1921 – Birth of George Frederick “Buzz” “Screwball” Beurling (shown), Canada’s most successful World War II fighter pilot; he will shoot down 27 Axis aircraft in just 14 days over Malta and will eventually account for more than 30 kills.
1928 – North American Aviation Inc. is founded; it later produces the P-51 Mustang, the B-25 Mitchell and the T-6 Texan.
1944 – First flight of the Heinkel He 162, a German single-engine, jet-powered fighter aircraft.
1959 – The second McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II (XF4H-1) performs a zoom climb to a world record of 98,557 feet during Operation Top Flight.
1999 – Death of Rhulin Albert Thomas, American aviator and the first deaf pilot to successfully fly solo across the U.S. without crashing along the way.
2005 – An Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force Lockheed C-130E Hercules crashes into an apartment building in Tehran, Iran; 94 people aboard die as well as 14 in the building.
