20 March 1919 (Canada): Dr. John Hamilton Parkin set up the University of Toronto’s first wind tunnel as part of the aeronautics program.

20 March 1920 (South Africa): Two South African pilots complete the first flight from Britain to South Africa after a flying time of four days, 13 hours, 30 minutes.

20 March 1922 (USA): The USS Langley (CV-1), a converted collier, becomes America’s first aircraft carrier. It is commissioned into the U.S. Navy at Norfolk, Virginia under the command of Comdr. Kenneth Whiting.

20 March 1932 (USA): First flight of the Boeing P-26 Peashooter. It soon establishes its reputation as the fastest air-cooled pursuit fighter in the world.

20 March 1932 (Germany/Brazil): Luftschiffbau Zeppelin using the airship Graf Zeppelin begins a series of flights between Germany and Brazil. Several round-trips are planned per year, embarkation being at Friedrichshafen bound for Recife and later to Rio de Janeiro.

20 March 1935 (USA): First flight of the USN Grumman F3F-1 biplane fighter.

20 March 1937 (USA-Global Flight): An attempted round-the-world flight by female aviator Amelia Earhart ends dramatically when the starboard tire of her Lockheed Electra airliner bursted during take-off from Honolulu, Hawaii. Because of damage, the expedition was temporary abandoned. The first leg from Oakland, California to Honolulu on March 17 was made in 16 hours, setting an east/west record.

20 March 1940 (USA): Boeing delivers Pan American Airways its first Model 307 Stratoliners.

20 March 1940 (UK): First flight of the Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle prototype (P1361).

20 March 1942 (Japan): First flight of the Mitsubishi J2M (Thunderbolt), Allied reporting name Jack.

20 March 1942 (Malta): The Luftwaffe’s Fliegerkorps II further escalates its bombing campaign against Malta as truly massive air raids begin with a goal of forcing the island’s antiaircraft artillery to exhaust its ammunition and personnel, followed by large attacks on airfields and aircraft on the ground, and finally the destruction of naval forces, dockyards, and other military installations.

20 March 1943 (Bougainville): During the evening, aircraft drop naval mines for the first time in the Pacific, when 42 U. S. Navy and U. S. Marine Corps Grumman TBF Avengers from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, mine the harbor at Kahili, Bougainville, during a diversionary raid on Kahili Airfield by 18 U. S. Army Air Forces Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses. The following evening, 40 Avengers carry out another mining operation at Kahili during a diversionary raid by 21 U. S. Army Air Forces bombers on the airfield.

20 March 1945 (USA): Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier is forced to bail out of first Lockheed XP-80 prototype (AF 44-83021), named "Gray Ghost", of the 4144th AAF Base Unit, Muroc Army Air Field, California, after catastrophic turbine blade failure slices off tail, pilot coming down on Highway 99 near Rosamond, California, breaking his back and side-lining him for six months.

20 March 1948 (USA): Two large tornadoes strike Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, damaging or destroying a large number of aircraft including at least two Douglas C-54 Skymasters, a Douglas C-47 Skytrain, and many Boeing B-29 Superfortresses stored from World War II.

20 March 1950 (USA): American Airlines Flight 711, a Convair CV-240, strikes the ground during final approach at Springfield, Missouri, killing 13 of the 35 on board.

20 March 1955 (Singapore): Royal Air Force Avro Lincoln bombers are sent to Singapore to be used against the Communist guerillas of Malaya in the Malayan Emergency.

20 March 1959 (USA): The site in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, approved as the location for NORAD.

20 March 1963 (USA): McDonnell F3H-2 Demon (BuNo 145281) of VF-14 suffers either cold catapult launch or failure of catapult harness before launch off USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42), and goes over the bow. Pilot Lt.JG Joseph Janiak, Jr. killed, body not recovered. Navy photo captured moment the Demon tipped over the bow.

20 March 1969 (Egypt): In the 1969 Aswan Ilyushin Il-18 Coot crash, a United Arab Airlines flight crashes while attempting to land at Aswan International Airport. 100 of the 105 passengers and crew on board were killed.

20 March 1982 (Indonesia): In the 1982 Garuda Fokker F28 crash, the Fokker F28 overruns the runway in bad weather at Tantung Karang-Branti Airport; all 27 are killed when the aircraft bursts into flames.

20 March 1991 (Iraq): A U. S. Air Force F-15C Eagle of the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing uses an AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile to shoot down an Iraqi Air Force Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter which is violating the post-Gulf War Coalition prohibition against Iraqi military flights.

20 March 1991 (USA): Cuban Air Force pilot Major Orestes Lorenzo Perez defects in his Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23BN Flogger-H to Naval Air Station Key West, Florida on a training mission. U.S. fighters never scramble to intercept, and embarrassed military authorities say that "hardware and software problems" with the radar net contributed to the failure. On 19 December 1992 he returns to Cuba in a borrowed small, Twin-engined 1961 Cessna 310, landing on a well-known bridge along the coastal highway east of Havana in Northern Matanzas Province at an agreed time. His wife Victoria and their two sons, Rey Neil, 11, and Alejandro, 6, are already waiting on his order delivered through a messenger earlier. Orestes Lorenzo Perez picks up his family and manages a successful safe return to Miami.

20 March 1999 (Switzerland/Egypt): Breitling Orbiter was the name of three different Rozière balloons made by Cameron Balloons to circumnavigate the globe, named after the sponsor Breitling. The first two balloons never completed the circumnavigation, while the third made a successful attempt in March 1999 thereby reaching the milestone of the first nonstop flight around the world by balloon. The Breitling Orbiter 3 was the first balloon to fly around the world non-stop, piloted by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones. Designed and built by Cameron Balloons, of Bristol, England, Breitling Orbiter 3 stood 55 m (180 ft) tall when fully inflated. The propane gas that fueled the six burners was contained in 28 titanium cylinders mounted in two rows along the sides of the gondola. Concerned about fuel consumption, the team added four additional propane containers prior to take-off; these additional four tanks were needed to complete the trip. The gondola is located at the National Air and Space Museum, on display in the Milestones of Flight Gallery, while the envelope was displayed at the Gasometer Oberhausen from 2004-2006. Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones took off from the Swiss Alpine village of Château-d’Oex at 8:05, GMT, March 1, 1999. They landed in the Egyptian desert 19 days, 21 hours, and 55 minutes later on March 21, 1999, having traveled a distance of 40,814 km (25,361 mi). During the course of the trip, the balloon had climbed to altitudes of up to 11,373 m (37,313 ft), and achieved a maximum speed of 161 knots.

20 March 2003 (Kuwait): A Sikorsky CH-46E “Sea Knight” (BuNo 152579) of HMM-268 crashes in Kuwait 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) from Iraqi border, killing eight British Marines of 42 CDO and four American Marines.

20 March 2006 (Iraq): The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III reached its million-hour milestone during a mission, evacuating injured U. S. troops from Iraq.

20 March 2008 (USA): Ann Baumgartner, 89, first American woman to fly a jet dies.

20 March 2009 (Australia): Emirates Flight 407, an Airbus A340-500 flying from Melbourne Tullamarine Airport to Dubai International Airport has a tailstrike during take-off and returns to Melbourne Airport with no fatalities.

20 March 2011 (USA): First flight of the Boeing 747-8 (aka 747-8I).