On This Day in History

1903:    Orville Wright makes the first sustained, controlled power airplane flight in the Kill Devil Hills, near Kitty Hawk. In the fourth, and longest flight of the day, flown by Wilbur, the Wright Flyer flies […]

1992:    MACKAY TROPHY. At night, a B-52 from the 668th Bomb Squadron (Griffiss AFB) loses two engines when one explodes and damages another. Two other engines on the same side of the air­craft flame out.

2001:    President George W. Bush informs Russia that the US would withdraw from the 1972 ABM Treaty to develop and implement a missile defense system.

  1944:    MEDAL OF HONOR: Maj Richard I. Bong, with 38 aerial victories, receives the medal from General MacArthur in ceremonies in the Philippines. Citation: http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/2646/bong-richard-i.php

  1956:    Operation SAFE HAVEN. After a revolt against Soviet rule in Hungary expelled Russian occupation forces, the Soviets send in reinforcements to restore order. But before the Soviet-backed Hungarian government close the borders, some

1963:    SECDEF Robert S. McNamara cancels the X-20A Dyna-Soar Program and places the near-earth Manned Orbiting Laboratory project under USAF direction.

  1998:    President William J. Clinton presents a fourth star to Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the first black USAF general and the leader of the “Tuskegee Airmen” in World War II.

2001: Operation NOBLE EAGLE. The 125th Fighter Wing (Florida Air National Guard) sends its F-15s to patrol the skies over the Kennedy Space Center for the Space Shuttle Endeavour launch. It was the first shuttle

  1942:    Ninth Air Force sends 24 B-24s to attack ships at the Naples docks in the first US Army Air Forces air strike against mainland Italy in World War II.