Aviation History Timeline</h2>

 
<br>
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
<p>1783 - Montgolfier Brothers construct the first lighter-than-air vehicle (a balloon)<br />1900 - Count Ferdinand Zeppelin's airship flies<br />1902 - Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. is born on Feb. 4<br />1903 - Orville and Wilbur Wright fly first successful self-propelled airplane<br />1906 - Anne Morrow born June 20<br />1909 - Louis Bleriot crosses English Channel in a monoplane<br />1909 - Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first licensed female pilot<br />1913 - Salim Ilkucan crosses Sea of Marmara by achieving the longest over-sea flight in a doubleplane<br />1918 - United States Post Office establishes airmail service<br />1920 - Lindbergh enrolls in the University of Wisconsin as an engineering student<br />1922 - Bessie Coleman becomes the first licensed African-American aviator in the world<br />1922 - Lindbergh leaves college in February to become flying student at Nebraska Standard Aircraft Corporation; makes first flight, Apr. 9<br />1923 - Lindbergh buys first plane, a war-surplus Curtiss Jenny; goes barnstorming<br />1924 - Lindbergh enlists as a U.S. Army Flying cadet<br />1924 - First flight around the world<br />1926 - Lindbergh makes his first Chicago-to-St. Louis airmail flight<br />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<br />1927 - Charles Lindbergh makes first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight<br />1928 - Anne Spencer Morrow graduates from Smith College<br />1929 - Charles Lindbergh and Anne Spencer Morrow marry<br />1930 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States<br />1931 - Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh survey potential commercial air routes from the U.S. to the Orient via Canada, Alaska and Russia<br />1932 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic Ocean<br />1933 - Boeing 247 is built<br />1933 - Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh survey North and South Atlantic air routes<br />1934 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh is awarded Hubbard Gold Medal for accomplishments in 40,000 miles of exploratory flying<br />1937 - Zeppelin Hindenburg burns<br />1942 - Tuskegee Airmen all-Black 99th Fighter Squadron forms<br />1946 - Radar bounces off the moon for the first time<br />1947 - The sound barrier is broken by Chuck Yeager<br />1950s - Technologies such as long-range missiles, computer systems, electronic controls, combustion chemistry, and new composite structures made possible by the aerospace industry<br />1953 - Jacquelin Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier<br />1954 - Lindbergh is appointed to rank of brigadier general; awarded Pulitzer Prize for The Spirit of St. Louis<br />1955 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh's book, Gift from the Sea, is published<br />1958 - The first American satellite to be placed in orbit around the Earth, "Explorer 1", is launched<br />1959 - NASA selects its first seven astronauts<br />1961 - Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space<br />1966-72 - Charles Lindbergh serves on World Wildlife Fund Board of Trustees<br />1969 - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first persons to walk on the moon<br />1971 - NASA's Mariner 9 orbits Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet<br />1971 - The first time a golf ball is hit on the moon<br />1971 - Boeing 747 makes its first commercial flight from New York to London<br />1972 - NASA announces the shuttle program<br />1974 - Charles Lindbergh dies in Maui, Hawaii, on August 26, buried at Kipahulu<br />1976 - Concorde flies<br />1977 - The Charles A. Lindbergh Fund is created<br />1978 - NASA selects its first group of women astronauts<br />1981 - First Space Shuttle flight<br />1983 - Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, becomes the first U.S. woman to go up in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger<br />1986 - Challenger Space Shuttle explodes shortly after takeoff, all seven crew members die<br />1994 - The Charles A. Lindbergh Fund becomes The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation<br />1996 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh is inducted into The National Women's Hall of Fame<br />2001 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh dies in Vermont, on February 7<br />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<br />2003 - Aviation celebrates its first century<br />2004 - Oct. 4, Burt Ruan and the <em>SpaceShipOne</em> team capture the $10 million X Prize for the first private manned spacecraft to exceed an altitude of 328,000  feet twice within a 14 day period.  The prize was modeled after the Orteig Prize.<br />2010 - July 7-8, Bertrand Piccard and his <em>Solar Impulse</em> team make aviation history by flying more than 24 consecutive hours non-stop in a solar airplane.</p>
 
</div>