12 April 1911 (USA): Lt. T. Gordon Ellyson becomes the Navy’s first pilot.

12 April 1911 (England/France): Pierre Prier makes the first non-stop passenger flight, traveling from London to Paris.

12 April 1918 (USA): The Loughead brothers fly their seaplane, the F-1, from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

12 April 1921 (USA): President Harding, in his address to Congress, recommends the establishment of a Bureau of Aviation Department in the Department of Commerce for the Federal regulation and encouragement of air navigation.

12 April 1945 (USA): Pres. Roosevelt dies, succeeded by Harry S. Truman.

12 April 1961 (USSR): At 9:07 am, Moscow time, the Soviet rocket “Vostok 1” takes off from Tyuratam in central Asia, launching Flight-Major Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin into space and the history books. After a single orbit, the first human in space lands safely Back at the space center at Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

12 April 1966 (USA): The first SAC Boeing B-52 “Stratofortress” bombers strike targets in North Vietnam.

12 April 1972 (Philippines): Members of the USAF’s 31^st Aerospace Rescue Squadron pick up Charles Lindbergh and a scientific team from the jungle on Mindanao Island, Philippines, after their helicopter crashed while on an anthropological survey.