1903: The Wright brothers make a powered, controlled flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C.

1906: Alberto Santos-Dumont makes a powered flight in Europe.

1908: A plane flies in Britain. The Gnome rotary engine is introduced. A powered-plane fatality is recorded.

1909: A monoplane crosses the English Channel. The U.S. Army buys its first plane from the Wright brothers.

1910: A woman, Madame La Baronne de Laroche of France, is granted a pilot’s license. A plane flies over the Alps. The first radio transmission from a plane takes place.

1911: Mail is flown in India. There’s a coast-to-coast flight across the United States.

1914: Scheduled air service begins on a flight from St. Petersburg to Tampa. Germany drops bombs on Paris from an airplane.

1915: The Junkers J-1, an all-metal monoplane, is produced.

1917: A plane sinks a German submarine. The variable-pitch propeller is introduced.

1918: Regularly scheduled airmail begins between Austria and Russia. The United States begins airmail service between New York and Washington.

1919: A Navy flying boat makes the first crossing of the North Atlantic. Aircraft Transport begins the first international commercial airline service, between London and Paris. Rolls-Royce introduces the 670-horsepower Condor engine.

1920: A civil airport opens in London. The United States begins air service from Key West to Cuba.

1921: The United States begins airmail service between San Francisco and New York.

1922: J.H. Doolittle flies across the United States in one day.

1923: A plane flies nonstop across the United States. The Army refuels a plane in flight. Lights are put on runways.

1924: Two Douglas floatplanes fly around the world.

1926: A plane flies over the North Pole.

1927: Charles Lindbergh flies solo across the North Atlantic.

1928: A plane flies across the Pacific Ocean.

1930: The Army Air Corps refines fuel for airplane engines. Ellen Church becomes an airline stewardess.

1932: Amelia Earhart makes a solo flight across the North Atlantic. De-icing systems are introduced.

1933: Wiley Post flies solo around the world. A plane flies over Mount Everest.

1936: The DC-3 is introduced as a commercial airliner.

1937: A gas turbine engine for aircraft tests successfully.

1938: The Piper Cub is introduced.

1939: The Heinkel 178 initiates jet engine flight.

1941: Turbojet engines, in which atomized air is ignited to provide thrust, arrive with the Heinkel 280.

1942: The Battle of the Coral Sea is fought entirely by carrier-based aircraft. The Bell P-59 becomes the United States’ first jet. Rocket-powered combat aircraft arrive with the Messerschmitt.

1943: Ejection seats are used in military aircraft, the German He-280 jet.

1944: The B-29 Superfortress enters service. Rolls-Royce develops a 5,000-pound thrust engine, the Nene.

1945: The Enola Gay, a B-29, drops an atomic bomb on Japan.

1946: Airlines carry 18 million passengers, double the previous year’s total.

1947: Chuck Yeager breaks the speed of sound in a Bell X-1. Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose makes its only flight.

1948: An in-flight hijacking takes place over China.

1950: A U.S. F-80 shoots down a Soviet Union MiG over Korea, the first all-jet combat.

1951: Passenger miles by air exceed those by train.

1952: The B-52, which is still in service, makes its inaugural flight.

1953: The B-29 flies across the United States on autopilot. The first woman, Jacqueline Cochrane, goes supersonic in an F-86 Sabre.

1954: Dash 80, the prototype Boeing 707, makes its maiden flight.

1955: The U-2 spy plane takes to the skies, and the Soviet Union’s MiG-19 enters service.

1956: The Cessna 172 is introduced. Planes collide over the Grand Canyon, the first air accident to kill more than 100 people. The United States introduces the Convair B-58, the first supersonic strategic bomber.

1957: Passenger service using turboprops, planes with a combination jet and propeller engine, begins over the Atlantic Ocean.

1958: The Boeing 707 enters service. The Federal Aviation Administration is born.

1966: Airlines carry 200 million passengers worldwide, encouraging larger fleets of planes.

1967: The X-15 flies at more than 4,500 mph.

1968: The Soviet Tupolev makes a supersonic transport flight.

1969: The Boeing 747, a wide-body jumbo jet airliner, makes its first flight. The supersonic Concorde flies.

1972: The computerized fly-by-wire system is introduced.

1974: The B-1 bomber prototype flies. The SR-71, a military reconnaissance jet, flies from New York to London in less than two hours.

1975: Chicago’s O’Hare Airport reports 666,600 aircraft movements, the most in the world.

1976: Passenger service begins on the Concorde. The SR-71 Blackbird sets world speed and altitude records.

1977: A runway collision between two Boeing 747s kills 583 people in the Canary Islands.

1979: The human-powered Gossamer Albatross crosses the English Channel.

1981: The manned space shuttle flies.

1986: Voyager pilots Richard Rutan and Jeana Yeager circumnavigate the globe without refueling.

1988: At 1.3 million pounds, the Soviet An-225 is the heaviest plane to fly.

1989: The F-117 becomes the first stealth airplane flown in battle, used during Operation Just Cause in Panama.

2000: Production begins on the Airbus A-380 passenger jet, which holds 840 passengers.

2001: The unmanned Helios craft sets the altitude record for a propeller plane at 96,863 feet.

Research by KURT LOFT and MICHAEL MESSANO; Sources: Smithsonian Institution, The International Encyclopedia of Aviation, The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, Flying Life Magazine, U.S. Centennial of Flight, U.S. Air Force, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Global Security.org, Airbus.com