1837 – The earliest known aeronautical experiment in Canada is conducted by Canadian schoolteacher John Rae. He successfully launches a paper balloon able to carry weight. Its lift is provided by the heating of its blackened surface by the sun.
1933 – Italian test pilot Francesco Agello sets an airspeed record of 424 mph in the Italian Macchi M. C.72 seaplane.
1945 – The Luftwaffe flies its final sortie over England; the aircraft is an Arado Ar 234 on a reconnaissance mission.
1963 – First flight of the EWR VJ 101 (shown above), the world’s first supersonic vertical/short take-off and landing aircraft.
1972 – Royal Canadian Air Force Lt. Col. Roy Windover is awarded the Louis Bleriot medal by the FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) for reaching an altitude of 30,800 feet in a glider.
2010 –A Polish Tupolev Tu-154M aircraft hit trees as it approached Smolensk’s airport in thick fog. President Lech Kaczyński, Poland’s army chief, central bank governor, members of parliament and leading historians were among more than its 80 passengers who died.