1909 – French Paul Tissandier sets the first world airspeed record with a Wright biplane by achieving 34 mph.
1925 – Birth of Alexei Andreyevich Tupolev (son of famed Soviet aircraft pioneer, Andrei Tupolev), Soviet aircraft designer who led the development of the first supersonic passenger jet, the failed Tupolev Tu-144; he also helped design the Buran space shuttle and the Tu-2000, a planned long-range heavy bomber.
1951 – U.S. Air Force Capt. James “Jabby: Jabara becomes the first flying ace to score his five victories in a jet (a North American F-86 Sabre) over jets (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s).
1965 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705, a Boeing 720-040 B on an inaugural flight carrying mostly journalists and owners of travel agencies and crewed by what the airline considered its best crew members, crashes short of the runway in Cairo, Egypt, killing 119 of the 125 people on board and injuring all six survivors.
1973 – First flight of the PZL M-15 Belphegor (shown), a twin-boom sesquiplane, with a jet engine over the crew cabin, designed for agricultural use.
1990 – Death of Roy Windower, Royal Canadian Air Force pilot and the first pilot RCAF Red Knight, a solo aerobatic demonstrator.