2006 – United States Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant Kenneth M. Taylor passes away at the age of 86 in Tucson, Ariz. Awakened by the sounds of explosions and low-flying planes while stationed at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Taylor would manage to climb into his Curtiss P-40B Warhawk and shoot down four Japanese fighters.
1976 – While sitting on Mars, Viking 1 proves gravitational time dilation. One of the general theories of relativity, it says that time passes different in regions of varying gravitational potential.
1973 – KLM flight 861, a Boeing 747 flying from Beirut to New Dehli, is hijacked and flown instead to Syria, Cyprus, Libya and Malta. All passengers would be eventually released and the terrorists arrested.
1972 – Henri Coanda, Romanian aerodynamics pioneer and designer of what is arguably the world’s first jet-powered aircraft, the Coanda-1910, passes away at the age of 86.
1961 – The USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is commissioned.
1956 – The first successful parachute jump in Antarctica takes place. From a height of 1,500ft, US Air Force Sergeant Richard Patton took the leap to determine the cause of parachute malfunction in sub-zero conditions.
1940 – The first flights of both the deHavilland Mosquito and Martin B-26 Bomber.
1783 – Get home safe, losers: The last remaining British troops leave New York after ratification of the Treaty of Paris.
