1879, Nellie Thurston becomes the first Canadian woman to fly, sailing in a balloon over Ontario.
1909, Count von Zeppelin completes a 400-mile, two day flight from Lake Constance to Berlin aboard his LZ5 dirigible.
1911, Mrs. A. Hewlett becomes the first woman in Britain to obtain a pilot’s license.
1929, Graf Zeppelin sets down at Lakehurst, New Jersey to complete its circumnavigation of the globe.
1931, Graf Zeppelin completes the first flight between Germany and Brazil.
1955, W.F. Gibb pilots an English Electric Canberra B 2 to a world record altitude of 65,889 ft.
1958, the United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
1996, Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Tupolev Tu-154M (reg RA-85621) operating a charter flight from Moscow to Svalbard, Norway, crashes into a mountain after the crew botches the approach to Svalbard, killing all 141 on board. It is the deadliest crash ever to occur in Norway.
2005, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) is impacted by Hurricane Katrina, but suffering no flooding. The airport would reopen to supply and rescue flights by the following day, with commercial cargo flights resuming September 10th and passenger flights restarting on September 13th.
2007, airmen at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota load six nuclear-tipped AGM-129 ACM cruise missiles onto a B-52H bomber for transport to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana without ensuring that the nuclear warheads had been replaced with training warheads. The nukes shoot the breeze without proper handling or security precautions in place for a full 36 hours before anyone notices. The Pentagon would classify it as a “Bent Spear” event, four USAF commanders would lose their jobs and many other airmen would be disciplined.
