2013 – The Syrian Air Force strikes a mosque and a school building sheltering Syrian refugees in Salqin, Syria, killing and wounding dozens.[1]
2013 – Two American unmanned aerial vehicle strikes during the evening kill a total of eight people in Yemen'Ma'rib province, including at least two members of al-Qaeda.[2]
2009 – Iran Air flight 498, a Fokker 100, registration EP-CFN, suffers a collapse of the right main landing gear during landing at Mehrabad Airport and is substantially damaged.
2006 – Launch of New Horizons, NASA robotic spacecraft mission to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, and Hydra. NASA may also attempt flybys of one or more other Kuiper belt objects.
2006 – A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 carrying peace-keepers from Kosovo crashes near Telkibánya, Hungary. Of the 43 people on board, only one survived.
1995 – Bristow Flight 56C, a Eurocopter Super Puma, is struck by lightning and is forced to make an emergency landing in the North Sea; all 18 on board survive.
1995 – Rockwell-MBB X-31, BuNo 164584, first of two testbed airframes, crashes on 67th flight, north of Edwards AFB, California. German Federal Ministry of Defense test pilot Karl-Heinz Lang, assigned to the X-31 International Test Organization (ITO), ejects safely at 18,000 feet. He is taken to hospital for examination, a fire department spokesman said.[314][315] Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWcBcxvZfMc
1993 – STS-54, space shuttle Endeavour is back on earth.
1991 – The second Rockwell X-31 enhanced fighter makes its first flight.
1991 – Two Coalition aircraft are shot down, both by Iraqi ground fire. The Iraqi Air Force loses five aircraft in air-to-air combat, all shot down by U. S. Air Force F-15 C Eagle fighters employing AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missiles.
1991 – Death of Paul F. Bikle, American Engineer, Record setting glider pilot and Director of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility.
1989 – American Airlines purchases the Central and South American routes owned by struggling Eastern Air Lines.
1983 – Death of Ham, also known as Ham the Chimp and Ham the Astrochimp, first chimpanzee launched into outer space in the American space program.
1975 – Death of Antonio Reali, Italian WWI fighter ace.
1972 – Flying a United States Navy F-4 J Phantom II fighter of Fighter Squadron 96 (VF-96) off of USS Constellation (CVA-64), Lieutenants Randy “Duke” Cunningham (pilot) and William “Irish” Driscoll (radar intercept officer) shoot down a North Vietnamese MiG fighter. It is the first air-to-air victory by an American aircraft over Vietnam since March 1970.
1968 – Death of Gaetano Arturo Crocco, Italian scientist and aeronautics pioneer, founder of the Italian Rocket Society.
1965 – Suborbital flight of Gemini 2, US unmanned mission intended as a test flight for the Gemini spacecraft's heat shield.
1961 – Boeing B-52B-35-BO Stratofortress, 53-0390, c/n 16869, of the 95th Bomb Wing, Biggs AFB, Texas, crashes in Utah after failure of tail section in turbulence-induced accident.
1960 – First flight of the Convair CV-580 Super Convair.
1960 – Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 871, a Sud Aviation Caravelle, crashes while on approach to Esenboğa International Airport, killing all 42 on board; an undetermined descent was to blame for the first fatal crash of the Sud Caravelle.
1950 – First flight of the Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck (affectionately known as the "Clunk") RCAF 18101 in Malton by Canadian test pilot Bill Waterton.
1949 – First flight of Martin XSSM-A-1 Matador test vehicle, from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, ends in crash.
1949 – First flight of the Fouga CM.100, French high-wing cantilever monoplane of conventional configuration with fixed tricycle undercarriage airliner prototype, issued from the Glider assault CM.10 by adding two SNECMA 12 S piston engines.
1948 – First Vampires were taken on strength by RCAF.
1946 – First Flight of the Bell X-1. Originally designated XS-1, joint NACA-U. S. Army/USAF supersonic research project, first of the so-called X-planes.
1944 – Allied heavy and medium bombers strike Viterbo, Rieti, and Perugia, Italy. The Allied air forces claim that their air campaign has cut all communications between northern Italy and the Rome area, although this does not turn out to be true.
1941 – German aircraft again attack the Malta dockyard, causing underwater damage to HMS Illustrious.
1939 – Yugoslav Rogožarski IK-3 prototype, piloted by Capt. Milan Pokorni, fails to recover from terminal velocity dive out of Zemun airfield, destroying airframe. Subsequent investigation exonerates the design and production order for twelve placed.
1937 – Flying a redesigned H-1 Racer featuring extended wings, Howard Hughes set a new transcontinental airspeed record by flying non-stop from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 min and 25 seconds (beating his own previous record of 9 hours, 27 min). His average speed over the flight was 322 miles per hour (518 km/h).
1923 – The De Bothezat helicopter lifted 2 persons to a height of 1.2 metres (3 ft 11 in).
1919 – Jules Védrines claims an FF25,000 prize by landing an aircraft (a Caudron G-3) on the roof of a department store in Paris. Védrines is injured and his aircraft is damaged beyond repair in the hard landing in a space only 28 metres (92 ft) x 12 metres (39 ft).
1918 – Birth of Tadeusz Góra, Polish glider pilot and WWII pilot.
1919 – The second and last Zeppelin raid on Paris inflicts 54 casualties.
1915 – Birth of Ennio "Banana" Tarantola, Spanish War and WWII Italian fighter ace.
1910 – Lieutenant Paul Ward Beck drops sandbag "bombs" over Los Angeles from an aeroplane piloted by Louis Paulhan.
1908 – The world’s first official aerodrome, Port-Aviation, is opened outside of Paris, France.
1899 – Birth of George Ebben Randall, British WWI Flying ace.
1898 – Birth of Basil Henry Moody, South African WWI Flying ace.
1898 – Birth of Carl-August von Schoenebeck, German WWI flying ace, Raid pilot, Arado test pilot and WWII high-ranking officer.
1895 – Birth of Air Marshal Sir Arthur "Mary" Coningham KCB, KBE, DSO, MC, DFC, AFC, RAF, Royal Flying Corps flying ace during WWI, Conningham was later a senior Royal Air Force commander during WWII, as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief 2nd Tactical Air Force and subsequently the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Flying Training Command.
1895 – Birth of Ivan Alexandrovich Orlov, Russian WWI flying ace, Self Glider and Aircraft designer.
1893 – Birth of Maurice Joseph Emile Robert, French WWI flying ace.
1888 – Birth of Millard Fillmore Harmon Jr. American WWI pilot and Lieutenant General in the USAAF during the Pacific campaign in WWII.
1883 – Birth of James McKinley Hargreaves, Scottish WWI flying ace, One of the first Aces in history.
1784 – One of the largest hot-air balloon ever made, called 'Le Flesselle' by the Montgolfier brothers, makes an ascent at Lyon, France. The balloon's capacity is 700,000 cubic feet and it goes up to 3,000 feet.
