1992 – US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons shoot down an Iraqi Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 over the country’s southern no-fly zone.
1991 – Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751 crashes shortly after takeoff from Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. The McDonnell Douglas MD-81 (registered OY-KHO) experienced double-engine failure just over a minute into flight at about 3,000 ft up. Realizing that they would not be able to make it back to the airport, the pilots decided to set her down in an opening in a forest, where the aircraft broke up into three pieces. Miraculously, everyone on the aircraft would survive, though 25 were injured.
1985 – Members of the Abu Nidal Organization launch coordinated attacks at airports in Italy and Austria. Four gunmen open fire at the El Al and TWA counter at Leonardo Da Vinco-Flumicino Airport in Rome, killing 16 and injured nearly 100 others. At the same time, 3 men do the same at Vienna International Airport while people were getting ready to board a flight to Israel, killing three and injuring 40. Of the seven shooters, four were killed and the others arrested.
1968 – Apollo 8, the first manned spacecraft to enter the Moon’s orbit, splashes down into the Pacific carrying its crew of three: Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders.
1949 – TWA and American Airlines launch the first coast-to-coast flights on Douglas DC-4s carrying 60 passengers. The cost for a ticket was $110 each way.
1935 – Six United States Army Air Corps light bombers drop 6,000 lb of ordnance on a lava flow from Mauna Loa, Hawaii to prevent water contamination in the city of Hilo. The bombs have little effect.
1922 – The Japanese ship Hosho is commissioned, becoming the first ship built with the original intention to be an aircraft carrier.
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