2008 – India launches its first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
2005 – Bellview Airlines Flight 210, a Boeing 737-200 (registered 5N-BFN) crashes shortly after takeoff from Lagos, Nigeria, killing all 117 aboard. The crash is blamed on poor maintenance and a lightning strike which caused the right engine to fail, making the aircraft roll left and lose control.
1981 – The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), the union that instructed its members to strike for better working conditions the previous August, is decertified by the government.
1975 – The Soviet probe Venera 9 lands on Venus.
1968 – Apollo 7 splashes down into the Atlantic Ocean about 200 nm SSW of Bermuda after nearly 11 days and 163 orbits of the Earth.
1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 12 to take high resolution photos of the Moon’s surface.
1963 – A prototype of the BAC One-Eleven crashes during a test-flight after experiencing a “deep stall” caused by reduced airflow to the tailplane.
1958 – British European Airways Flight 142, a Vickers Viscount 701 (registered G-ANHC), crashes into an Italian Air Force North American F-86E, killing all 31 people on the airliner. It was determined that the Viscount had strayed out of its assigned airway and into a prohibited military area. The fighter pilot ejected and survived.
1797 – The modern parachute is born as Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes the first human parachute descent from the air. Garnerin jumped from a hydrogen balloon at a height of 2,300 feet above Paris.
