4 October 1784 (England) — James Sadler becomes the first British Aeronaut when he makes a flight in a Montgolfier-type balloon with a 170-foot circumference.

4 October 1909 (USA) — More than a million New Yorkers watch as Wilbur Wright makes a flight along the Hudson River.

4-5 October 1928 (USA) — First Aeronautical Safety Conference held in New York under the auspices of the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for Promotion of Aeronautics.

4 October 1942 (USA) — An entire field artillery battery is dropped from a Fairchild C-82 Packet by parachute.

4 October 1957 (USA) — Russia launches the first Earth satellite. The 184-lb. Sputnik attains an orbital velocity of 5 miles per second.

4 October 1958 (England) — Britain’s national overseas airline BOAC becomes the first carrier to fly the Atlantic route by jet airliner.