This Week in Aviation History: Remembering September 11th

Filed in archive Aviation History on September 11, 2007

This week in aviation history features the death of Charles Lindbergh, the anniversary of the September 11th attacks, and the first airplane fatality.

August 25, 2003: NASA launched the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope.

August 26, 1974: Aviator Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly solo, nonstop across the Atlantic, died.

August 27, 1962: The U.S. launched the Mariner II space probe.

September 1, 1983: A Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter, killing all 269 people aboard.

September 3, 1976: The unmanned U.S. spacecraft Viking II landed on Mars and took the first pictures of the planet's surface.

September 11, 2001: Two hijacked commercial jets were crashed by terrorists into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing the collapse of both towers. A short while later, another plane was crashed into the Pentagon, and fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pa.

September 12, 1992: Dr. Mae Carol Jemison became the first black woman in space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour

September 14, 1959: The Soviet space probe Luna 2 became the first man-made object to reach the Moon when it crashed onto the Lunar surface.

September 17, 1908: Lt. Thomas Selfridge, a passenger in a plane piloted by Orville Wright, became the first airplane fatality when the craft crashed.