On This Day in History

1967: USAF starts evacuating 1,300 military and civilian Americans from Middle East due to Arab-Israeli War.

  1953:  The Thunderbirds – officially known as the 3600th Air Demonstration Flight – give their first performance, at Luke AFB, AZ, flying the F-84G.

1912: Capt Charles DeForest Chandler becomes the first person to fire a machine gun from an airplane in the US.

(courtesy Chicago Tribune, June 7, 1970) 1970: MAC Commander Gen Jack J. Catton flies the 1st C-5 for an operational wing from Lockheed Marietta to Charleston AFB.

1944:  Operation OVERLORD. Through 6 June, the IX Troop Carrier Command uses 1,400 C-47s, C-53s, and gliders to drop 13,000 Allied paratroopers on Normandy.

1934:  Army Air Corps airmail operations end after 57 crashes and 12 fatalities.

  1912: Wilbur Wright dies of typhoid fever at the age of 45 at Dayton.

  1966: The ARRS observes its 20th anniversary. In this period, the ARRS rescued more than 12,000 people throughout the world.

  1956: First flight of Republic’s production model YF-105B, later named the Thunderchief.