1899 – Birth of George Pearson Glen Kidston, British record-breaking aviator and motor racing driver.
1909 – First flight of the Blériot XI (Thulin A variant shown), a light and sleek monoplane constructed of oak and poplar and cloth-covered flying surfaces; it becomes one of the most successful monoplanes designed and built before World War I.
1944 – Off the Anzio beachhead, a raid by 55 German aircraft sinks the British destroyer HMS Janus with a torpedo and damages the destroyer HMS Jervis with a Fritz X radio-guided bomb.
1961 – Death of Redford Henry “Red” Mulock, first Canadian World War I flying ace and the first in the Royal Navy Air Service; he also held a high-ranking Royal Canadian Air Force before joining Canadian Airways.
1990 – A mid-air collision between two McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 aircraft of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration team during a practice session at El Centro, Calif., destroys one airplane, Angel Number 2, piloted by Capt. Chase Moseley , while the other, Angel Number 1, is badly damaged; both pilots survive unharmed.
2001 – Yemenia Flight 448, a Boeing 727, is hijacked 15 minutes after takeoff from Sana’a International Airport; the crew makes an emergency landing at Djibouti; the hijacker is subdued with no casualties to the 101 on board.
