2005 - North Korea apparently fired a short-range missile into the Sea
of Japan today. North Korea did not report any test. But Japanese and South
Korean officials, quoted by media in their countries, confirmed they had been
told of the event by the United States.
North Korea in 1998 test-fired a Taepodong-1 long range missile over Japan
and into the Pacific Ocean. It has carried out other tests of short range missiles since then.
Japanese broadcaster NHK said the missile was fired from the east coast of North Korea and flew about 100 kilometers (62 miles) until it fell into the sea.
The United States informed Japan and South Korea after monitoring the launch of
the missile, reports said.
2001 - STS-100 landed at 16:10 GMT with the crew of Rominger,
Ashby, Hadfield, Phillips, Parazynski, Guidoni and Lonchakov aboard.
1965 - USSR launches Luna 5; later impacts on Moon.
1963 - Jacqueline Cochran takes off from Edwards Air Force
Base, California, to set a 100-km (62-mile) closed-circuit world
speed record for women of 1,203.7mph in a Lockheed Starfighter.
1961 - First US airplane hijacked to Cuba.
1960 - U-2 INCIDENT. On the eve of a summit meeting between
US President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Premier
Nikita Krhruschev, a U-2 espionage plane flying at about 60,000
feet was shot down over Sverdovsk, in central USSR. The pilot,
CIA agent Francis Powers, survived the crash, as did large parts
of the aircraft, a suicide kit and sophisticated surveillance
equipment. The sensational event, which US officials described
as a weather reconaissance fligfht gone astray, resulted in the
cancellation of the summit meeting. Powers was tried, convictged
and sentenced to 10 years in prison, in a Moscow court. In 1962
he was returned to the US in exchange for an imprisoned Soviet
spy, but found an unfriendly American public, which apparently
believed he should have used his suicide kit. He died in a helicopter
crash in 1977.
1957 - Vanguard Test Vehicle (TV-1), a modified Martin Viking first-stage and Vanguard solid-propellant third-stage Grand Central Rocket as second-stage, launched with instrumented nose cone to an altitude of 121 miles and met all test objectives and reaches 195 km.
1957 - Paul D. Ronney, ScD/astronaut (STS 83 alternate) is born inLos Angeles CA.
1952 - TWA introduces tourist class.
1952 -Trans World Airways (TWA), British Overseas Airways
Corporation (BOAC) and Air France launch the world’s first
scheduled tourist-class flights on their transatlantic routes
from New York, London and Paris.
1947 - Radar for commercial & private planes first demonstrated.
1944 - Messerschmitt Me-262 Sturmvogel, first operational jet aircraft
(twin-jet fighter), makes first flight.
1942 - Squadron No. 588* of the Soviet Air Force, an all-woman
night-bombing unit equipped with Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes, is formed
in the USSR.
1936 - Wernher Von Braun joins the German Air Force and receives
pilot training at Frankfurt/Oder and Stolp.
1928 - Pitcairn Airlines (later Eastern) begins service.
1925 - Malcolm Scott Carpenter, astronaut (Mercury 7-Aurora 7) is
born in Boulder CO. He had one space flight on 24 May 1962: Mercury MA-7.
He spent 0.21 days in space. Scott Carpenter in Aurora 7 is enthralled by
his environment but uses too much orientation fuel. Yaw error and late
retrofire caused the landing impact point to be over 300 km beyond the
intended area and beyond radio range of the recovery forces. Landing
occurred 4 hours and 56 minutes after liftoff. Astronaut Carpenter was
later picked up safely by a helicopter after a long wait in the ocean
and fears for his safety. NASA was not impressed and Carpenter left
the agency soon thereafter to become an aquanaut. He has the unique
distinction of being the only human ever to penetrate both outer and
inner space, thereby acquiring the dual title, astronaut/aquanaut.
On a leave of absence from NASA, Carpenter participated in the Navy's
Man-in-the-Sea Program as an Aquanaut in the SEALAB II experiment off
the coast of La Jolla, California. During the experiment, conducted
during the summer of 1965, Carpenter spent 30 days living and working
on the ocean floor. He was team leader for two of the three teams of
Navy men and civilians who lived at a depth of 204 feet during the
45-day experiment.
*In the Soviet Union women were flying combat missions almost from the beginning of the war. Having suffered nearly catastrophic losses of pilots and planes during the German drive into the Ukraine in the summmer of 1941. The U.S.S.R.'s most experienced female aviator, Marina Raskova organized three regiments of women fliers.
In October of 1941, Major Raskova began forming the women into the 586th Fighter Regiment, flying the Yakovlev YAK-1, and later the YAK-3 and YAK-9 fighters; the 587th Bopmber Regiment, flying Sukhoi/SU-2 short-range bombers, and the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, flyuing Polikarpov PO-2 sbiplanes. The last group became famous under a new designation, the 46th Guards Night Bomber Regiment.
In addition, there were women pilots who flew with largley male units. The most famous was Lilya Litvyak, who became a top woman ace by destroying 12 German planes and who fought at Stalingrad with the mostly male 73rd Fighter Regiment. Lieutenant Litvyak was shot down over Kharkov in 1943, at the age of 22.
In 1943 Marina Raskova was killed in combat. To symbolize the debt it owed its women fliers, the Soviet government held the first state funeral since the beginning of the War, placing Major Raskova's ashes in the Kremlin wall with full military honors.
