1890 – Birth of Karl Odebrett, German World War I fighter ace.
1913 – Alys McKey Bryant (shown above) becomes the first woman pilot to fly in Canada when she takes a Curtiss-type pusher biplane over Vancouver.
1944 – Death of Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry, French writer, aviator and World War II pilot; he is best remembered for his books about aviation adventures. Pieces of his Vichy Lockheed F-5B (a reconnaissance version of the Lightning fighter) are later found off the coast of Marseille, France.
1946 – Philippine Airlines became the first Asian airline to cross the Pacific Ocean when a chartered Douglas DC-4 ferried 40 American servicemen to Oakland, Calif., with stops in Guam, Wake Island, Johnston Atoll and Honolulu, Hawaii.
1952 – Two U.S. Air Force Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaws (shown above) set a world distance record for helicopters while making the first transatlantic helicopter flight when they cover 920 miles in just over 42 hours.
2002 – First flight of the Boeing 747-400ER (Extended Range), an evolution of the famous U.S. four-engined, wide-body airliner.
