Today in 1784, first balloon flight in England; 1912, first recovery from an uncontrolled spin; 1919, inaugural commercial flights between Paris and London; 1932, Amelia Earhart completes first transcontinental flight by a woman.
The world's first airline launches passenger service, US starts inspecting baggage, a B-47 loses a nuke, TWA starts transatlantic flights, two transcontinental flying speed records are set and more...
Pan Am receives the first Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, Ham the Chimp visits space, an Alaska Airlines MD-80 crashes off the coast of California, and more...