1878, the British use their first ever military aviation budget of £150 to build and fly their first balloon, the Pioneer.
1913, Léon Letort completes the first non-stop flight between Paris and Berlin, about 560 miles, in eight hours, flying an 80hp Le Rhone-powered Morane-Saulnier monoplane.
1949, BOAC launches the first service from the west to the Far East to use landplanes exclusively.
1954, the Lockheed C-130 Hercules makes its maiden flight, from the production plant in Burbank, Calif. to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
1977, the Gossamer Condor, the world’s first successful human-powered aircraft capable of controlled flight, wins the Kremer prize by completing a figure-eight course designed by the Royal Aeronautical Society at Shafter Field in California.
2005, TANS Peru Flight 204, a Boeing 737-200 (OB-1809-P), crashes while landing in a hailstorm at Pucallpa, Peru, killing 40 of the 91 people on board.