1987 – South African Airways Flight 295, a Boeing 747-200 Combi, crashes into the Indian Ocean as the result of an in-flight cargo fire, killing all 159 on board.
1983 – Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off on its sixth mission and the ninth shuttle mission overall, STS-9.
Poster advertising Air New Zealand's flights over Antarctica.
1979 – Air New Zealand Flight 901, a DC-10 operated sightseeing flight over Antarctica, crashes into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board. Coincidentally it was the 50th anniversary of the first flight over the South Pole.
1964 – NASA launches the first Mars fly-by spacecraft, Mariner 4.
1956 – Ryan X-13 Vertijet makes its first transition from vertical to horizontal flight
1942 – Australian pilot F/Sgt Ron Middleton earns a posthumous VC for valour in bringing his crew and crippled bomber home after a raid on Turin, Italy.
1938 – A Lufthansa Fw 200 takes off on the airline’s first flight to Japan, flying from Berlin to Tokyo via Basra, Karachi, and Hanoi. The 14,228 km (8,841 mile) flight breaks the distance record and takes 46 hours 18 minutes.
1929 – American Commander Richard Byrd and crew make the 1st flight over the South Pole, in a Ford 4-AT Trimotor monoplane, November 28-29.
1912 – The Italian Air Battalion is made a fully operational command, the Flotta Aerea d’Italia.
1443 – If you ever wondered who/what Albanian charter carrier Skanderbeg was named after, he is hailed as a national hero in Albania for a number of great deeds, including a battle victory he led on this date in the 15th Century.
