1968: The first live telecast from a staffed U.S. spacecraft was transmitted from Apollo 7. The flight was the first manned mission in the American Apollo space program, and the first manned U.S. space flight after the cabin fire that killed the crew of what was to have been the first manned mission, AS-204 (later renamed Apollo 1.
1965: Joe Engle in an X-15 reaches an altitude of 80 kilometers (49 miles).
1962: A U.S. Air Force Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance flight over Cuba reveals the presence of launch pads for Medium Range Ballistic Missiles, triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis
1947: Chuck Yeager becomes the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound in level flight, piloting the Bell X-1S to 670 mph, or Mach 1.015 at Muroc Dry Lake, California. This aircraft was #46-062, named “Glamorous Glennis,” after Chuck’s wife.
1942: P/O Beurling, flying a Supermarine Spitfire of No. 249 (RAF) Squadron, destroyed three enemy aircraft over Malta, but was shot down and wounded.
1927: Dieudonne Costes and Joseph le Brix make the first non-stop aerial crossing of the South Atlantic, flying a Breguet 19 from Saint-Louis, Senegal to Port Natal in Brazil, as a part of their round-the-world 57,000 km trip.
1918: January 9, the First Marine Aeronautic Company, then consisting of 12 officers and 133 enlisted men, departed from the Philadelphia Navy Yard aboard the USS Hancock for Ponta Delgada in the Azores. Its planes included 10 Curtiss R-6 seaplanes, two N-9 seaplanes, and later, six Curtiss HS-2L flying boats. From there they maintained a constant day-light patrol throughout the war period. Theirs was the first flying unit of any U.S. Service to go overseas completely trained and fully equipped.
1918: Baron Willy Coppens, highest scoring Belgian ace, is heavily wounded, ending his combat career. He had scored 37 victories, 34 of which were observation balloons.