1892 – Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (shown above), a German World War I pilot widely known as the Red Baron, is born. Still regarded today as the ace of aces, he amassed 80 aerial combat victories.
1926 – Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett made the first flight over the North Pole.
1936 – American parachutist Clement Joseph “Clem” Sohn makes his first jump in England, at an airfield near London. Unusually, Sohn attached wings to his body, which were deployed when he opened his arms and legs, that allowed him to glide.
1952 – BOAC introduces the de Havilland DH.108 Comet on its London-Johannesburg route, the first regular service flown by a jet airliner.
1968 – Death of Edwin Charles “Ted” Parsons, American former French Foreign Legionnaire, World War I flying ace, rear admiral of the U.S. Navy, Hollywood aviation technical advisor, FBI special agent, and author.
2009 – Uli Dembinski, a German aerobatic pilot, establish a record of 333 loops with his Yak-55.
