1898 – Birth of Wiley Hardeman Post, famed American aviator; he became the first pilot to fly solo around the world.
1916 – First flight of the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 (5a shown above), a World War I British biplane fighter.
1935 – Pan Am commences the first trans-Pacific airmail service, flying a Martin M.130 from San Francisco, Calif., to the Philippines via Honolulu, Midway Island, Wake Island, and Guam.
1977 – Aérospatiale-BAC Concordes begins scheduled service from Paris and London to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.
1982 – Death of Jean Gardner Batten, New Zealand aviatrix who made the first-ever solo flight from England to New Zealand.
2003 – A DHL Airbus A300 is struck by a missile near Baghdad, Iraq, and loses hydraulic system function, but manages to land safely with only engine controls without any fatalities; it is the first non-fatal landing of an airliner without control surfaces.
