-owned Boeing 757 jetliner crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from the Dominican Republic, killing 189 people, mostly German tourists.
February 7 th
1959 : Robert Timm and John Cook set a flight duration record when they finally landed their Cessna in Las Vegas, Nevada; They had taken off on 12-4-58 and had remained airborne for 64 days, 22 hrs and 19 minutes. This required in-flight refueling. 1984 : Space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered space walk.
February 8 th
1677 : Jacques Cassini, Astronomer, compiled the first tables of the orbital motions of Saturn's satellites. 1743 : Comet C/1743 C1 approaches within 0.0390 AUs of Earth. 1912 : first eastbound US transcontinental flight lands in Jacksonville, Fla. 1933 : the first flight of all-metal Boeing 247 took place. 1969 : Meteorite weighing over one ton is recovered in Chihuahua,Mexico. 1969 : The Boeing 747, largest commercial plane, makes its first flight. 1974 : Three Skylab IV astronauts, Lt. Carr, Dr. Bison and Lt. Pogue, returned to Earth after setting a record of 84 days in orbit. 1989 : 144 people were killed when an American-chartered Boeing 707 filled with Italian tourists slammed into a Fog-covered mountain in the Azores. 1992 : Ulysses spacecraft passes Jupiter.
February 9 th
1971 : The "Apollo 14" spacecraft returned to Earth after man's third landing on the moon.
February 11 th
1995 : The space shuttle Discovery landed at Cape Canaveral, Fla., Ending a historic rendezvous mission with Russia's Mir space station.
February 12 th
1947 : a daytime fireball & meteorite fall is seen in eastern Siberia.
1961 : An interplanetary space station aimed at Venus was launched from the Soviet Union.
February 13 th
1633 : Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition for professing the belief that the earth revolves around the sun.
1678 : Tycho Brahe first sketches "Tychonic system" idea of solar system.
1986 : The commission investigating the Challenger shuttle disaster reviewed videotape and still photographs that showed a black puff of smoke from the right rocket booster as the spacecraft left the pad.
February 14 th
1894 : Venus is both a morning star & evening star. 1980 : US launches Solar Maximum Mission Observatory to study solar flares. 1990 : Space probe Voyager 1 takes photograph of entire solar system. 1990 : Ninety-four people were killed and 56 injured when an Indian Airlines Airbus 320 crashed 50 yards short of the runway in Bangalore, India.
February 15th
1961 :
73 people, including 18 figure skaters from the United States, were killed in the crash of a Boeing 707 in Belgium. The skaters were en route to a world meet in Czechoslovakia.
1970 :
102 killed in Santo Domingo when a DC-9 crashed into the sea shortly after take off.
1991 :
Airship with dynamite explodes in Phang Nga Thailand, 120 die.
1992 :
Two Spaniards completed the first east-west balloon flight across the Atlantic when they arrived in Venezuela from Spain.
February 16 th
374 : ninth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. 1914 : First airplane flight to Los Angeles from San Francisco. 1948 : Miranda, famous moon of Uranus, photographed for first time. 1961 : The United States launched the Explorer 9 Satellite from Wallops Island/Va. It was the first to be placed in orbit by all solid propellant rocket. 1961 : First satellite placed in orbit by all solid propellant rocket Wallops Island/Va. 1998 : a China Airlines Airbus A300-600R trying to land in fog near Taipei, Taiwan, crashed, killing all 196 people on board and six people on the ground.
February 18 th
1930 : The ninth planet of our solar system, Pluto, was discovered.
1977 : The space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its maiden "flight" above the Mojave Desert.
February 19th
1996 : 148 killed when a Boeing 727 crashed into Mt. Oiz. in Spain.
February 20 th
1937 : First automobile/airplane combination was tested in Santa Monica, Ca. 1962 : astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth after blasting off aboard the Friendship VII Mercury capsule. He spots Perth, Australia, when that city's residents greet him by switching on their house lights in unison.
1965 : "Ranger Eight" spacecraft crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface.
1981 : Space shuttle Columbia cleared the final hurdle to its maiden launch by firing its three engines in a 20-second test.
1997 : The National Transportation Safety Board called for a speedup in the redesign of the rudder controls on Boeing 737's, citing potential problems suspected in a pair of deadly crashes.
1998 : The crew of Mir celebrated the 12th anniversary of the space station by flying their escape capsule around the ship.
February 21 st
1973 : Civilian Libyan Arab Airlines Boeing 727 was shot down by Israeli fighters over Sinai after it had strayed off course; 108 died, five survived. Officials claimed that the pilot had ignored fighters' warnings to land. 1996 : The Space Telescope Science Institute announced that photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed the existence of a "black hole" equal to the mass of two billion suns in a galaxy some 30 million light-years away.
1997 : the space shuttle Discovery returned to earth after a mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.
February 22 nd
1923 : Transcontinental airmail service begins.
1935 : it became illegal for airplanes to fly over the White House because they are disturbing President Roosevelt's sleep..
1973 : Israeli fighter planes shot down an unarmed Libyan commercial airliner, killing 106 of the 113 people aboard.
1995 : Steve Fossett completes 1st air balloon over Pacific Ocean (9600 km). 1996 : The space shuttle "Columbia" blasted into orbit on a mission to unreel a satellite on the end of a 12-point-eight-mile cord.
February 23 rd
1921 : the first U.S. transcontinental air mail flight arrived in New York City from San Francisco. 1936 : First rocket air mail flight in Greenwood Lake, NY. 1987 : Supernova 1987A in LMC first seen; first naked-eye supernova since 1604.
February 25 th
1940 : The United States Air Defense Command was created. 1979 : A total solar eclipse cast a moving shadow 175 miles wide from Oregon to North Dakota before moving into Canada.
February 28 th
1990 : Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., On a secret mission to place a spy satellite in orbit. 1995 : Denver International Airport opened after 16 months of delays and $3.2 billion in budget overruns.
February 29 th
1968 : The discovery of the first "pulsar," a star which emits regular radio waves, was announced by Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell at Cambridge, England. 1996 : A Peruvian commercial jetliner crashed in the Andes, killing all 123 people on board.
March
March 1st
1996 : Lima, Peru, all 117 passengers and six crew members on board the Faucett Airlines jet liner died Thursday night when the plane, apparently after bursting into flames in flight, crashed into the barren, rocky region.
March 3rd
1974 : Nearly 350 people died when a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris. 1991 : 25 people were killed when a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 inexplicably crashed while approaching the Colorado Springs airport.
March 5th
1963 : A private plane crash near Camden, Tenn., Claimed the lives of country music performers Patsy Cline, "Cowboy" Copas and "Hawkshaw" Hawkins.
March 14th
1945 : The heaviest bomb of World War II, the 22,000-pound "Grand Slam," was dropped by the Royal Air Force's Dambuster Squadron on the Bielefeld railway viaduct in Germany. 1980 : Polish Ilyushin 62 crashes in emergency landing at Warsaw. 87 were killed, 22 of which were members of the U.S amateur boxing team. 1997 : Iranian military plane crashes, killing 80.
March 16th
1962 : US Super-Constellation disappears above Pacific Ocean, kills 167. 1969 : Venezuelian Air lines DC-9 crashes in a middle of a suburb of Macari and explodes setting few fires on its way and leaving a trail of fuel behind it. 4 passengers and 71 people on the ground are killed. 1991 : Seven members of country music singer Reba McEntire's band and her road manager were killed when their private plane crashes in a mountain area near California's border with Mexico.
March 19th
1982 : National Guard jet tanker crashes killing 27. 1982 : Guitarist Randy Rhoads and two others were in a light plane which buzzed Osbourne's tour bus, clipped a wing, and crashed into a house near Orlando, Fl.. Randy Rhoads the plane's pilot and a female passenger die.
March 22nd
1992 : Twenty-seven people were killed and fourteen are injured when a USAir jetliner ran off the runway and into the bay at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
March 23rd
1994 :
23 paratroopers were killed and 85 injured when a F-16 fighter jet and a C-130 Hercules transport plane collided while landing at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. The F-16 skidded into a C-141 transport plane preparing to take off.
March 27th
1977 : 582 people were killed in aviation's worst disaster when a KLM Boeing 747, attempting to take off, crashed into a Pan Am 747, on a runway on the Canary Island of Tenerife. All 249 on KLM plane and 333 of 394 aboard Pan Am jet killed.
March 29th
1998 : Twenty-two people were killed when a Russian-made Antonov military plane crashed into a Peruvian shantytown outside the northern city of Piura.
April
April 1st
1918 : The Royal Air Force was established in Britain. 1941 : During an attack on Emden in Germany, Wellingtons drop the first 4,000lb (1,814kg) Blockbuster bomb. 1960 : The first weather satellite, TIROS-1, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
April 2nd
1986 : bombing of TWA Flight 840 over Greece that left four Americans dead.
April 3rd
1966 : USSR's Luna 10 becomes the first craft to orbit the Moon. 1983 : final preparations were being made for the maiden launch of the space shuttle "Challenger," which was to take four astrnauts into orbit. 1989 : a large asteroid came within 500,000 miles of Earth. 1996 : a total eclipse of the moon visible in the early evening in Eastern North America. 1996 : An Air Force jetliner carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and American business executives crashed in Croatia, killing all 35 people aboard.
April 4th
1933 : Lakehurst. New Jersey. Akron, the 785-foot dirigible of the U.S navy crashes in the ocean apparently struck by lightning. 73 died in the cold waters. 1975 : More than 130 people, most of them children, were killed when a U.S. Air Force plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crashed shortly after take-off from Saigon. 1983 : The space shuttle "Challenger" was launched into orbit on its maiden voyage. 1991 : Sen. John Heinz, R-PA, and six other people, including two children, were killed when a helicopter collided with Heinz's plane over a schoolyard in Merion, Pennsylvania. 1997 : Space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on what was supposed to have been a 16-day mission. However, a defective power generator forced the shuttle's return four.
April 5th
1962 : NASA civilian pilot Neil A Armstrong took his X-15 to 54,600 meters. 1975 : Russians' Soyuz 18A launch was aborted short of orbit; cosmonauts return safely. 1983 : the sixth Space Shuttle Mission - Challenger 1 - was launched. 1988 : A 15-day hijacking ordeal began as gunmen forced a Kuwait Airways jumbo jet to land in Iran. 1991 : former Texas Sen. John Tower, his daughter, astronaut Manley Lanier (Sonny) Carter Jr. and 20 other people were killed in a commuter plane crash near Brunswick, Georgia. 1991 : The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a mission that included the deploying of the second of NASA's Great Observatories. 1993 : a Salvadoran Boeing 767 jetliner ran off the runway on landing in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and crashed into a residential area. All 213 people aboard the plane survived. 1995 : Israel launched its first spy satellite. The Ofek 3 was put into space by an Israeli Shavit rocket.
April 6th
648 B.C. : the earliest total solar eclipse chronicled by Greeks was observed. 1927 : William P. MacCracken, Jr. earned license number "1" when the Department of Commerce issued the first aviator's license. 1930 : the first transcontinental glider tow was completed. 1965 : the United States launched the "Early Bird" Intelsat 1, the first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite. It followed the Russian's earlier launch of the "WORM" test satellite. 1973 : Pioneer 11 was launched to Jupiter and Saturn. 1982 : Columbia returns to Kennedy Space Center from White Sands. 1984 : the space shuttle Challenger blasted off for the fifth time on a week-long mission. Among the crew was pilot Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, who died in the Challenger disaster in 1986. 1994 : an airplane carrying the presidents of Burundi and Rwanda is shot down near the Rwandan capital of Kigali killing Cyprien Ntaryamira and Juvenal Habyarimana. 1997 : NASA officials announced they were cutting short the 16-day mission of space shuttle "Columbia" by 12 days because of a deteriorating and potentially explosive power generator on board the spacecraft.
April 11 th
1970 : Apollo 13 blasted off on its ill-fated mission to the moon. The astronauts managed to return safely.
April 12 th
1961 : Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space, orbiting the Earth once before making a safe landing. 1981 : The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its first test flight. 1985 : Sen. Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off.
April 13 th
1970 : Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst.
April 14th
1981 : The first test flight of America's first operational space shuttle, the Columbia, ended successfully with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. 1994 : Two American F-15 warplanes inadvertently shot down two U.S. helicopters over northern Iraq, killing 26 people, including 15 Americans.
April 16th
1912 :
Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. 1972 : Apollo 16 blasted off on a voyage to the moon. 2008 : 21 kiled and 113 injured when a Congolese airliner careened off a runway during takeoff. Most of the victims were people on the ground.
April 17th
1964 : Jerrie Mock of Columbus, Ohio, became the first woman to complete a solo airplane flight around the world. 1970 : The astronauts of Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft.
April 19th
1982 : Astronauts Sally K. Ride and Guion S. Bluford Jr. Became the first woman and first African-American to be tapped for U.S. space missions.
April 20th
1972 : The manned lunar module from Apollo 16 landed on the moon. 1978 : A Korean Air Lines Boeing 707 crash-landed in northwestern Russia after being fired on by a Soviet interceptor after entering Soviet airspace. Two passengers were killed. 1998 : A Boeing 727 leased to Air France crashed in Bogota, Colombia, killing all 53 people aboard.
April 21st
1972 : Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke explored the surface of the moon. 1998 : Astronomers announced in Washington they had discovered possible signs of a new family of planets orbiting a star 220 light-years away, the clearest evidence yet of worlds forming beyond our solar system.
April 22nd
1966 : 83 killed in military plane crash at Ardmore, Oklahoma.
April 24th
1990 : The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the Hubble Space Telescope.
April 26th
1994 : A Taiwanese jetliner crashed in Nagoya, Japan, killing 264 people.
May
May 1st
1960 : The Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane near Sverdlovsk and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
May 2nd
1965 : The Early Bird satellite was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.
May 3rd
1986 : In NASA's first post-Challenger launch, an unmanned Delta rocket lost power in its main engine shortly after liftoff, forcing safety officers to destroy it by remote control. 1998 : Space shuttle Columbia and its crew returned to Earth, ending two weeks of lab work that advanced brain research.
May 4th
1942 :The Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval clash fought entirely with carrier aircraft, began during World War II.
1996 :Khartoum, Sudan.53 dead as Sudanese plane crashes in sandstorm
May 5th
1945 :In the only fatal attack of its kind during World War II, a Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon, killing the pregnant wife of a minister and five children. 1961 : Astronaut Alan Shepard Jr. Became America's first space traveler as he made a 15-minute, sub-orbital flight in a Capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
May 6th
1937 :The hydrogen-filled German dirigible Hindenburg burned and crashed in Lakehurst, N.J., killing 35 of the 97 people on board and a Navy crewman on the ground. 1998 : Astronomers announced the detection of a gamma ray burst in a galaxy 12 billion light years away that was equal to the energy expended by the sun in a trillion years.
May 7th
1963 : The U.S. launched the Telstar II communications satellite. 1992 : The space shuttle Endeavour took off on its maiden voyage. 2003 : A transit of Mercury was observed.
May 10th
1998 :The FAA grounded older models of the Boeing 737 after mandatory inspections of some aircraft found extensive wear in power lines through wing fuel tanks.
May 11th
1996 :An Atlanta-bound valujet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.
May 12th
1989 :The U.S.'s largest airline computer reservation system, the American Airlines Sabre system, shut down for nearly 12 hours, disrupting the operations of thousands of travel agencies nationwide. 1996 :109 killed in the crash of a ValuJet DC-9 in the Florida Everglades
May 14th
1973 : The United States launched "Skylab One," its first manned space station. It crashed back to Earth in July, 1979.
May 15th
1902 :Lyman Gilmore flies his twenty horsepower steam-engined aircraft, becoming the first person to achieve powered
1918the first regular Air Mail service was established between Washington, D.C., and New York City.
1930 :Ellen Church, the first airline stewardess, went on duty aboard a United Airlines flight between San Francisco and Cheyenne, Wyo.
1940 :the first successful helicopter flight in the U.S. is completed by the VS-300, manufactured by the Vought-Sikorsky Corporation. 1941 :The first British jet-powered aircraft, the Gloster-Whittle E.28/39, takes to the air at RAF Cranwell on its maiden flight. 1958 : The Soviets launched the satellite Sputnik III. 1960 : Sputnik 4 launched into Earth orbit; later recovery failed. 1963 : U.S. astronaut Maj. L. Gordon Cooper blasted off aboard Faith Seven on the final mission of the Project Mercury space Program. 1997 : Space shuttle "Atlantis" blasted off on a mission to deliver urgently needed repair equipment and a fresh American astronaut to Russia's orbiting "Mir" station.
May 16th
1946 :Richmond, Virginia A Viking Air Transport, Douglas DC-3, crashed, killing all 25 occupants, while attempting to locate Byrd Field for an emergency landing. Failure was due to the inability of the crew to maintain adequate control of the aircraft to effect an emergency single-engine instrument approach under adverse weather conditions. 1963 : U.S. astronaut Gordon Cooper in his Mercury-Atlas craft splashed down near Midway in the Pacific after orbiting the Earth 22 times in a mission lasting just over 34 hours. 1969 : the unmanned Soviet spacecraft Venus-5 landed on the surface of Venus, and returns data on atmosphere. 1977Five people were killed when a New York Airways helicopter, idling atop the Pan Am Building in midtown Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade flying. 1992 : the space shuttle "Endeavour" completed its maiden voyage with a safe landing in the California desert. 1997 : the space shuttle "Atlantis" docked with Russia's "Mir" station.
May 17th
218 : the seventh recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. 1968 : the European Space Research Organization launches its first satellite. 1997 : Russia's "Mir" space station got a new oxygen generator and a fresh American astronaut, courtesy of the space shuttle "Atlantis."
May 18th
1910 : thousands of Americans were scared out of their wits with the thought that Halley's Comet was set to crash into Mother Earth. Halley's Comet, named after English astronomer, Edmund Halley, makes its closest path to Earth about once every hundred years. Although it is millions of miles away, it is still visible to the human eye. It appeared to the Jamestown, VA colonists in 1607. They thought it signified an extremely cold winter to come. 1953 :the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound, Jacqueline Cochran, piloted an F-86 Sabrejet over Rogers Dry Lake, California on this day, at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour.
May 19th
1958 :The U.S. and Canada formally established the North American Air Defense Command. 1991 : Helen Sharman became the first Briton to rocket into space as she flew aboard a Soviet "Soyuz" spacecraft with two cosmonauts on an eight-day mission. 1998 : Millions of pagers across America stopped working when a communications satellite, the Galaxy IV, suddenly lost track of Earth.
May 20th
1927 :Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France.
1932Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
1939Regular transatlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington, N.Y., bound for Europe.
May 21st
1927 :Charles A. Lindbergh landed his spirit of St. Louis near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Lindberg covered the distance of 3,600 miles in 33-1/2 hours. He was awarded a $25,000 prize. 1956 :The U.S. exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. 1997 : The space shuttle "Atlantis" undocked from the Russian "Mir" space station.
May 22nd
12 B.C. : A daytime meteor shower, possibly Zeta Perseid observed in China. 760 : 14th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. 1962 :Robert A Rushworth, USAF major, takes X-15 to 30,600m. 1969 : while astronauts aboard Apollo X orbited the moon, the spacecraft's lunar module "Snoopy" separated from the command module "Charlie Brown" and flew to within nine miles of the lunar surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing in July. 1995 : Astronomers Amanda S. Bosh and Andrew S. Rivkin have spotted two new moons in Saturn's orbit in photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
May 24th
1543 : Nicolaus Copernicus publishes proof of a sun-centered solar system "De Revolutionibus", he dies just after publication. 1928Umberto Nobile flies airship over North Pole again. 1930 :the first woman to fly from England to Australia solo, Amy Johnson, landed at Port Darwin from London. 1954 : the first rocket attained an 150 mi (241 km) altitude in White Sands, NM. 1963 :first Lockheed A-12 to crash, CIA pilot Ken Collins ejects safely. 1976 :Britain and France opened transatlantic Concorde service to Washington D.C. 1997 : the space shuttle "Atlantis" returned to Earth, bringing with it NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger, who'd spent four months aboard the Russian "Mir" space station.
May 25th
585, B.C. : first known prediction of a solar eclipse. 1937 First airmail letter to circle the globe returns to New York. 1979275 people died in America's worst domestic air disaster when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed during takeoff at Chicago's O'Hare airport. 2003 Boeing 727,tail number N844AA, reportedly modified to serve as an air tanker left Luanda airport in Angola and disappeared.
May 26th
1981 : 14 people were killed when a Marine jet crashed onto the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off Florida. 1991 : A Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashed in Thailand, killing all 223 people aboard.
May 27th
1991 :223 passengers were killed near Bangkok airport when an Austrian jetliner exploded and crashed into the jungle.
May 28th
1987 :Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, landed a private plane in Moscow's Red Square after evading Soviet air defenses.
May 29th
1910 :an airplane and a train raced from Albany, NY, to New York City. The airplane won and aviator Glenn Curtiss was awarded $10,000. 1946 :two-year-old fillies Chakoora and Uleta became the first Thoroughbreds to complete a transcontinental flight. They were flown from New York to Inglewood, Calif., by the American Air Express Corporation, for a 2,446-mile trip that lasted 20 hours due to adverse weather conditions. 1951 :First North Pole flight in single engine plane - CF Blair.
May 30th
1946 : United flight 521 crashed on takeoff at LaGuardia Airport in New York, 42 died.
1987 : Soviet Defense Minister Sergei L. Sokolov and the chief of Soviet air defenses were fired, two days after West German pilot Mathias Rust entered Soviet airspace in a small plane and flew all the way to Moscow's Red Square. 1997 : the National Transportation Safety Administration announced it was setting up a privately funded airline disaster response center in New York City to coordinate the release of information to the victims' relatives and the public following an air crash.
May 31st
1919 :The first wedding held in an aircraft takes place over Ellington Field, Houston, Texas between Marjorie Dumont and R. W. Meade.
1915 : First Zeppelin air raid over England. 1941 : No. 120 Sqn, RAF Coastal Command, forms at Nutts Corner, Northern Ireland, with American-built Liberator long-range maritime patrol aircraft.
1941 : Air Vice-Marshal Arthur Tedder is appointed AOC-in-C of RAF Middle East Command. 1962 : USAF Maj Robert M White takes X-15 to 40,420 m. 1965 : A. Penzias and R. Wilson detected a 3 degree Kelvin primordial background radiation. 1996 : Woodpeckers were blamed for delays in the launch of the US space shuttle programme. A total of 71 holes were found in the insulating material. 1999 : An American Airlines MD-82 landed off-center during a severe thunderstorm in Little Rock, Arkansas, and barreled off the end of the runway, breaking apart and catching fire; eleven people, including the captain, died.
June 2 nd
2001 : Two men were killed at Biggin Hill air show when their de Havilland Vampire crashed after appearing to get caught up in the slipstream of another aircraft.
June 3rd
1948 : The 200-inch reflecting telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California was dedicated. 1962 : 130 killed when an Air France Boeing crashes on take off from Paris. 1965 : Astronaut Edward White became the first American to walk in space, during the flight of Gemini IV. 2001 : The Biggin Hill Air Show was closed after it's second fatality. A single seat 1940's US Bell King Cobra crashed, killing it's pilot.
June 4 th
780 B.C.: the first total solar eclipse reliably recorded is noted by the Chinese. 1784 : Marie Thible becomes the world's first female pilot when she guides a hot-air balloon over Lyons, France. 1931 : the first rocket-powered glider in the U.S. is flown by William G. Swan, a stunt pilot, at Atlantic City, N.J. (for 1,000 ft. and reached a height of 100 ft.). 1946 : the largest solar prominence (300,000 mi/500,000 km) observed. 1954Arthur Murray flies X-1A rocket plane to record 27,000 m. 1969A 22-year-old man sneaks into the wheel pod of a jet parked in Havana and survives the 9-hour flight to Spain despite the thin oxygen levels and -40 degrees F temperatures at 29,000 feet. 1994 : President Clinton and British Prime Minister John Major paid tribute to the lost airmen of World War II at the American Cemetery in Cambridge, England. 1998 : Americans aboard the shuttle Discovery arrived at the Russian space station Mir to pick up U.S. astronaut Andrew Thomas, who'd spent four months in orbit.
June 5th
1099 : Knights and their families on the First Crusade witness an eclipse of the moon and interpret it as a sign from God that they will recapture Jerusalem. 1783 : Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier publicly demonstrated their hot- air balloon in a 10-minute flight over Annonay, France. It was the first sustained flight of any human-made object. 1980 : Russians' Soyuz T-2 is launched carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station. 1991 : he 41st Shuttle Mission - Columbia 11 is launched, carrying the Space Lab module with seven astronauts on a nine-day mission.
June 6th
1936the first helicopter was tested in Berlin, Germany. 1942 : the first nylon parachute jump occurs in Hartford, Connecticut by Adeline Gray. 1966 : America's Gemini 9 spacecraft splashed down after a three-day mission during which astronaut Eugene Cernan walked in space for a record 2 hours 8 minutes. 1971 : Air West filght 706 collides with Navy Phantom jet over LA, 50 die. 1971 : thru June 30, Soyuz 11: Three cosmonauts, Georgi T. Dolrovolsky, Vladislav N. Volkov, and Viktor I. Patsayev, found dead in the craft after its automatic landing. Apparently the cause of death was loss of pressurization in the space craft during re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. 1985 : Russian's Soyuz T-13 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 7 space station. 1995 : U.S. astronaut Norman Thagard broke NASA's space endurance record of 84 days, one hour and 16 minutes, aboard the Russian space station "Mir." 1979 : Royal Air force receives first F-16. 1994 : A Chinese passenger jet crashed, killing all 160 people on board. 1999 : Space shuttle Discovery returned from a 10-day mission that included a visit to the international space station.
June 7th
1912 : US army tests first machine gun mounted on a plane. 1938 : the first Boeing 314 Clipper "Flying Boat" is flown by Eddie Allen. 1962 : NASA civilian test pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 31,580 m. 1965 : Gemini 4 completes 62 orbits and returns to Earth. 1971 : Soviet Soyuz 11 crew completes first transfer to orbiting Salyut. 1994 : 12-year-old Vicki Van Meter of Meadville, Pa., completed a trans-Atlantic flight, landing in Glasgow, Scotland; she's believed to be the youngest girl to pilot a plane to Europe.
June 8th
1918 : Nova Aquila, the brightest nova since Kepler's nova of 1604, was discovered. 1959 : X-15 makes first unpowered flight, from a B-52 at 11,500 m. 1965 : USSR launches Luna 6; missed Moon. 1975 : USSR launches Venera 9 for Venus landing. 1988 : Nippon Airways announces that painting eyeballs on Jets cut bird collisions by 20%. 1998 : Space shuttle Discovery pulls away from Mir, ending America's three-year partnership with Russia. 2004 : The first transit of Venus since December 6, 1882 (between the Earth and the Sun) was observed.
June 11 th
1985: Russian space probe Vega 1 lands on Venus.
June 12 th
1840 : Meteorite hits Uden, Netherlands. 1918 : first airplane bombing raid by an American unit, France. 1962 : USAF Maj Robert M White takes X-15 to 56,270 m. 1965 : the Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe is supported by the announcement of the discovery of new celestial bodies know as blue galaxies. 1967 : USSR launches Venera 4 for parachute landing on Venus. 1979 : American 26-year-old cyclist Bryan Allen flew the first man- powered "Gossamer Albatross" aircraft across the English Channel in a human-powered aircraft; the flight took 2 hrs, 49 min. 1983 : Comet C/1983 (Sugano-Saigusa-Fujikawa) approaches 0.0628 AUs of Earth. 1998 : space shuttle Discovery returned to Earth, bringing home the last American to live aboard Mir and closing out three years of US- Russian cooperation aboard the space station.
June 13 th
1912 : the first successful parachute jump from an airplane was made by Captain Albert Berry in Jefferson, MS. 1963 : Russians' Vostok 6 is launched; pilot Valentina Tereshkova aboard became the first woman cosmonaut in space. 1983 : the unmanned U.S. space probe Pioneer Ten, launched in 1972, became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system as it crossed the orbit of Neptune.
June 14 th
1785 : two Frenchmen, Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier and P.A. de Roman, were killed attempting to cross the English Channel from France to England in a balloon. Their balloon caught fire and crashed to the ground and the two became the first fatalities in aviation history. 1919 : Captain John Alcock and Lt. Arthur W. Browne successfully made the first, non-stop, transatlantic, plane flight. They flew from Newfoundland to Ireland in 16 hours, 12 minutes and won the $50,000 prize offered by the "London Daily Mail". 1963 : Valery F. Bykovsky, the fifth Russian in space, in Vostok 5 orbits earth 81 times in 5 days. 1967 : USSR launches Kosmos 166 for observation of Sun from Earth orbit. 1967 : the space probe "Mariner 5" was launched from Cape Kennedy on a flight that took it past Venus. 1975 : USSR launches Venera 10 for Venus landing. 1981 : the F-117A Stealth Fighter is first flown, 31months after the decision to develop it. 1985 : On day two of the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, gunmen forced the jetliner to fly from Algeria to Lebanon, where the hijackers killed one of the passengers, U.S. Navy diver Robert D. Stethem. The plane then returned to Algeria. 1987 : Richard Norton of Philadelphia and Calin Rosetti of West Germany completed the first polar circumnavigation of the Earth in a single-engine propeller aircraft, landing in Paris after a 38,000-
mile flight.
June 15 th
763, B.C. : a probable solar eclipse as the earliest on record was in Assyria. Assyrians record total solar eclipse event on clay tablet. 1921 : Bessie Coleman reaches France as US first black pilot. 1963 : Soviet cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky was launched on a space mission in which he orbited the earth 81 times. 1978 : Russians' Soyuz 29 is launched carrying 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 where they stay 139 days. 1979 : the first space shuttle SRB qualification test firing; 122 seconds. 1985 : En route to Halley's Comet, USSR's Vega 2 drops lander on Venus.
June 16 th
1963 : The world's first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union.
June 17 th
1928 : Amelia Earhart embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales - the first by a woman. 1948 : A United Air Lines DC-6 crashed near Mount Carmel, Penn., killing all 43 people on board.
June 18 th
1928 : aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as she completed a flight from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours. 1942 : Eric Nessler of France stays aloft in a glider for 38h21m. 1953 : U.S. Air force C-124 crashes and burns near Tokyo. 129 killed. 1965: a Titan 3C rocket is launched into orbit (first large solid fuel rocket). 1977 : a Space Shuttle test model "Enterprise" carries a crew aloft for the first time. It was fixed to a modified Boeing 747. 1983 : Dr. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space as a mission specialist as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger. The mission lasted six days. 1985 : On the fifth day of the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, the hijackers released Greek singer Demis Roussos, his American companion, Pamela Smith, and Greek-American Arthur Targon Tsidis. 1995 : A private plane carrying the Angolan soccer team crashed in Luanda, Angola, killing 48 people. 1996 : ValuJet halts flight operations. 1998 : Three people were killed when a Chicago-bound commuter train rammed a tractor-trailer in Portage, Ind.
June 19 th
1934 : the first movie of the sun was taken. 1947 : the first plane (F-80) to exceed 600 mph (1004 kph) was flown by Albert Boyd in Muroc, California. 1963 : Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova returned to Earth after spending nearly three days as the first woman in space. 1970 : The Soyuz-9 spacecraft landed safely back in the Soviet Union after a record 17 days in space in Earth orbit. 1976 : U.S. Viking 1 goes into Martian orbit after a 10- month flight from earth. 1981 : European Space Agency's Ariane carries two satellites into orbit. 1983 : the crew of the space shuttle Challenger, including America's first woman in space, Sally K. Ride, launched the Indonesian-owned Palapa B communications satellite into orbit.
June 21 st
1633 : Galileo Galilei is forced by the Inquisition to "abjure, curse, and detest" his Copernican heliocentric views. 1913 : Tiny Broadwick becomes first woman to parachute from an airplane. 1962 : USAF Maj Robert M White takes X-15 to 75,190 m. 2001 : Total solar eclipse in Madagascar-Atl Ocean (4m56s). 2004 : The rocket plane SpaceShipOne took Mike Melvill, the first private-sector astronaut, into space.
June 22 nd
1962 : Guadeloupe. Air France Boeing 707 crashes in storm. 113 killed.
June 23 rd
1931 : Aviators Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from New York on the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane. 1938 : The Civil Aeronautics Authority was established. 1985 : All 329 people aboard an Air-India Boeing 747 were killed when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland, apparently because of a bomb.
June 25 th
1178: five Canterbury monks report something exploding on the Moon (the only known observation of probable meteor strike - the crater formed by the impact is now known as Giordano Bruno). 1638 : a lunar eclipse became the first known astronomical event recorded in the U.S. 1919 : first advanced monoplane airliner flight (Junkers F13). 1946 : a Northrop XB35 "flying wing" type bomber makes its maiden flight. 1953 : the first passenger to fly commercially around the world in less than 100 hours. 1966 : Kosmos 122, first Soviet weather satellite, launched. 1992 : the space shuttle Columbia, carrying seven astronauts, blasted off on a two-week mission. 1997 : Galileo, 2nd Callisto Flyby (Orbit 9). 1997 : an unmanned cargo ship crashed into Russia's "Mir" space station, knocking out half of the station's power and rupturing a pressurized laboratory.
June 26 th
1948 : The Berlin Airlift began in earnest after the Soviet Union cut off land and water routes to the isolated western sector of Berlin. 1972 : the Air Force unveils the new F-15 jet fighter. 1988 : three people were killed when a new Airbus A-320 jetliner carrying more than 130 people crashed into a forest during an air show demonstration flight in Mulhouse (muh-LOOZ'), France. 1994 : Air Ivory Fokker's-27 crashes at Abidjan (16 killed/1 lives).
June 27 th
1923 : the first successful mid-air fueling between airplanes was completed over Coronado, California. 1958 : Harry Burrell flies KC-135 record (5:27:42.8) NY to London. 1962 : NASA civilian pilot Joseph Walker takes X-15 to 6,606 kph, 37,700 m. 1963 : USAF Major Robert A Rushworth in X-15 reaches 86,900 m. 1978: US Seasat 1, first oceanographic satellite, launched into polar orbit. 1980 : Italian plane crashes into Tyrrheense Sea, kills 81. 1982 : the fourth Space Shuttle Mission - Columbia 4 is launched, carrying the first military and commercial payloads. 1983 : NASA launches space vehicle S-205. 1983 : Russians' Soyuz T-9 is launched, carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 7 space station. 1983 : world-famous balloonists Maxie Anderson and Don Ida were killed during a race when their helium-filled balloon crashed in a West German forest.
1989 : NASA announces that the Hubble Telescope suffers from a serious design flaw and that it will not be able to perform many of planned functions unless it is repaired.
1990 : NASA announced that a flaw in the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope was preventing the instrument from achieving optimum focus.
1995 : the 71st Shuttle Mission (STS-71) - Atlantis is launched to later dock with the Russian space station Mir, pick up three scientists, including American Norman E. Thagard, and drop off a relief crew.
June 28 th
1939 : Pan American Airways began regular trans-Atlantic air service as the "Dixie Clipper" left Port Washington, N.Y., for Portugal.
June 29 th
1033 : An eclipse of the sun was reported in Europe. 1916 : the first Boeing aircraft flew for first time. 1927 : the first flight from the West Coast arrives in Hawaii. 1929 : the first high-speed jet wind tunnel is completed at Langley Field, Ca. 1939 : the "Dixie Clipper" completed the first commercial plane flight to Europe. 1961 : three satellites, Transit 4-A, Greb 3, and Injun, are launched simultaneously for the first time. 1962 : first flight of the Vickers (British Aerospace) VC-10 long - range airliner. 1965 : USAF Capt Joseph Henry Engle reaches 85,530 m in X-15. 1971 : On their return to earth, 3 soviet cosmonauts died from "caisson disease". 1983 : NASA officials completed a three-month operation to nudge an errant communications satellite into its proper orbit using the satellite's steering jets.
1985 : NASA launches Intelsat VA. 1995 : Atlantis docks with Mir in first shuttle-station hookup. 1995 : the U.S. shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir link for the first time, forming the largest man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth, and began a historic five-day voyage as a single ship (practice run for the construction of an international space station).
June 30 th
1956 : A DC-7 airliner collides with a TWA over the Grand Canyon. All passengers aboard the 2 planes were killed. 1971 : A Soviet space mission ended in tragedy when three cosmonauts were found dead inside their spacecraft after it returned to Earth.
July
July 2 nd
1926 : The United States Army Air Corps was created.
1937 : Aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight at the equator.
1994 : A usair DC-9 crashed in poor weather at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, killing 37 of the 57 people aboard.
July 3 rd
1988 : The U.S.S. "Vincennes" shot down an Iranian jetliner over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
July 10 th
1962 : The "Telstar I" communications satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
July 11 th
1991 : 247 pilgrims killed when DC-8 nosedives and explodes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
July 14 th
1965 : The American space probe Mariner 4 flew by Mars, sending back photographs of the planet.
July 15 th
1916 : The Boeing Co., Originally known as Pacific Aero Products, was founded in Seattle.
July 16 th
1969 : Apollo XI was launched
July 20 th
1969 : Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon as they stepped out of their lunar module. 1976 : America's Viking 1 robot spacecraft made a successful, first-ever landing on Mars. 1999 : After 38 years at the bottom of the Atlantic, astronaut Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule surfaced.
July 23 rd
1956 : Bell X-2 rocket plane sets world aircraft speed record of 3,050 kph. 1972 : Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS 1), later called LANDSAT, is launched to start its multi-spectral scans of Earth. 1980 : The USSR's Soyuz 37 was launched. On board were cosmonauts Viktor Gorbato and Lt. Col. Pham Tuan: The first non-Caucasian in space. 1994 : Frank Zappa Is Named in Space, and has an asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter named "Zappafrank" 1994 : The space shuttle Columbia returned to earth after a 15-day mission which included experiments on the effects of weightlessness on aquatic animals. 1999 : Space shuttle "Columbia" blasted off with the world's most powerful X-ray telescope and Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a U-S space flight. The mission lasted four days.
July 24 th
1969 : The Apollo 11 astronauts - two who were the first men to set foot on the moon - splashed down safely in the Pacific.
1975 : An Apollo spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific, completing a mission which included the first-ever docking with a Soyuz capsule from the Soviet Union.
July 25 th
2000 : Air France concorde crashed into a hotel shortly after take-off killing 109 people on board and four on the ground. The accident was believed to have been caused by a puncture with the tyre fragment subsequently puncturing a fuel tank.
July 27 th
1949 : The Comet, the worlds first jet airliner, had it's maiden flight.
July 28 th
1945 : B-25 bomber crashes in to the 79th floor of theEmpire State Building killing 14 people.
July 29 th
1958 : President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA.
July 31 st
1894 : Trials were carried out on a steam powered bi-plane at Baldwins Park, Kent. Sir Hiram Maxim and two crew members flew for 600ft at a tethered altitude of 2 feet. 1964 : The American space probe Ranger 7 transmitted pictures of the moon's surface.
August
August 2nd
1985 : 137 people were killed when a Delta Air Lines jumbo jet crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
August 5 th
1969 : The U.S. space probe "Mariner VII" flew by Mars, sending back photographs and scientific data. 1981 : The federal government began firing air traffic controllers who had gone out on strike.
August 6th
1997 : Plane crash in Guam.
August 7 th
1959 : The United States launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of the Earth. 1976 : Scientists in Pasadena, Calif., Announced that the Viking I spacecraft had found the strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars. 1989 : A small plane carrying Congressman Mickey Leland,D-Texas, and 15 others disappeared during a flight in Ethiopia.(The wreckage of the plane was found six days later; there were no survivors.)
August 8 th
1978 : The United States launched Pioneer Venus II, which carried scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus. 1989 : The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., On a secret, five-day military mission.
August 11 th
1941 : Two Wellingtons of No. 115 Sqn carry out the first operational trial of Bomber Commands new navigational device Gee. The trials were a complete success, and the equipment ordered into full production. 1957 : Quebec. Canada. Airliner crash, 79 killed. 1962 : The Soviet Union launched cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev on a 94-hour flight.
August 12 th
1960 : The first balloon satellite, the Echo One, was launched by the U.S. from Cape Canaveral, Fla. 1977 : The space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test by taking off atop a Boeing 747, separating, then touching down in California's Mojave Desert. 1985 : The world's worst single aircraft disaster killed 520 people when a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 on a domestic flight crashed into Mt. Ogura. Japan.
August 13 th
1989 : The space shuttle Columbia returned from a secret military mission.
August 14th
1958 : West of Ireland. KLM airliner crashes, 99 dead 1972 : East Berlin, Germany. East german airliner crashes in suburban area, killing 156.
August 15th
2000 : British Airways ground all of their Concordes effectively ending supersonic travel for civilians. Passengers were changed to an alternative aircraft on this mornings scheduled flight and the last concorde flew back from New York empty this evening.
August 16 th
1987 : 156 people were killed when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed while trying to take off from Detroit. 1989 : A rare "prime time" lunar eclipse occurred over most of the U.S., although clouds spoiled the view for many.
August 17th
1978 : The first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight ended as Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman set down in their Double Eagle II outside Paris. 1979 : 2 Aeroflot jetliners collide over Ukraine. 173 killed.
August 19th
1966 : Riyad. Saudi Arabia. Tristar jet crashes and explodes after emergency landing. 300 dead.
August 21st
1953 : Marion Carl in Douglas Skyrocket reaches record 25,370 m. 1968 : William Dana reaches 80 km (last high-altitude X-15 flight). 1972 : First hot air balloon flight over the Alps.
August 23rd
1944 : Freckelton. Engalnd. U.S. Air Force B-24 hits school killing 76.
2000 : An Airbus 320 carrying 143 passengers and 8 crew people crashed into the sea of Bahrain. The gulfair plane was travellling from Egypt and was making a second approach to the airport when it went down.
August 24 th
1921 : British dirigible ZR-2 breaks in two resultin g in the deaths of 62 people. 1932 : Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly nonstop across the U.S., traveling from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in just over 19 hours. 1989 : The Voyager 2 space probe flew past Neptune, sending back striking photographs.
August 27 th
1962 : The U.S. launched the Mariner 2 space probe, which flew past Venus the following December. 1989 : The first U.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., A Delta booster carrying a British communications satellite.
August 28th
1994 : A Drug Enforcement Administration plane crashed in a remote area of Peru's cocaine-producing jungle, killing five U.S. agents. 1988 : Ramstein. Germany. During Air show 3 jets collide. One of them plunged in the crowd. 66 people died including the 3 pilots.
August 29 th
1960 : Dakar. Senegal. Air France Constellation crashes into sea. 63 died. 1965 : Gemini 5 carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles "Pete" Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic after eight days in space. 1998 : A Cuban Tupolev 154 airliner crashed during takeoff from Quito's international airport in Ecuador, killing 80 people.
August 31st
1986 : 82 people were killed when an Aeromexico DC-9 jetliner and a Piper PA-28 collided over Cerritos, Calif.
September
September 1 st
1961 : Chicago, Illinois. TWA constellation crashes, 78 dead. 1983 : 269 people were killed when a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet airspace.
September 2 nd
1998 : A Swissair MD-11 jetliner crashed off Nova Scotia, killing all 229 people aboard. 1998 : Pilots for Air Canada began a two-week strike, the first in the carrier's history.
September 3 rd
1976 : The unmanned U.S. spacecraft Viking 2 landed on Mars to take the first close-up, colour photographs of the planet's surface.
1989 : A Cubana de Aviacion jetliner crashed after takeoff in Havana, killing all 126 aboard and 26 people on the ground.
1997 : The 60 passengers and six crew members on board the Tupolev TU-134 plane perish in attempting to land at Phnom Penh's Pochentong International Airport in heavy rain.
September 4 th
1971 : An Alaska Airlines jet crashed near Juneau, killing 111 people. 1989 : The Air Force launched its last Titan 3 rocket, which reportedly carried a reconnaissance satellite. Since 1964, the Titan 3 had sent more than 200 satellites into space.
September 5 th
1977 : the U.S. launched the Voyager I spacecraft two weeks after launching its twin, Voyager II, toward fly-by of Jupiter and Saturn. 1984 : The space shuttle Discovery completed its maiden flight as it landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. 1986 : the U.S. launches an unmanned rocket on a secret mission to the moon, the first since the Challenger.
September 8 th
1994 : A usair Boeing 737 crashed near Pittsburgh International Airport, killing all 132 people on board.
September 9 th
1994 : The space shuttle Discovery blasted off on an 11-day mission.
September 10 th
1961 : 83 killed when a DC-6 crashes at Shannon, Ireland. 1967 : Surveyor V soft-lands on the moon, and sends photos back to the U.S., providing data about the lunar surface. 1976 : Zagreb, Yugoslavia: midair collision between British Airways Trident and Yugoslav charter DC-9 fatal to all 176 persons aboard; worst mid-air collision on record.
1995 : a plane carrying members of a skydivers club crashed in Shacklefords, Va., killing 10 parachutists, the plane's pilot and a man on the ground.
September 11 th
1968 : Nice, France, Air France Caravelle crashes, 95 dead.
September 12 th
1994 : A stolen, single-engine Cessna crashed into the South Lawn of the White House, coming to rest against the executive mansion; the pilot, Frank Corder, was killed.
September 14 th
1959 : The Soviet space probe "Lunik II" became the first manmade object to reach the moon.
September 16 th
1994 : Two astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery went on the first untethered spacewalk in 10 years.
September 19 th
1989 :
A Paris-bound DC-10 belonging to the French airline UTA disappeared after a stopover in Chad with 171 people aboard. (The wreckage was found the next day in Niger; a bomb was believed responsible.)
September 20 th
1963 : President Kennedy proposed a joint U.S.-Soviet expedition to the moon. 1994 : Space shuttle Discovery and its six astronauts landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California after an 11-day mission.
September 21 st
2000 :
Air France Concorde stranded in New York when the fleet was grounded flies back to Paris.
September 23 rd
1846 : the planet Neptune was discovered by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.
September 24 th
1929 : Lt. James H. Doolittle guided a Consolidated NY-2 Biplane over Mitchel Field in New York in the first all-instrument Flight.
September 25 th
1973 : The three-man crew of the U.S. space laboratory Skylab 2 splashed down safely in the Pacific after 59 days in orbit. 1978 : 144 people were killed when a Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 and a private plane collided over San Diego.
September 26 th
1997 : An Indonesian Airbus A-300 crashed while approaching Medan Airport in north Sumatra, killing all 234 people aboard.
September 28 th
1924 : Two U.S. Army planes landed in Seattle, having completed the first round-the-world flight in 175 days.
September 29 th
1988 : The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Marking America's return to manned space flight following the Challenger disaster.
September 30 th
1994 : The space shuttle Endeavour and its six astronauts roared into orbit on an 11day mission.
October
October 1st
1947 : The U.S. Air Force became a separate branch of the Army, was the U.S. Army Air Corps.
October 4th
1958 : The first transatlantic passenger jetliner service was begun, by British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), with London New York flights. 1960 :
Boston. USA. Eastern Airlines Electra plunges into harbor on take off resulting in 62 deaths.
1958 : The lunar probe Pioneer 1 was launched; it failed to go as far out as planned, fell back and burned up in the atmosphere. 1968 : Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard. 1984 : Astronaut Kathy Sullivan stepped out of the space shuttle Challenger and became the first American woman to walk in space. 1997 : Nuevo Berlin, in eastern Uruguay 75 killed in explosion of Argentine Airliner "There were no survivors," said Juan Manuel Vazquez, secretary-general of the Argentine air force. "The plane hit the ground with a heavy impact and is scattered over a very wide area."
October 14 th
1947 : Air Force test pilot Charles E. Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier as he flew the experimental Bell X-One rocket plane over Edwards Air Force Base in California.
October 15 th
1928 : The German dirigible Graf Zeppelin landed in Lakehurst, N.J., on its first commercial flight across the Atlantic.
October 17 th
1958 : Kanash, U.S.S.R. Aeroflot TU-104 crashes, 65 passengers killed.
1977 : West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner on the ground in Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing three of four hijackers.
October 19 th
1977 : The supersonic Concorde made its first landing in New York City.
October 20 th
1977 : Three members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed in the crash of a chartered plane near McComb, Miss.
October 22 nd
1797 : French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute descent, landing safely from a height of about 3,000 feet.
1981 : The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization was decertified by the federal government for its strike the previous August.
October 23 rd
2002 : A Cessna piloted by Thomas J. Preziose crashed in Big Bateau Bay, Alabama in mysterious circumstances. Form the evidence available it appeared that the plane was in collision with an unidentified object. Red “transfer” marks were found on the fuselage and a piece of black anodised aluminium was embedded in the skin of the aircraft. The plane was shredded with wreckage found randomly scattered over an area of about 200 yards.
October 25 th
1930 : the first scheduled transcontinental air service began.
1974 : the U.S. Air Force successfully fires the first ICBM from a plane.
October 26 th
1958 : Pan American Airways flew its first Boeing 707 jetliner from New York to Paris. The trip took eight hours and 41 minutes.
October 28 th
1927 : Pan Am Airways launches the first international flight - Key West to Havana.
1929 :
the first child is born on an aircraft, a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. T.W. Evans over Miami, Florida.
1989 :
Twenty people were killed in the crash of a commuter plane on the island of Hawaii.
October 29 th
1972 : Palestinian guerrillas kill an airport employee and hijack a plane, carrying 27 passengers, to Cuba. They force West Germany to release 3 terrorists who were involved in the Munich Massacre.
October 31 st
1956 : Rear Adm. G.J. Dufek became the first person to land an airplane at the South Pole.
1969 : a gunman takes a plane from San Francisco to Rome in the first transatlantic hijacking.
1979 : US DC-10 crashes at Mexico-City, 74 killed.
1994 : An American Eagle ATR-72, en route from Indianapolis to Chicago, plunged into a northern Indiana farm field in driving rain, killing all 68 people aboard.
1996 : Brazilian jetliner Flight 402 crashes into a residential neighborhood in Sao Paulo shortly after takeoff, igniting a fire that engulfs apartments, homes and cars and killing all 95 people on board.
1999 : Half hour out of Kennedy Airport, an EgyptAir jetliner plunged 33,000 feet in less than two minutes yesterday. 217 perish.
2000 : Singapore Ailines 747 crashes on take off at Taiwan. Pilot reported hitting something on the runway as the plane attempted to take off during a storm.
2000 : 48 killed (42 passengers and six crew) when a Russian-built Antonov 26 exploded shortly after take-off near Saurimo, about 500 miles southeast of the Angolan capital of Luanda.
November
November 1 st
1911 : the Italian Air Corps conduct history's first airborne bombing raid.
1923 : Goodyear buys rights to manufacture Zeppelin dirigibles.
1939 : first jet plane, Heinkel He 178, demonstrated to German Air Ministry.
1966 : William Dana in X-15 reaches 93 km.
November 2 nd
1922 : Australian Qantas airways begins service.
1926 : the Air Commerce Act is passed, providing federal aid for airlines and airports.
1947 : Howard Hughes piloted his huge wooden airplane, known as the "Spruce Goose," on its only flight, which lasted about a minute over Long Beach Harbor in California. Wing span is 319 feet, 11 inches.
November 3 rd
1679 : Great panic occurs in Europe over the close approach of a comet. 1907 : The world's first helicopter flight is achieved in France. 1912 : First all metal plane flown near Issy, France by pilots Ponche and Prinard.
November 4 th
1960 : 62 killed when an Eastern Airlines Electra plunges into Boston harbor on take off
1974 : The first flight of a solar-powered aircraft took place on when the remotely controlled Sunrise II, designed by Robert J. Boucher of AstroFlight, Inc., flew following a launch from a catapult.
November 5 th
1967 : Cincinnati, Ohio. Crash of TWA Convair claims 70 lives.
November 6 th
1572 : Supernova is observed in the constellation known as Cassiopeia.
November 8 th
1984 : The first attempt to rescue two crippled satellites took place on this day, as the space shuttle, Discovery lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (The mission was accomplished on November 14th.)
November 14 th
1910 : the first airplane flight took off from the deck of a ship ("U.S.S. Birmingham") occurred in Norfolk, Va. 1969 : thru Nov 24; Apollo 12, manned by Charles Conrad, Jr., Richard F. Gordon, Jr., and Alan L. Bean, blased off from Cape Kennedy to make the second U.S. lunar landing on the moon. Conrad became the first man to fall down on the moon, declaring "It may have been a small step for Neil Armstrong, but it's a helluva big step for a little fellow like me." 1981 : second Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 2-returns to Earth. 1984 : Astronauts aboard "Discovery" pluck a second satellite from orbit.
November 15 th
1961 : Comet C/1961 T1 (Seki) approaches within 0.1019 AUs of Earth. 1966 : the flight of Gemini 12 ended successfully as astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Junior splashed down safely in the Atlantic. 1988 : the Soviet Union launched its first space shuttle, Buran, on an unmanned, three-and-a-half-hour flight. 1990 : the space shuttle Atlantis was launched on a secret military mission. 1995 : The space shuttle Atlantis docked with the orbiting Russian space station Mir. 1999 : the transit of Mercury (between the Earth and the Sun) occurs. (The last transit occurred in 1986.).
2007 : A BAE Systems navigator "exited" from an RAF Tornado fighter plane during an "inverted roll" on a routine test flight over Norfolk at about 4pm on Wednesday.
November 16 th
1965 : the Soviets' Venera 3 is launched, the first man-made to land on another planet (crashes into Venus). 1968 : the Soviet Union announced it had launched the world's largest space ship to date, the Proton Four. 1973 : Skylab 3, carrying a crew of three American astronauts, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on an 84-day mission. 1974 : first intentional interstellar radio message sent, Arecibo telescope towards M 41, a cluster of stars some 25,000 light years away. 1982 : fifth Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 5-lands at Edwards AFB. 1984 : the Space Shuttle Discovery landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying on board the first two satellites ever salvaged from outer space. The astronauts who achieved this were Fred Hauck, David Walker, Dale Gardner, Anna Fisher and Joseph Allen.
November 17 th
1966 : 46,000 meteoroids fell over Arizona within a 20 minute time span. 1967 : Surveyor 6 lifts off the moon's surface and lands a few feet away, becoming the first spacecraft to lift off the moon. It then takes pictures of its original landing site. 1970 : the Soviet Union landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon, the "Lunokhod One."
b>1996 : a Russian Mars space probe carrying plutonium plunged into the South Pacific Ocean after failing to break out of Earth orbit following its launch.
November 27 th
1885 : Earliest photograph of a meteor shower made. 1962 : the first test flight of the Boeing 727 takes place. 1963 : The first satellite ("Centaur 2") to be fueled by liquid hydrogen is launched at Cape Canaveral, Florida. 1971 : Soviet Mars 2 becomes first spacecraft to crash land on Mars.
November 28 th
1929 : Commander Richard E. Byrd completes the first South Pole flight. 1953 : American Airlines institutes the first regular commercial continental air service from L.A. to N.Y. 1964 : the United States launched the space probe Mariner 4 from Cape Kennedy on a course to Mars. 1967 : the first pulsating radio source (pulsar) is detected. 1983 : the space shuttle Columbia blasted into orbit, carrying six astronauts who conducted experiments using the $1 billion Spacelab in the shuttle's cargo bay. 1985 : Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis celebrated Thanksgiving with a dinner of irradiated turkey and freeze-dried vegetables, and launched a satellite from the cargo bay. 1996 : a stuck hatch on the space shuttle Columbia prevented two astronauts from going on a spacewalk. A second planned spacewalk also had to be canceled; engineers later discovered a loose screw had jammed the hatch mechanism.
November 29 th
1953 :
American Airlines institutes the first regular commercial continental air service from L.A. to N.Y.
November 30 th
1964 : USSR launches Zond 2 towards Mars; no data returned. 1974 : Pioneer II, nearing Jupiter, transmits pictures.
December
December 1st
1959 : The first outer space color photograph of the earth is snapped from the nose cone of the Thor missile. 1965 : An airlift of refuges from Cuba to the United States began when Cubans were allowed to leave their homeland. 1967 : Queen Elizabeth inaugurates 98-inch (249-cm) Isaac Newton telescope. 1987 : NASA announced that four companies -- Boeing Aerospace, McDonnell Douglas Astronautics, General Electric's Astro-Space Division and Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International -- had been awarded contracts to help build a space station. 1991 : the space shuttle Atlantis safely returned from a shortened military mission. 1997 : Eight definitely was enough as eight planets from our Solar System lined up from West to East beginning with Pluto, followed by Mercury, Mars, Venus, Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter, and Saturn, with a crescent moon alongside, in a rare display visible from Earth that lasted until Dec 8.
December 4 th
1996 : The Mars Pathfinder lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and began a 310 million-mile odyssey to explore the Red Planet.
1998 : Space shuttle Endeavour and a crew of six blasted off on a mission to begin assembling the first international space station.
December 7 th
1972 : America's last moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral.
December 11 th
1719 : The first recorded sighting of the Aurora Borealis took place in New England. 1967 : The Concorde, a joint British-French venture and the world’s first supersonic airliner, is unveiled in Toulouse, France.
1972 : Astronauts Cernan & Harrison become 11th & 12th on the Moon.
1972 : Apollo XVII astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt landed on the moon for a three-day exploration.
December 12 th
1871 : Jules Janssen discovers dark lines in solar corona spectrum.
December 13 th
1993 : The space shuttle "Endeavour" returned from its mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. 1994 : An American Eagle commuter plane carrying 20 people crashed short of Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, killing 15.
December 14 th
1962 : The U.S. space probe Mariner 2 approached Venus, transmitting information about the planet's atmosphere and surface temperature. It discovered that the planet has a heavy atmosphere consisting mostly of carbon dioxide. 1972 : Apollo 17 Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt conclude 4 days of lunar exploration leaving with over 240 pounds of soil and rock samples. They'd join crew member Ronald Evans in the main capsule, and return to earth on Dec. l9th, completing the US manned missions to the moon.
December 18 th
1839 : First celestial photograph (of the moon) made in US, John Draper, NYC.
1849 : William Bond obtains the first photograph of Moon through a telescope.
1965 : Gemini VII safely splashed down with astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell Jr. aboard.
December 19 th
1958 : The first known radio broadcast from outer space was transmitted. President Eisenhower's recorded voice issued a Christmas greeting aboard an orbiting space satellite Atlas for the
whole world. The message said, "To all mankind, America's wish for Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men Everywhere."
1972 : Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, winding up the Apollo program of manned landings on the moon.
1999 : Space shuttle "Discovery" and seven astronauts roared into the night toward the crippled Hubble Space Telescope.
December 20 th
1900 : Giacobini discovers a comet (will be first comet visited by spacecraft).
1977 : First Space walk made by G. Grechko from Salyut.
December 21 st
1966 : USSR launches Luna 13; soft-landed in Oceanus Procellarum. 1968 : Apollo 8 was launched from Cape Kennedy with crew Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders for human's first lunar orbit. 1984 : USSR launches Vega 2 for fly-by of Halley's Comet.
December 22 nd
1870 : Jules Janssen, flys in a balloon in order to study a solar eclipse. 1999 : TYe first full moon occurred on the winter solstice (first day of winter in 133 years. Since a full moon on the winter solstice is occurring in conjunction with a lunar perigee (point in the moon's orbit that is closest to Earth), the moon will appear about 14% larger than it does at apogee (the point in it's elliptical orbit that is farthest from the Earth). This will make it appear brighter. The Earth is also several million miles closer to the sun, than in the summer. Thus the sunlight striking the moon is about 7% stronger, making it still brighter. Also, this will be the closest perigee of the Moon of the year. 1999 : Two astronauts from the shuttle "Discovery" went on a spacewalk to replace broken instruments in the Hubble Space Telescope.
December 24 th
1968 : The Apollo VIII astronauts, orbiting the moon, read from the Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve television broadcast.
December 25 th
1984 : The first man-made comet was visible in the sky. The sphere of chemicals from a West German satellite appeared to be yellowish-green and in the constellation Virgo.
December 27th
1968 : Apollo VII and its three astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific.