2013 – A Syrian government airstrike hits a house south of Damascus, killing at least five adults and eight children.
2013 – Rafales join Mirage 200D jets and Gazelle attack helicopters as the French air campaign in Mali expands to strike Islamist forces in the central part of the country.
2010 – A Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-27 crashes near Komsomolsk on Amur. Pilot killed.
2010 – A Royal New Zealand Air Force Pacific Aerospace CT4 Airtrainer crashes near Ohakea, New Zealand while performing routine aerobatic training. Pilot, Sqn Ldr Nick Cree, killed.
2008 – The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER), American space probe, made a flyby of Mercury.
2005 – Cassini – Huygens, joint NASA/ESA/ASI space probe, lands on Saturn's moon Titan.
2002 – Lion Air Flight 386, a Boeing 737-200, crashes while attempting to take off from Riau, Indonesia; all 103 on board survive.
2001 – Death of Luigi Broglio, Italian aerospace engineer, air force lieutenant colonel, Known as "the Italian von Braun".
1998 – An Afghan cargo plane crashes into a mountain in southwest Pakistan killing more than 50 people.
1986 – French singer-songwriter Daniel Balavoine and Thierry Sabine, French wrangler, motorcycle racer, and founder and main organizer of Paris Dakar is killed when his Ecureuil helicopter crashed into a dune at Mali during a sudden sand-storm.
1983 – Last North American Search and Ranging Radar training mission at Cold Lake by "DC-104" Dakota Dolly’s Folly.
1983 – Death of Maurice Bellonte, French raid aviator.
1982 – Death of Pierre Fortaner Paul de Cazenove de Pradines, French WWI flying ace
1973 – A U.S. Navy F-4B Phantom II of Fighter Squadron 161 (VF-161) off USS Midway (CVA-41) flown by Lieutenant V.T. Kovaleski (pilot) and Ensign D.H. Plautz (radar intercept officer) becomes the last American aircraft lost over North Vietnam when it is shot down by antiaircraft artillery near Thanh Hoa while escorting an Operation Blue Tree reconnaissance mission.
1969 – During an Operational Readiness Inspection aboard the USS Enterprise off Hawaii, a MK-32 Zuni rocket warhead attached to an McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is overheated by exhaust from an aircraft starting unit and detonates, setting off fires and additional explosions across the carrier. The fire is brought under control promptly when compared with previous carrier flight deck fires, but 27 lives are lost, and an additional 314 personnel are injured. The fire destroys 15 aircraft.
1969 – Death of William Roy "Sambo" Irwin, Canadian WWI flying ace, WWII Flying instructor who served later on the Canadian Transport Commission.
1969 – Launch of Soyuz 4, Soviet spacecraft which mission was to dock with Soyuz 5.
1966 – Death of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer in the Space Race between the USA and the Soviet Union during the 1950s and 1960s. He is considered by many as the father of practical astronautics
1965 – Death of John Sidney Owens, American WWI flying ace.
1961 – Harold E. Confer raised the 1000 km speed record to 2067.57 km/h with a Convair B-58 Hustler.
1960 – First flight of the Piper PA-28 Cherokee, American four seat sporting/training monoplane.
1959 – During its final approach to Naval Air Station Key West, Florida, a Royal Canadian Navy McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee, BuNo 126488, Sqn. No. 105 of VF-870, suffers a double engine flameout and crash-lands in a nearby lagoon, shearing off the landing gear and starboard wing. Pilot SubLt. Jean Veronneau only suffers minor injuries, but the fighter is written off. The crash is attributed to fuel starvation caused by the pilot's failure to transfer fuel from the auxiliary wingtip fuel tanks to the main fuselage tank earlier in the flight.
1947 – The United States replaces the national insignia for its military aircraft adopted in September 1943 with a new marking consisting of a white star centered in a blue circle flanked by white rectangles bisected by a horizontal red stripe, with the entire insignia outlined in blue.
1945 – U.S. Army Air Forces Twentieth Air Force B-29s bomb Formosa.
1943 – (overnight) Royal Air Force Bomber Command begins an area-bombing campaign against ports in France in an effort to attack German submarines and their bases there.
1943 – Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel via airplane while in office (Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II).[3][4]
1943 – Shannon Lucid, American astronaut, was born. Shannon Matilda Wells Lucid previously held the record for the longest duration stay in space by a woman. She has flown in space five times including a prolonged mission aboard the Mir space station. She was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in December 1996, the tenth astronaut and first woman to be given that honor.
1942 – A Douglas B-18A Bolo bomber, 37-619, of the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron, returning from submarine patrol duties went off course due to high winds, darkness and poor radio contact. Instead of landing at Westover Field, later Westover AFB, in Massachusetts they crashed into Mount Waternomee in New Hampshire's White Mountains. 5 of the 7 crew members survived.
1942 – First Flight; Sikorsky R-4, an American two-place helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky with a single, three-bladed main rotor and powered by a radial engine. first helicopter to enter service with the United States Army Air Forces, Navy, and Coast Guard, as well as for the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force and Royal Navy
1936 – Howard Hughes (Howard Robard Hughes, Jr.) in a Northrop Gamma 2G, NR13761, which he had purchased from Jackie Cochran, sets a transcontinental speed record of 9 hours 27 minutes, averaging 417.0 kilometers per hour (259.1 miles per hour). (FAI Record File Number 13237).
1935 – United Air Lines decides to equip its fleet with a de-icing system for airplane wings, following successful tests on a Boeing 247.
1917 – Death of Andre Jean Delorme, French WWI flying ace.
1909 – Wilbur, Orville and sister Katharine Wright, having just arrived from America, moved to Pau in the south of France after completing flying demonstrations at Camp d’Auvers.
1908 – Jacob Christian Hansen Ellehammer flies 175 m in his tractor triplane with his own engine of some 36 hp.
1897 – Birth of Edward Peck "Ted" Curtis, American WWI flying ace, WWII officer and considered as one the architect of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
1895 – Birth of Fritz Pütter, German WWI fighter ace.
1893 – Birth of Alan Bott, British WWI Flying ace and journalist.
1891 – Birth of Reginald George Malcolm, Canadian WWI flying ace.
1880 – Birth of Robert Leon Henri Massenet-Royer de Marancour, French WWI flying ace.
1876 – Birth of Robert Loraine, British successful Broadway and London stage actor, actor-manager and soldier who later enjoyed a side career as a pioneer aviator.
