| Aviation History Timeline | | Print | |
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1783 - Montgolfier Brothers construct the first lighter-than-air vehicle (a balloon) 1900 - Count Ferdinand Zeppelin's airship flies 1902 - Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. is born on Feb. 4 1903 - Orville and Wilbur Wright fly first successful self-propelled airplane 1906 - Anne Morrow born June 20 1909 - Louis Bleriot crosses English Channel in a monoplane 1909 - Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first licensed female pilot 1913 - Salim Ilkucan crosses Sea of Marmara by achieving the longest over-sea flight in a doubleplane 1918 - United States Post Office establishes airmail service 1920 - Lindbergh enrolls in the University of Wisconsin as an engineering student 1922 - Bessie Coleman becomes the first licensed African-American aviator in the world 1922 - Lindbergh leaves college in February to become flying student at Nebraska Standard Aircraft Corporation; makes first flight, Apr. 9 1923 - Lindbergh buys first plane, a war-surplus Curtiss Jenny; goes barnstorming 1924 - Lindbergh enlists as a U.S. Army Flying cadet 1924 - First flight around the world 1926 - Lindbergh makes his first Chicago-to-St. Louis airmail flight 1926 - Air Commerce Act marks first federal attempt to set safety regulations for civil aeronautics and requires the registration and licensing of pilots and planes 1927 - Charles Lindbergh makes first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight 1928 - Anne Spencer Morrow graduates from Smith College 1929 - Charles Lindbergh and Anne Spencer Morrow marry 1930 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States 1931 - Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh survey potential commercial air routes from the U.S. to the Orient via Canada, Alaska and Russia 1932 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic Ocean 1933 - Boeing 247 is built 1933 - Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh survey North and South Atlantic air routes 1934 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh is awarded Hubbard Gold Medal for accomplishments in 40,000 miles of exploratory flying 1937 - Zeppelin Hindenburg burns 1942 - Tuskegee Airmen all-Black 99th Fighter Squadron forms 1946 - Radar bounces off the moon for the first time 1947 - The sound barrier is broken by Chuck Yeager 1950s - Technologies such as long-range missiles, computer systems, electronic controls, combustion chemistry, and new composite structures made possible by the aerospace industry 1953 - Jacquelin Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier 1954 - Lindbergh is appointed to rank of brigadier general; awarded Pulitzer Prize for The Spirit of St. Louis 1955 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh's book, Gift from the Sea, is published 1958 - The first American satellite to be placed in orbit around the Earth, "Explorer 1", is launched 1959 - NASA selects its first seven astronauts 1961 - Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space 1966-72 - Charles Lindbergh serves on World Wildlife Fund Board of Trustees 1969 - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first persons to walk on the moon 1971 - NASA's Mariner 9 orbits Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet 1971 - The first time a golf ball is hit on the moon 1971 - Boeing 747 makes its first commercial flight from New York to London 1972 - NASA announces the shuttle program 1974 - Charles Lindbergh dies in Maui, Hawaii, on August 26, buried at Kipahulu 1976 - Concorde flies 1977 - The Charles A. Lindbergh Fund is created 1978 - NASA selects its first group of women astronauts 1981 - First Space Shuttle flight 1983 - Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, becomes the first U.S. woman to go up in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger 1986 - Challenger Space Shuttle explodes shortly after takeoff, all seven crew members die 1994 - The Charles A. Lindbergh Fund becomes The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation 1996 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh is inducted into The National Women's Hall of Fame 2001 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh dies in Vermont, on February 7 2002 - The Charles A. and. Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation celebrates its 25th Anniversary; 75th Anniversary Celebrations of the "Spirit of St. Louis" flight are planned around the country 2003 - Aviation celebrates its first century |