3 January 1999 (USA): NASA’s Mars Polar Lander is launched aboard a Boeing Delta II booster from Cape Canaveral. The Mars Polar Lander is scheduled to touch down in the Martian southern polar region in December.

3 January 1981 (USA): Pan Am retires the Boeing 707 from its fleet.

3 January 1966 (USA): North American XB-70 Valkarie flew for 3 minutes at 2,000 mph.

3 January 1923 (France): French Lieutenant Thoret makes the first soaring flight of more than 5 hours in a Hanriot HD-14 biplane as he flies with his engine stopped in a slope lift (using hill-side air currents) in Biskra, France.

3 January 1905 (USA): In efforts to interest the U.S. government in the use of airplanes for the military, Wilbur Wright speaks to Congressman Robert M. Nevin, who asks him to prepare a letter for submission to the Secretary of War that Nevin would deliver and endorse. The Army declines the offer.