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400 B.C.E Archytas of Tarentum is reported to have made a steampropelled pigeon. c. 1250 A.D. Roger Bacon, English cleric, writes about mechanical flight. 1485-1500 Leonardo da Vinci designs flying machines and parachute. 1670 Francesco de Lana Terzi publishes a design for lighter-than-air ship. 1680 Giovanni Borelli, Italian mathematician, concludes human muscle is inadequate for flight. 1709 Bartolomeu Laureno de Gusmao designs model glider. 1783 Jean Franois Piltre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes make the first free aerial voyage in a Montgolfier hot-air balloon. 1783 Jacques Alexandre Csar Charles and M.N. Robert fly in a hydrogen balloon.
1785 Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries cross the English Channel by balloon.
1895 Otto Lilienthal flies biplane gliders. 1896 Octave Chanute begins biplane gliding experiments in Michigan.
1896 Otto Lilienthal crashes while gliding and dies next day.
1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright make first powered, sustained, and controlled flight in a heavier-than-air flying machine.
1906 Alberto Santos-Dumont makes first successful powered flight in Europe. 1909 Louis Bleriot, French aviator, makes first airplane crossing of English Channel.
1932 Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly a solo non-stop transAtlantic flight.
1933 A modern airliner, Boeing 247, flies for the first time.
1939 Germany's Heinkel 178 is the first fully jet-propelled aircraft to fly.
1947 Charles E. Yeager pilots Bell X-1--the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound in level flight.
1962 John H. Glenn, Jr., is the first American to orbit the earth.
1969 U.S. astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., are the first to walk on the moon.
1971 First space station, Soviet Salyut 1, is launched into earth's orbit.
1981 U.S. launches the first reusable spacecraft, the Columbia shuttle.
1998 First two modules of the International Space Station are launched and joined together in orbit.
2000 First crew arrives to take up residence in the International Space Station.
From: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/wb-timeline.html