1852 – Birth of David Schwarz, Croatian aviation pioneer; he later created the first flyable rigid airship, which was also the first airship with an external hull made entirely of metal.
1928 – Hubert Wilkins and Carl Eielson takes off from Deception Island with a Lockheed Vega for a 10-hour flight and flies over Graham Land, becoming the first Antarctic explorer to discover new land by air.
1932 – First flight of the Romano R-6, a French three-engined transport prototype.
1941 – First combat of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the “Flying Tigers,” when Curtiss P-40s of the 1st and 2nd squadrons intercept 10 unescorted Kawasaki Ki-48 “Lily” bombers raiding Kunming.
1989 – Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invasion of Panama, begins; the Lockheed F-117 A Nighthawk stealth fighter (shown) and the McDonnell Douglas AH-64 Apache attack helicopter make their combat debuts.
1992 – Death of Aubrey Beauclerk Ellwood, British World War I fighter ace and senior Royal Air Force commander.
