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This Day in History - December 17th

1903: First airplane flies

Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Americans Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft. The Wright brothers, self-taught inventors from Dayton, Ohio, were bicycle manufacturers before they turned their attention to the possibilities of flight. Their first airplane, a double-winged biplane, had a wingspan of 39 feet, a 12-horsepower engine, and movable wing tips to control direction. Orville made the first flight, which lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. By 1909, Wright-designed planes were staying aloft for more than an hour at a time, and the brothers founded the Wright Company to meet widespread demand for their flying machines.

Also On This Day

2003

In England, Ian Huntley is found guilty of the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, two school girls from Soham, Cambridgeshire.

1996

Mrs Davina Thompson creates medical history when given a new heart, lungs and liver during an operation at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England.

1996

In Lima, Peru, 14 members of the Tupac Amaru leftist rebel movement slip into the home of the Japanese Ambassador who is holding a reception and take 490 hostages.

1990

Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected President of Haiti.

1983

In England, an IRA car bomb kills six Christmas shoppers and injures scores of others outside the Harrods store in Knightsbridge, London.

1981

James Dozier, Chief of Staff of NATO’s Southern European land forces, is kidnapped from his home in Verona, Italy by the left-wing terrorist group the Red Brigade. Dozier is later rescued by the Italian authorities.

1975

In America, Lynette Alice Fromme, also known as “Squeaky” Fromme, is sentenced to life in prison for her attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford.

1968

Mary Bell, an 11-year-old girl, is found guilty of the manslaughter of two small boys in Newcastle, England.

1967

Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt is presumed drowned after disappearing while swimming at Portsea, Victoria.

1963

The first West Berliners are allowed to cross into East Berlin to visit relatives since the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.

1961

A fire breaks out in a circus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil killing more than 300 people and severely burning hundreds more.

1944

The Second World War: In America, the internment of Japanese American citizens is brought to an end.

1942

The Second World War: In the House of Commons British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden condemns the mass killing of Jews by Germany in Nazi occupied Europe.

1939

The Second World War: The German battleship Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled at the entrance of Montevideo Harbour after being defeated by the British at the Battle of the River Plate.

1777

France formally recognises the United States of American as an independent nation.

1586

Emperor Go-Yozei begins his reign in Japan.