2011: American Airlines files for bankruptcy protection, the largest filing in airline history.
1997: The US Airways Arena in Washington DC, aka the Capital Center, shuts down.
1987: Korean Air Flight 858, a Boeing 707 flying from Baghdad to Seoul with a stop in Abu Dhabi, crashes off the coast of Burma, killing all 115 on board. The catastrophe would later be blamed on a bomb planted by agents of Kim Jong-il, then the son of the President of North Korea.
1963: Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831, a Douglas DC-8-54CF (registered CF-TJN) enroute to Toronto, crashes after takeoff from Dorval Airport in Montreal, killing all 118 on board. Investigators would be unable to determine a cause due to the plane’s extreme damage.
1953: American Airlines inaugurates the first regular commercial service between New York and Los Angeles. The plane for the job: The Douglas DC-7.
1945: A U.S. Army Sikorsky R-5 helicopter off the coast of Long Island makes the first air-sea rescue by a chopper.
1943: The Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Hornet is commissioned. Today she is a floating museum docked in San Francisco Bay at the former NAS Alameda.