1785 – The English Channel is crossed for the first time by air as Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries fly their hydrogen balloon from Dover, England, to a forest near Calais, France.
1929 – The U.S. Army’s Fokker C-2 “Question Mark” sets an endurance record for a refueled aircraft, 150 hours, 45 minutes.
1942 – Japanese attack Bataan in the Philippines.
1973 – Cameron Balloons Ltd. of Bristol, England, flies for the first time the world’s only hot-air airship (G-BAMK) from Wantage, Berkshire.
1980 – In San Francisco, a single-engine Mooney 231 sets a nonstop coast-to coast record in eight hours, four minutes, using only 105 gallons of fuel.
1981 – A Boeing 747 of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), China’s state airline, arrives at JFK Airport, N.Y., from Beijing via Shanghai and San Francisco; this is the first scheduled flight between these two countries since 1949 and inaugurates a weekly CAAC service.
