On This Day in History

  2005:    HURRICANE KATRINA. Air National Guard personnel log 600 rescues in one day after Hurricane Katrina makes landfall on the Gulf Coast.

  1952:    KOREAN WAR SORTIE RECORD. Far East Air Forces fighter-bombers set a new 24-hour record by sending 854 Fifth Air Force sorties against Pyongyang, N. Korea.

1942:    The War Department directs the Air Transport Command to provide aircraft and equipment to evacuate sick and wounded American servicemen and women throughout the world.

  1941:    William R. Dunn, flying with Eagle Squadron 71 (RAF), shoots down his fifth enemy plane to become the first American “Ace” in Europe. He served in Europe, Burma, and China, and ended the

1967:    MEDAL OF HONOR. After shooting down his F-100 Super Sabre, the North Vietnamese capture Maj George E. Day. For his subsequent valorous service in escaping from and evading enemy forces and resistance while in

1954:    Lockheed pilots Stanley Beltz and Roy Wimmer fly the Hercules YC-130 transport on its first flight.  

  1923:    Lt Harold R. Harris (pilot) and Lt Muir Fairchild (copilot) fly the XNBL-1 Barling Bomber, the Army’s first long-range night bomber, in its first flight at Wright Field.

1972:    The 4th and last Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO), named Copernicus, launches to observe interstellar gases, young hot stars, X-ray stars and other phenomena.

  1975: Using a Titan III booster, NASA launches the Viking I mission to Mars from Cape Canaveral AFS. It soft lands on Mars 20 June 1976.

  1960:    MACKAY TROPHY. Capt Harold E. Mitchell pilots a Fairchild C-119 to make the first aerial retrieval of an orbited capsule. Discoverer XIV, which launched on 18 August, ejected the capsule. For this aerial