Launch of Apollo 4

2005 – The Venus Express, the first exploration mission of the European Space Agency, launched from Kazakhstan. It arrived on Venus the following April, and is funded to continue to send back data until December of 2012.

1999 – TAESA Flight 725, a DC-9 (registered XA-TKN), crashed a few minutes after leaving the Uruapan airport en-route to Mexico City, killing all 18 on-board. It was determined that the pilots had not completed the proper checklist prior to departure and became disoriented, raising the nose to a high attitude on takeoff. This caused a stall from which they were unable to recover.

1967 – Launch of the Apollo 4 mission, an unmanned Saturn V, the largest launch vehicle ever to fly successfully.

1961 – USAF Major Robert M White takes the X-15 to a height of 30,970m.

1932 – Wolfgang von Gronau and crew in a Dornier Wal complete the 1st flight around the world by a seaplane. Their flight takes a mere 111 days.

1930 – First airline flight from New York to Panama.

1904 – Wilbur Wright flies for five minutes, four seconds over Huffman Prairie, Ohio, flying just under 3 miles.