1884 – Birth of Bernetta Adams Miller, American pioneering aviator who became the fifth licensed woman pilot in the U.S.
1935 – Amelia Earhart takes off from Wheeler Field in Honolulu to fly her Lockheed Vega across the eastern Pacific to Oakland, Calif.; she becomes the first woman pilot to fly solo between Hawaii and the U.S.
1944 – James Howell “Jim” Howard flies his North American P-51B Mustang into some 30 Luftwaffe fighters attacking a formation of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses of the 401st Bomb Group over Oschersleben, Germany. In the half-hour-long-plus attack, he destroys three enemy planes and damages at least another.
1947 – First flight of the McDonnell F2H Banshee (-2 shown), a U.S. single-seat, carrier-based jet fighter.
1981 – Death of Hubert Cecil Hunt, British World War I flying ace.
2013 – France intervenes in the Northern Mali conflict to support the government of Mali against Islamist rebels. Attacks by French Army Aérospatiale Gazelle attack helicopters and French Air Force Dassault Mirage 2000D fighter-bombers blunt a rebel offensive that threatens to take Mali ’s capital, Bamako; French bombing includes raids around Konna. One Gazelle is shot down by small arms fire and its pilot is killed.
