1911: Wright Brothers protege Harry Atwood lands his “Moth” biplane on the South Lawn of the White House after flying nonstop from Boston. President William Taft awards Atwood a Gold Medal from the Washington Aero Club in honor of the feat.
1914: American inventor Robert Goddard is granted a patent for his liquid-fueled rocket.
1918: Quentin Roosevelt, American fighter pilot and eldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt, is shot down and killed in aerial combat over France.
1922: Robin Olds, renowned American fighter pilot during World War II and the Vietnam War, is born in Honolulu.
1934: Howard Hughes lands in New York flying his Lockheed 14 Lodestar, setting a new round-the-world speed record of 3 days, 19 hours, 14 minutes and 10 seconds. Itinerary: New York (Floyd Bennett Field)-Paris (Le Bourget)-Moscow-Omsk-Yakutsh-Fairbanks-Minneapolis-New York (Floyd Bennett Field)
1936: Robert Overmyer, American test pilot, US Marine Corps Colonel and NASA Space Shuttle astronaut, is born in Lorain, Ohio.
1937: A Soviet air crew sets a new airborne endurance record, flying for two days nonstop over the North Pole.
1948: Six RAF de Havilland Vampire aircraft become the first jets to complete a transatlantic flight. Itinerary: Stornoway-Keflavik-Goose Bay-Montreal.
1965: NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft flies within 6,118 miles (9,846 km) of Mars, snapping the first ever closeup photos of another planet.
