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Frederick Seidel

Frederick Seidel (born February 19, 1936) is an American poet.

Biography
Seidel was born to a family of Russian Jewish descent in St. Louis, Missouri in 1936. His family owned Seidel Coal and Coke, which supplied coal to the brewing industry in St. Louis, as well as a West Virginia mine. Seidel graduated from St. Louis Country Day School and earned his A.B. at Harvard University in 1957. Archibald MacLeish arranged for Seidel to take a leave of absence from Harvard so he could travel around Europe. In Europe Seidel spent time in Paris (where he took a virtual vow of silence for three months) and visited Oxford and Cambridge in England, where he met T. S. Eliot in London.

Seidel corresponded with Ezra Pound in his youth and visited Pound at St. Elizabeths Hospital. Despite not understanding the Chinese language, Seidel suggested corrections to Pound's translations of Confucius, The Unwobbling Pivot, which Pound accepted. After university Seidel moved with his wife to West Gloucester, Massachusetts, and then to Paris after Seidel became the Parisian editor of The Paris Review in 1961. He lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City.

Career
In 1962, his first book, Final Solutions, was chosen by a jury of Louise Bogan, Stanley Kunitz, and Robert Lowell for an award sponsored by the 92nd Street Y, with a $1,500 prize. However, both the association and the publisher rejected the manuscript for several reasons, one of which was that, in their opinion, "matter in one of the poems libeled a noted living person". Another was that the national head of the YMHA/YWHA expressed concern that some of the poems were "anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic", claims Seidel considered preposterous. When Seidel refused to make requested changes to his work, the prize was withdrawn and the promise of publication revoked. Bogan, Kunitz, and Lowell also resigned in protest.

This incident, in which Seidel's poetry offended readers, was a defining moment in his career, and one that he would repeat in subsequent books by consciously trying to offend—or at least, to shock—his readers (although none of his subsequent books caused anywhere near the same degree of controversy as his first). Random House published the book the following year, but seventeen years would pass before Seidel published another work. His second book, Sunrise, was the 1980 Lamont Poetry Selection. His book Going Fast was a finalist for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

His collection, The Cosmos Poems, was commissioned by the American Museum of Natural History to celebrate the opening of the new Hayden Planetarium in 2000, and he won the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry in 2002. His collection Ooga-Booga was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 International Griffin Poetry Prize. A limited run of his collection of new verse, Evening Man was published in 2008. The following year saw the publication of the career-spanning anthology Poems: 1959–2009.

In 2016, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published his sixteenth and most recent collection of poems, Widening Income Equality. One of the poems in this collection, "The Ballad of Ferguson, Missouri", a response to the police shooting of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, that was originally published in the November 25, 2014 edition of The Paris Review, sparked controversy online and on social media. That same year, Seidel received The Paris Review's Hadada Award, given for "a distinguished member of the writing community who has made a strong and unique contribution to literature."

Style
In response to the publication of his Collected Poems, The New York Times Magazine's Wyatt Mason wrote a long piece on the poet, titled "Laureate of the Louche". New York Times book reviewer David Orr, in his review of Poems: 1959-2009, wrote, "[Seidel is] one of poetry's few scary characters." Seidel is frequently characterized as such, in part because in his writing he often makes use of violent and disturbing sexual imagery and presents himself as a rather unlikeable aesthete who embraces his own "elite" brand of materialism (extolling, for instance, his love of Ducati motorcycles and handmade shoes). However, Seidel often ironizes this persona, pushing it to cartoonish extremes.

Seidel's poetry comprises more than his outrageous poetic persona. He also writes poems that comment on contemporary events and are political/satirical (as is his poem "Bush's War"). His work is also notable in that he frequently makes use of rhyme and meter (both regular and irregular), including nursery rhyme-influenced references, repetitions and rhythms. One of Seidel's earliest influences was Robert Lowell. Seidel has stated, "The influence of Lowell [on my first book Final Solutions was] unmistakable." However, the critic Richard Poirier noted that Seidel had broken free of this influence by the time he published his second book, Sunrise.

Poetry

 * Final Solutions (New York: Random House, 1963)
 * Sunrise (New York: Viking Press, 1979)
 * Men and Woman: New and Selected Poems (London: Chatto & Windus, 1984)
 * Poems, 1959-1979 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989)
 * These Days (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989)
 * My Tokyo (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1993)
 * Going Fast (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998)
 * The Cosmos Poems (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000)
 * Life on Earth (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001)
 * Area Code 212 (New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002)
 * The Cosmos Trilogy (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003)
 * Ooga-Booga (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006)
 * Evening Man (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008)
 * Collected Poems: 1959-2009 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009)
 * Nice Weather, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012)
 * Widening Income Inequality, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016)
 * Peaches Goes It Alone (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018)
 * Selected Poems (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021)
 * So What: Poems (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024)

Critical studies and reviews of Seidel

 * Review of Nice weather.

title: Frederick Seidel


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Timeline of aviation in the 18th century

This is a list of aviation-related events during the 18th century (January 1, 1701 – December 31, 1800):

1700s–1770s

 * 1709
 * Portuguese Father Bartolomeu de Gusmão demonstrates a practical model of a hot-air balloon made of a paper envelope with burning material suspended below it to King John V of Portugal in the Ambassador's drawing room. Worried that it will set fire to the curtains, servants end its flight by dashing it to the ground. It is the first known demonstration of a practical lighter-than-air craft.
 * 1716
 * Well thought-out glider-project of the Swedish scholar Emanuel Swedenborg. Basis for his construction are bird flight and the glider kite.
 * 1738
 * In his Hydrodynamica the Swiss scholar Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782) formulates the principle of the conservation of energy for fluids (Bernoulli's principle), the relationship between pressure and velocity in a flow.
 * 1746
 * English military engineer Benjamin Robins (1707–1751) invented a whirling arm centrifuge to determine drag.
 * 1766
 * British chemist Henry Cavendish determines the specific weight of hydrogen gas.

1780s–1790s

 * 1782
 * December 14, The Montgolfier brothers first test fly an unmanned hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2 km.
 * 1783
 * June 4, Unmanned flight of the Montgolfier brothers 900 m linen hot air balloon at Annonay near Lyon in the Vivarais region of France as a public demonstration. The flight covers 2 km and lasts 10 minutes, to an estimated altitude of 1600–2000 metres.
 * August 27, Flight of Le Globe, an unmanned experimental hydrogen balloon, in Paris (built by Professor Charles and the Robert brothers). It flies 25 km from Paris to Gonesse and is destroyed by frightened peasants.
 * September 19, the Montgolfiers launch a sheep, duck and rooster in a hot-air balloon in a demonstration for King Louis XVI of France. The balloon rises some 500 m and returns the animals unharmed to the ground.
 * October 15, Pilâtre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes rise into the air in a Montgolfière tethered to the ground in Paris. de Rozier becomes the first human passenger in a hot-air balloon, rising 26 m.
 * November 21, In a flight lasting 25 minutes, de Rozier and d'Arlandes take the first untethered ride in a Montgolfière in Paris, the first human passengers carried in free flight by a hot-air balloon.
 * December 1, Jacques Charles and his assistant Nicolas-Louis Robert make the first flight in a hydrogen-filled gas balloon. They travel from Paris to Nesles-la-Vallée, a distance of 43 km. On his second flight the same day, Charles reaches an altitude of about 3,000 m over Nesles-la-Vallée.
 * December 26, Louis-Sébastien Lenormand makes the first ever recorded public demonstration of a parachute descent by jumping from the tower of the Montpellier observatory in France using his rigid-framed model which he intends as a form of fire escape.
 * 1784
 * February 25, The first ascent of a manned balloon in Italy takes place with a hot air balloon carrying Paolo Andreani and two of its builders, the Gerli brothers.
 * March 2, Jean-Pierre Blanchard makes his first flight in a hydrogen balloon.
 * March 13 The first public ascent of a manned balloon in Italy takes place with a hot air balloon at the Villa Sormani in Moncucco carrying Paolo Andreani and two locals.
 * April 15, The first ascent of a manned balloon in the British Isles takes place with a hot air balloon at Navan in Ireland.
 * June 4, Élisabeth Thible becomes the first woman passenger in a hot-air balloon, at Lyon in France.
 * August 25 & 27, Scottish apothecary James Tytler makes the first balloon ascents in Great Britain, in a hot air balloon from Edinburgh.
 * September 15, Italian Vincenzo Lunardi makes the first hydrogen balloon flight in Britain, from Moorfields in London to South Mimms.
 * September 19, Anne-Jean Robert, Nicolas-Louis Robert and Colin Hullin fly La Carolina, a hydrogen balloon, 186 km from Paris to Beuvry.
 * October 4, Englishman James Sadler makes the first hot air balloon flight in England, from Oxford to Woodeaton.
 * October 16, Jean-Pierre Blanchard fits a hand-powered propeller to a balloon flow from London, the first recorded means of propulsion carried aloft.
 * Pilâtre de Rozier and the chemist Proust rise with a Montgolfière up to 4,000 m.
 * Jean Baptiste Meusnier makes an oblong balloon to explore unknown areas, with an airscrew driven by muscle power.
 * 1785
 * January 7, Jean-Pierre Blanchard makes the first flight across the English Channel. He uses a hydrogen balloon and carries John Jeffries as a passenger, flying from Dover, England, to Guînes, France.
 * January 19, Richard Crosbie successfully flies in a hot air balloon from Ranelagh Gardens to Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland. He goes on to makes several unsuccessful attempts to cross the Irish Sea in a hydrogen-filled balloon.
 * May 10, A hot air balloon collides with a chimney in Tullamore in Ireland, setting light to around 100 houses in the town centre.
 * June 15, Pilâtre de Rozier and Pierre Jules Romain become the first known aeronautical fatalities when their balloon crashes during an attempt to cross the English Channel.
 * October 5, Vincenzo Lunardi flies in a gas balloon from George Heriot's School, Edinburgh, across the Firth of Forth in Scotland to Ceres, Fife (51.5 km in 1.5 hrs).
 * November 23, Lunardi flies from St Andrew's Square, Glasgow, to Hawick in Scotland.
 * Ukita Kōkichi, Japanese paperhanger, makes artificial wings and tries flying from the top of a bridge.
 * 1789
 * First experiments in Japan to develop an ornithopter-type glider.
 * 1793
 * Military use of a captive balloon at the siege of Mainz, Germany.
 * January 9, Jean-Pierre Blanchard makes probably the first balloon ascent in the Western Hemisphere, lifting off from the prison yard at the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, crossing the Delaware River and landing at Deptford, New Jersey, carrying an "aerial passport" endorsed by President George Washington. Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe all witness the flight.
 * May 15, inventor Diego Marín Aguilera, the "father of aviation" in Spain, flies a glider for about 360 m.
 * July 30, Jean-Marie-Joseph Coutelle, Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau and Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier complete a military hydrogen balloon ordered by the French Committee of Public Safety. They will present it to the committee in October 1793.
 * November 24, French authorities order Nicolas J. Conte to construct a military balloon capable of lifting two passengers to an altitude of 1,700 ft.
 * 1794
 * April 2, The French National Convention establishes the 50-man Company of Aeronauts, the first airship company in the French Army. It is commanded by Captain Jean-Marie-Joseph Coutelle.
 * May 3, After completing its training, the Company of Aeronauts is assigned to the French Army of Sambre-et-Meuse for operational employment.
 * June 2, The first military aviation sortie in history takes place when the French Company of Aeronauts' balloon l'Entreprenant ("Enterprise") ascends for a reconnaissance of Austrian forces besieging Maubeuge. Austrian artillery fires at the balloon but fails to hit it before it rises out of range.
 * June 23, The French balloon l'Entreprenant resumes flights, helping to prevent Austrian troops from relieving besieged Austrian forces at Charleroi. On the same day, the Committee of Public Safety authorizes the formation of a second balloon company in the French Army.
 * June 26, Jean-Marie-Joseph Coutelle and Major General Antoine Morlot spend nine hours aloft in the balloon l'Entreprenant during the Battle of Fleurus, providing observation that contributes to a French victory over Austrian forces. It is the first battle in history to be affected by aerial observation.
 * 1795
 * October 29, Observation balloons used in Battle of Mainz.
 * 1797
 * October 22, André-Jacques Garnerin jumps from a balloon from 975 m over Parc Monceau in Paris in a 7 m-) diameter parachute made of white canvas with a basket attached. He is declared "official French aeronaut of the state".
 * 1798
 * At least one balloon of the French army's Company of Aeronauts is transported aboard the French Navy warship Le Patriote for use ashore in conducting a reconnaissance of the coast of Egypt, but Le Patriote strikes a rock and sinks off Alexandria, Egypt, on July 4.
 * August 1, The French ship-of-the-line Orient has gear of the French Army's Company of Aeronauts on board when she is destroyed during the Battle of the Nile.
 * October 15, First balloon ascent on horseback: Pierre Testu-Brissy ascends from Bellevue, Meudon in Paris.
 * 1799
 * Englishman Sir George Cayley (1773–1857) sketches a glider with a rudder unit and an elevator unit. His manuscript is considered to be the starting point of the scientific research on heavier than air flying machines. It is Cayley who helps to sort out the confusion of the time. ..."He knew more than any of his predecessors ... and successors up to the end of the 19th century." – Orville Wright.
 * Birth of John Stringfellow, another English pioneer of heavier than air flying machines (d. 1883).
 * January 15, The French Army's Company of Aeronauts is abolished.
 * October 12, Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse becomes the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute, from an altitude of 900 m.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/September 28, 2004

Active Politicians ?
I don't think Wikipages about active politicians should be chosen as Today's featured article, unless Wikipedia supports their policies and endorses them in their next election. Is Wikipedia endorsing Mark Latham for the upcoming Australian legislative election, scheduled for October 9 ? It's only a few weeks away ... -- PFHLai 01:35, 2004 Sep 27 (UTC)
 * Hrm - you think putting the article on the main page could be construed as an endorsement? →Raul654 01:57, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)
 * Mark Latham is actively campaigning right now, and we are giving him a free poster ? It may not be intended as an endorsement, but may be interpreted as such, esp. when his opponents don't have their Wikipages featured on the MainPage.  It may be better to feature his Wikipage after the October 9th election, when the dust has settled, methinks .... hopefully with updates on the results of the election .... -- PFHLai 05:10, 2004 Sep 27 (UTC)
 * Ok, I don't really feel like generating all that hassle for myself right now, so I've switched it to split infinitive. →Raul654 06:06, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)
 * Out of interest (and this is going to sound odd coming from the person who renominated this article...) but why did you use this article? There are many objections to it. - Ta bu shi da yu 13:46, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * I choose it because we hadn't had a politcs-related article in over a week, and we hadn't had an australian article since July-ish. →Raul654 19:56, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)


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Shawangunk Ridge

The Shawangunk Ridge, also known as the Shawangunk Mountains or The Gunks, is a ridge of bedrock in Ulster County, Sullivan County and Orange County in the state of New York, extending from the northernmost point of the border with New Jersey to the Catskills. The Shawangunk Ridge is a continuation of the long, easternmost section of the Appalachian Mountains; the ridge is known as Kittatinny Mountain in New Jersey, and as Blue Mountain as it continues through Pennsylvania. This ridge constitutes the western border of the Great Appalachian Valley.

The ridgetop, which widens considerably at its northern end, has many public and private protected areas, including Wurtsboro Ridge State Forest, Shawangunk Ridge State Forest, Minnewaska State Park Preserve, Witch's Hole State Park and Mohonk Preserve. The ridge is not heavily populated; its only settlement of consequence is the hamlet of Cragsmoor. In the past, the ridge was chiefly noted for mining and logging and a boom-era of huckleberry picking. Fires were regularly set to burn away the undergrowth and stimulate new growth of huckleberry bushes.

Today the ridge has become known for its outdoor recreation, most notably as one of the major rock climbing areas of North America, with many guides offering rock climbing trips in the area. Also known for its biodiversity and scenic character, the ridge has been designated by The Nature Conservancy as a significant area for its conservation programs.

Etymology
The English name, Shawangunk, derives from the Dutch Scha-wan-gunk, the closest European transcription from the colonial deed record of the Munsee Lenape, Schawankunk (German orthography).

Lenape linguist Raymond Whritenour reports that schawan is an inanimate intransitive verb meaning "it is smoky air" or "there is smoky air". Its noun-like participle is schawank, meaning "that which is smoky air". Adding the locative suffix gives us schawangunk "in the smoky air".

Whritenour has suggested that the name derives from the burning of a Munsee fort by the Dutch at the eastern base of the ridge in 1663 (a massacre ending the Second Esopus War). Use of the name spread quickly, and it was recorded in numerous land deeds and patents after the war. Historian Marc B. Fried writes:

"It is conceivable that this was...the Indians' own proper name for their village [and fort] and that the name was appropriated for use in subsequent land dealings because of the proximity of the...tracts to the former Indian village....The second possibility is that the name simply came into existence in connection with the Bruyn [purchase of Jan., 1682, the first appearance of the name in documentary record], as a phrase invented by the Indians to describe some feature of the landscape."

Fried also notes that the name's swift spread in the deed record suggests it was in use as a proper name before the Bruyn purchase. Shawangunk appears nowhere in reference to the fort in the extensive, translated Dutch record of the Second Esopus War. Shawangunk became associated with the ridge during the 18th century.

In the original Lenape, the word is tri-syllabic, Sha-wan-gun, although in an occasional 18th-century deed it is written with a fourth syllable. The correct pronunciation approximates sha (short a) - wan (as in want) - goon (as in book). The trailing k is sub vocal and modifies the sound of the n. European colonists began to truncate Shawangunk into "Shongum". Shongum was mistakenly identified as the Munsee pronunciation by the Reverend Charles Scott writing on Shawangunk's etymology for the Ulster County Historical Society in 1861. The error has been reinforced in ethnographic sources and ridge literature, and by historians, librarians, and ridge educators for more than 140 years.

Both "Shawangunk" and "Shongum" are popular usages among locals native to the region. The "Gunks" is also a widely used familiar term for the ridge and has been in use at least since the mid-19th century. In a letter dated August and postmarked August 8, 1838, Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole corresponding with painter A.B. Durand writes, "Do let me hear from you when you get among the Gunks. I hope you will find every thing there your heart can wish." The Shawangunks, particularly around Lake Mohonk, were the subject for several Hudson River School painters.

Geography
The Shawangunk Ridge is the northern end of a long ridge within the Appalachian Mountains that begins in Virginia, where it is called North Mountain, continues through Pennsylvania as Blue Mountain, becomes known as the Kittatinny Mountains after it crosses the Delaware Water Gap into New Jersey and becomes the Shawangunks at the New York state line. These mountains mark the western and northern edge of the Great Appalachian Valley.

The ridge is widest (7.5 mi) near the northern end and narrow in the middle (1.25 mi), with a maximum elevation of 2289 ft near Lake Maratanza. The ridge rises above a broad, high plain which stretches to the Hudson River to the east. On the west the low foothills of the Appalachian Mountains mingle with a low flat made by the Rondout Creek and Sandburgh Creek, the Basha Kill and various small kills, as well as the Neversink River and Delaware River at the southern end. These adjacent valleys are underlain by relatively weak sedimentary rock (e.g., sandstone, shale, limestone).

Natural environment
There is an unusual diversity of vegetation on the ridge, containing species typically found north of this region alongside species typically found to the south or restricted to the Coastal Plain. The results is an area where many regionally rare plants are found at or near the limits of their ranges. Other rare species found in the area are those adapted to the harsh conditions on the ridge. Upland communities include chestnut oak and mixed-oak forest, pine barrens including dwarf pine ridges, hemlock-northern hardwood forest, and cliff and talus slope and cave communities. Wetlands include small lakes and streams, bogs, pitch pine-blueberry peat swamps, an inland Atlantic white cypress swamp, red maple swamps, acidic seeps, calcareous seeps, and a few emergent marshes.

Geology
The ridge is primarily Shawangunk Conglomerate, a hard, silica-cemented sedimentary conglomerate of white quartz pebbles and sandstone that directly overlies the Martinsburg Formation, a thick sequence of turbidite deposits of dark gray shale and greywacke. The Martinsburg Formation was deposited in a deep ocean basin during the Ordovician (470 million years ago). The Shawangunk Conglomerate was deposited over the Martinsburg Formation in thick braided river deposits during the Silurian (about 420 million years ago); both sequences of sedimentary rock were subsequently deformed in a continental collision associated during the assembly of the Pangean supercontinent during the Permian (about 270 million years ago). This collision deformed strata within the ridge in a northward plunging series of asymmetric folds (e.g., anticlines and synclines) that are inclined gently westward. These same folds, involving strata that overlie the Shawangunk Conglomerate, are exposed north of Shawangunk Ridge in the Rosendale Natural Cement Region, where they can be directly examined in abandoned mines. Strata along the eastern margin of Shawangunk Ridge are truncated by erosion, resulting in the prominent cliffs characteristic of Shawangunk Ridge. The Shawangunk Conglomerate is very hard and resistant to weathering; whereas the underlying shale erodes relatively easily. Thus, the quartz conglomerate forms cliffs and talus slopes, particularly along the eastern margin of the ridge.

The entire ridge was glaciated during the last Wisconsin glaciation, which scoured the ridges, left pockets of till, and dumped talus (blocks of rock) off the east side of the ridge. On top of the ridge, the soils are generally thin, highly acidic, low in nutrients, and droughty, but in depressions and other areas where water is trapped by the bedrock or till, there are interspersed lakes and wetland areas. Soils on top of shale are thicker, less acidic, and more fertile. Topography on the top of the northern Shawangunks is irregular due to a series of faults that form secondary plateaus and escarpments.

Ice caves
Ice caves are deep fissures in the conglomerate bedrock that retain ice through much of the summer, resulting in a cool microenvironment that supports several northern species such as black spruce, hemlock, rowan, and creeping snowberry (Gaultheria hispidula), and bryophytes such as Isopterygium distichaceum. These ice caves are concentrated near Sam's Point in the northern Shawangunks. Larger limestone caverns occur along the lower slopes of the Rondout and Delaware River valleys.

Lakes
Lakes and wetlands occur mostly on the flat-topped ridges at the northern and southern ends of the area and, to a lesser extent, along the western side of the middle part of the ridge. Lakes and ponds occurring on conglomerates tend to be clear, nutrient-poor, and very acidic, due to the limited buffering capacity of the bedrock. The northern Shawangunks have five lakes, the "sky lakes," which are, from north to south: Mohonk Lake, Lake Minnewaska, Lake Awosting, Mud Pond, and Lake Maratanza. The pH in four of the lakes averages about 4 (acidic); Lake Mohonk, which partially overlays shale bedrock and is therefore partially buffered, is closer to neutral pH (7.0).

Public lands and preserves
The Shawangunks contain mainly public lands as well as several small residential areas. A large portion of the northern Ridge is protected by Minnewaska State Park Preserve, which also now manages Sam's Point Preserve with more than 100 mi of hiking trails and several climbing areas. Established in 1963, the Mohonk Preserve protects and manages over 8,000 acres of the Shawangunk Ridge, including the world-renowned Trapps climbing cliffs, and features over 70 miles of historic carriage roads and trails. In 2007 Shawangunk Ridge State Forest and Witches Hole State Forest were added. The Long Path long-distance hiking trail follows the ridge from Sullivan County to the vicinity of Kerhonkson; south of it the Shawangunk Ridge Trail connects to the Appalachian Trail near High Point. There are several old carriage trails on the Ridge including; Smiley Road from Ellenville into Minnewaska State Park Preserve; and Old Plank Road and Old Mountain Road in Shawangunk Ridge State Forest. Many of the foot trails are updated and maintained by the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference.

There are also many waterfalls in the Shawangunk region, such as: VerKeerderkill Falls, Awosting Falls, and Vernooy Kill Falls.

In 2004, a luxury development plan for buildings has threatened the ridge line, and as a result a grassroots "Save the Ridge" campaign has become extremely popular in the area. In 2006 a court ordered the sale of property by the private owner to settle a case brought on by the developer. The Open Space Institute of NY purchased the land and has signed it over to Minnewaska State Park Preserve.

The Trust for Public Land and Open Space Institute actually agreed to purchase the land for $17 million. At closing, however, the contract was assigned and title was taken in the name of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, a federally chartered commission, although the funds for the purchase apparently came from the New York state Environmental Protection Fund.

Unlike the major public land holdings on the Shawangunk Ridge, the Mohonk Preserve is a private land trust requiring a day fee depending on use.

Unit Management Plan
In May 2007 the state Department of Environmental Conservation initiated the development of its Shawangunk Ridge Unit Management Plan to include Shawangunk Multiple Use Area, Witch's Hole State Forest, Shawangunk Ridge State Forest, Roosa Gap State Forest, Wurtsboro Ridge State Forest, Huckleberry Ridge State Forest, and three detached Forest Preserve parcels.

The goal of the project was to develop "management objectives" for the properties, including those concerning permissible forms of public recreation and access.

Following an announcement of the project's launch, no further statements had been issued by the DEC regarding its work as of June 2009.

Hiking
The Shawangunk Ridge Trail heads north approximately 40 mi, to Sam's Point Preserve in New York from the Appalachian Trail at High Point State Park in New Jersey. It generally follows the spectacular Shawangunk Ridge north, occasionally using abandoned roads and rail beds. The New York/New Jersey Trail Conference lists seventeen recommended hikes on the Ridge.

Other recreational activities

The development of rock climbing in the Shawangunks is attributed to Fritz Wiessner and Hans Kraus, pioneers of modern rock climbing. It has historically been centered around four major cliffs: Millbrook, the Near Trapps, The Trapps, and Skytop. Of these four, The Trapps, is the longest, the most popular and most accessible, with the largest number of climbing routes. The Near Trapps is located immediately across Route 44/55 from The Trapps, and is second in popularity. Millbrook Mountain, the highest and most southerly cliff, is the most remote, and sees the least climbing activity. The Skytop cliff is owned by the Mohonk Mountain House and rock climbing requires authorized guides. Rock climbing is also permitted on the Peterskill and Dickie Barre cliff areas of Minnewaska State Park Preserve. The height of the cliff varies along the ridgeline, to a maximum of some 300 ft.

Graham tower
In 1930, the Conservation Department built a 60 ft Aermotor LS40 steel fire lookout tower and observers cabin on Sayers Hill (Pocatello Mountain). The tower was purchased with funds provided from the county and town, to protect the eastern and southern slopes of the Shawangunk Ridge. The tower was dismantled and moved to its current location in 1948. The tower ceased fire lookout operations at the end of the 1988 fire lookout season. It was officially closed in early 1989 by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The Graham Lookout Tower is listed on the National Historic Lookout Register. The tower remains, but both it and the surrounding area are closed to the public.

High Point tower
In 1912, the Conservation Commission built a wood fire lookout tower on the ridge east of Ellenville on High Point. In 1919, the Conservation Commission replaced it with a 47 ft Aermotor LS40 steel fire lookout tower. Due to increased use of aerial detection, the tower ceased fire lookout operation at the end of the 1971 fire lookout season, and was later removed.

Roosa Gap tower
In 1948, the Conservation Department built a 35 ft Aermotor steel fire lookout tower on the ridge northeast of Wurtsboro. Due to increased use of aerial detection, the tower ceased fire lookout operations at the end of the 1972 fire lookout season. The tower was later sold, and is now closed to the public.

title: Shawangunk Ridge


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John Rutherford (Florida politician)

John Henry Rutherford (born September 2, 1952) is an American politician and former police officer serving as the U.S. representative from Florida's 5th congressional district since 2017. His district encompasses most of Jacksonville and most of its suburbs in Nassau and St. Johns counties, including St. Augustine.

Rutherford was an officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office for four decades, before being elected Duval County sheriff in 2003; he remained in that post until 2015. In 2016, he ran for the House of Representatives in what was at the time Florida's 4th congressional district. He won the election and was reelected in 2018, 2020, and 2022. Rutherford is a Republican.

Early life and education
John Rutherford was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1952. His father was in the U.S. Navy and was serving in Korea at the time of his son's birth. In the 1950s, Rutherford's family moved to Jacksonville, Florida. He graduated from Nathan Bedford Forest High School in 1970. He surfed in his free time. In 1972, he earned his Associate of Science in criminology from Florida State College at Jacksonville, formerly Florida Junior College, followed by his Bachelor of Science in criminology from Florida State University in 1974.

Jacksonville Sheriff's Office
Rutherford spent 41 years at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, first as a sheriff's deputy and for the final 12 years as the elected sheriff. He joined the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office in 1974 as a patrolman. He was promoted to sergeant in 1980 and ultimately rose to the rank of captain. At various points, he commanded the Arson and Burglary divisions, led the Police Academy, and led patrol units on the Southside. He was also Chief of Services, Traffic and Special Operations, and Chief of Patrol. He was appointed director of corrections in 1995 by then-Sheriff Nat Glover. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing the jail.

Rutherford ran for Jacksonville Sheriff in 2003. A candidate for the Jacksonville City Council filed a complaint against Rutherford in February, alleging violations of the Federal Hatch Act of 1939, which prohibits employees working for federally funded agencies from running for office in partisan elections. Rutherford said that a lawyer had told him there was no conflict, but he retired in March 2003 anyway, in order to remove any doubt, with 28 years of service.

The Florida Times-Union reported in 2015, "Supporters and even those who criticize him say Rutherford has been steadfast and unwavering in his faith and his convictions as a lawman, a trait some say has brought success while others say is to his detriment." Rutherford's tenure was marked by rises and falls in crime: from 2002 to 2005, Jacksonville suffered an increase in murder and other violent crime; murders briefly declined in 2005, but then rose again each year until 2008, when another decline began. In 2007, the Florida Times-Union endorsed Rutherford for reelection—saying that he was generally moving his department "in a positive direction"—but criticized the pace and inadequacies of key initiatives, such as reducing the murder rate, tackling illegal guns, and initiating a management audit. Overall, the Jacksonville crime rate was about the same at the beginning and end of Rutherford's tenure.

As sheriff, Rutherford was a staunch critic of State Attorney Harry Shorstein and an ally of his successor, Angela Corey. He was credited with improving the sheriff's department's capacities to deal with mental health matters and his oversight of a prisoner reentry program, but was criticized for enduring tensions and a lack of trust between the local African American community and police, as well as a high number of police shootings by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Jacksonville had the ninth-highest rate of justifiable homicides among the U.S.'s 105 largest police department efforts between 2007 and 2012.

2016
After initially considering a run for the state House, Rutherford announced his candidacy for Florida's 4th congressional district on April 15, 2016, for the open seat created by the retirement of the Republican incumbent, Ander Crenshaw. Originally he announced he would run for Florida's 6th congressional district in 2015. Because the 4th district is a Republican safe seat, Rutherford was heavily favored in each election.

In the August 2016 Republican primary, Rutherford faced State Representative Lake Ray, St. Johns County Commissioner Bill McClure and former St. Johns Water Management District executive director Hans Tanzler III. Rutherford won the nomination with 38.7% of the vote, to Ray's 20.1%, Tanzler's 19.0%, and McClure's 9.8%. In the general election, Rutherford defeated Democratic nominee David Bruderly, 70.2% to 27.6%.

2018
In 2018, Rutherford was challenged by Democratic nominee Ges Selmont, a Ponte Vedra Beach attorney. He was reelected, 65.2% to 32.4%.

2020
In 2020, Rutherford won re-nomination in a low-key Republican primary, defeating retired Navy chief petty officer Erick Aguilar with 80.2% of the vote to Aguilar's 19.8%. In the general election, Rutherford defeated Democratic nominee Donna Deegan, a former local TV anchor and breast cancer awareness advocate, 61.1% to 38.9%.

2022
Rutherford won the Republican primary with 65.6% of the vote. He was uncontested in the general election.

2024
Rutherford is running for re-election in 2024.

Tenure
On January 11, 2017, Rutherford collapsed on the floor of the House, in what his staffers described as an "acute digestive flareup";  he was taken to the hospital, and released ten days later.

Committee assignments
For the 118th Congress:
 * Committee on Appropriations
 * Subcommittee on Homeland Security
 * Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
 * Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
 * Committee on Ethics

Caucus memberships

 * Republican Main Street Partnership
 * Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus
 * Congressional Coalition on Adoption

Investigation
In February 2021, Rutherford joined the House Committee on Ethics. The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) board filed a February 2022 report stating that there was "substantial reason to believe" Rutherford had not filed timely disclosure reports as required by federal law and House rules. The House Committee on Ethics released a report on May 31, 2022, indicating that it was investigating one of its members over repeated reporting violations of the STOCK Act, enacted in 2012 to prevent insider trading using non-public information by members of Congress and other government employees. Members of Congress are required to report any stock transaction over $1,000 within 45 days. Violations are subject to a $200 fine. Between January 2017 and December 2021, Rutherford had 157 late reports involving trades worth between $652,000 and $3.5 million. Most were from his first term, but the violations continued thereafter. The OCE report noted an $800 fine payment in November 2021 but asked whether Rutherford had been "properly penalized for his repeated violations of federal law and House rules". The OCE report also said that Rutherford and Jen Bailey, his chief of staff, were uncooperative by refusing to meet and answer questions. The fine for 157 violations would be $31,400. During his time in Congress, Rutherford had "several trainings on his disclosure obligations" for reporting stock transactions, according to the OCE report.

Rutherford initially contended that the stock trades are made by the manager of his IRA, so he should have been exempt from the reporting requirements. One of his lawyers, Kate Belinski, sent the OCE a letter on March 18, 2022, insisting that the late reports were "an entirely inadvertent oversight" based on a "simple misunderstanding of the requirements". She wrote that Rutherford had cooperated by providing the documents OCE requested. Belinski also claimed that Rutherford has a new system to track and file STOCK transactions. Rutherford said, "Everything is done, as far as I know. I paid the fine that they asked for, and I'm done with it."

Political positions
Rutherford aligned himself with President Donald Trump, voting in line with Trump's position 96.6% of the time. He voted against a majority of fellow Republicans approximately 3.9% of the time.

Gun policy
In 2017, Rutherford signed a letter to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives expressing his support for legislation to ban bump stocks.

From 2015 to 2016, Rutherford received $1,000 in campaign donations from the NRA Political Victory Fund.

In 2018, Rutherford sponsored a bill, the STOP (Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing) School Violence Act, that authorized $50 million a year to create a federal grant program "to train students, teachers and law enforcement on how to spot and report signs of gun violence"; the House approved the bill, 407–10. The bill authorized funding for the development of "anonymous telephone and online systems where people could report threats of violence" and $25 million for schools to "improve and harden their security, such as installing new locks, lights, metal detectors and panic buttons." A separate spending bill would be required to provide money for the grant program; Rutherford sought to include such funding as part of an omnibus spending bill.

Environment
In interviews in 2016 and 2019, he acknowledged the existence of climate change but questioned the scientific consensus that human activity has caused the increase in warming. Rutherford has expressed concern over sea level rise, which would adversely impact St. Augustine. He has criticized the Green New Deal proposal as a "socialist manifesto".

Rutherford and Representative Jeff Van Drew introduced the Atlantic Coastal Economies Protection Act, which would prohibit seismic air gun testing in the Atlantic Ocean. In 2019, in a break with Trump's position, Rutherford voted in favor of legislation to ban offshore drilling along the Atlantic coast, Pacific coast, and eastern Gulf of Mexico coast. In 2019, he introduced bipartisan legislation (cosponsored by eight Florida Democrats and nine Florida Republicans) to extend a moratorium on oil and gas drilling in federal waters off Florida's Gulf Coast until 2029, and to create a similar moratorium on offshore drilling in federal waters off Florida's South Atlantic coast and in the Straits of Florida.

Health care
Rutherford supported the unsuccessful 2017 effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. In 2021, he sponsored legislation seeking to block the government from asking passengers on domestic flights whether they had been vaccinated against COVID-19.

LGBT rights
Rutherford voted against the Equality Act in 2019 and 2021.

Policing and criminal justice
One of two former sheriffs in Congress, Rutherford is "skeptical" of shorter prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. During his campaign for Congress, he called Black Lives Matter a "hate group".

Rutherford opposes capital punishment, citing his Catholic faith.

Economy, trade, and taxation
Rutherford voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a measure he praised as good for the economy.

Foreign and military policy
Rutherford's district includes two major U.S. Navy bases (Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport), and he has pressed issues important to the bases. Like other members of Florida's delegation, he pressed for two squadrons of the F-35 Lightning II to be based in Jacksonville.

Donald Trump
Rutherford defended some of Trump's most controversial statements and actions as president, including his pardon of ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio and his comments after a deadly far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Rutherford voted against both Trump's first impeachment (in 2019, on articles of obstruction of Congress and abuse of power) and his second impeachment (in 2021, on an article of incitement of insurrection).

Effort to overturn 2020 election result
Rutherford refused to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Trump lost to Joe Biden. He echoed Trump's false claims of election fraud and suggested that Republican-controlled state legislatures in swing states Biden won could hold a "decertification vote" that would lead to the U.S. House selecting the next president, though he acknowledged that this was unlikely to succeed. On January 7, 2021, after the Capitol was attacked by a pro-Trump mob in an attempted insurrection, Rutherford was one of 138 House Republicans who voted not to count the electoral votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania, despite a number of audits and recounts confirming the election outcome in those states.

In December 2020, Rutherford was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to overturn the election results. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.

After Trump was impeached for his role in inciting a pro-Trump mob to storm the Capitol over false claims of election fraud, Rutherford condemned Representative Liz Cheney for voting to impeach Trump, accusing her of not being a "team player."

Immigration
In 2018, Rutherford defended the Trump administration policy of separating parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border, and opposed legislation that would end the practice. After coming under pressure, Trump reversed his policy, a move Rutherford welcomed.

In 2017, Rutherford introduced legislation to create a path to citizenship for holders of E-2 Treaty Investor Visas, a special visa for business owners.

Social issues
Rutherford opposes abortion. In interviews in 2015, he contended that the U.S. had a "culture of death" he attributed to Roe v. Wade and violent video games and movies.

Rutherford opposes the legalization of marijuana. He voted against the 2014 ballot initiative to legal medicinal marijuana in Florida, believing that it would ultimately lead to the legalization of recreational marijuana and to marijuana "in every backpack in every high school in Duval County."

Other
Rutherford has supported the use of earmarks and has called for the elimination or restriction of the U.S. Senate rule that requires 60 Senate votes to invoke cloture (i.e., end debate on bills); he described both proposals as a way to facilitate compromise between the parties and reduce gridlock. Rutherford has said that he supports local referendums to resolve disputes over the fate of public Confederate monuments.

Elections
Rutherford campaigned for Duval County sheriff, running against fellow Republicans David Anderson and Lem Sharp. In the election on April 15, 2003, he received 135,038 votes, 78% of the total. He took office on July 1, 2003. Rutherford was reelected in 2007 and 2011.

On August 30, 2016, he won the Republican primary for Florida's 4th Congressional District.

Personal life
Rutherford is married to his wife, Patricia, and has two children and six grandchildren. He and his wife are Catholic.

title: John Rutherford (Florida politician)


text:
Allan B. Calhamer

Allan Brian Calhamer (December 7, 1931 – February 25, 2013) was an American board game designer, best known for his game Diplomacy.

Career
Calhamer speculated that his original inspiration for Diplomacy was an article in Life magazine about the Congress of Vienna he read in 1945 at age 13. Gordon Leavitt, a childhood friend of Calhamer's recounted how, when they were boys in La Grange Park, Illinois, he and Calhamer "discovered in the attic a geography book that showed a map of Europe before World War I with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the old boundaries." Calhamer received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1953, then began at Harvard Law School. Reading The Origins of the World War by professor Sidney Bradshaw Fay, whose class he attended, finally galvanized Calhamer. In 1954, while still enrolled, he developed a game of strategy and alliances that put seven players in control of the major powers of the pre-World War I era. He quit law school after one year, and Sylvania's Applied Research Laboratory in Waltham, Massachusetts hired him as a systems analyst. He also worked as tour guide for the Statue of Liberty during this period.

In 1959, Calhamer published his game as Diplomacy and printed 500 copies. After selling all of them in six months, he licensed the game to a publisher, with Games Research releasing its first edition in 1961. Over the years, Diplomacy has been published in North America by Games Research, Avalon Hill, Hasbro, and Renegade Game Studios, and has been published in several different languages in other nations by various publishers. Calhamer's original face-to-face board game has also been played by mail since 1963. More recently, there are internet Diplomacy games, games run through email or online with or without a human game master. Calhamer later invented two other games, but neither achieved anything like the success of Diplomacy.

Calhamer wrote a book, Calhamer on Diplomacy: The Boardgame "Diplomacy" and Diplomatic History, but the game did not provide him with a living. In the 1990s he retired from working as a mail carrier and lived his last years in La Grange Park.

Calhamer also published a game of four-dimensional exploration, called "Hyper-Space." The instructions are at the Internet Archive.

Legacy
Calhamer died of heart and kidney failure on February 25, 2013, at Adventist-La Grange Memorial Hospital in La Grange, Illinois. Mike Webb, vice president of marketing and data services for Alliance Game Distributors, said in a posthumous interview, "In many ways, the hobby-game industry as we know it owes its existence to Allan Calhamer" thanks to Diplomacy's numerous gameplay innovations, specifically the ability to negotiate and deceive other players.

Personal life
Calhamer met his future wife, Hilda Morales, in New York. The couple were married 45 years and had two daughters together, Tatiana and Selenne.

Articles written by Calhamer

 * Military Intelligence (1960)
 * On Strengthening the hand of Austria-Hungary (1960)
 * The Tactics of Diplomacy (1961)
 * A Dozen Years of Diplomacy (1966)
 * On the Play of Postal Diplomacy by Allan Calhamer (1966)
 * The Invention of Diplomacy (1974)
 * Across the Whole Board (1974)
 * Objectives Other Than Winning (1974)
 * Introduction to Diplomacy (1975)
 * The Coast of Moscow

title: Allan B. Calhamer


text:
Timeline of aviation in the 19th century

This is a list of aviation-related events during the 19th century (1 January 1801 – 31 December 1900):

1800–1859

 * 1802
 * 5 July – André-Jacques Garnerin and Edward Hawke Locker make a 17 mi balloon flight from Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood to Chingford in just over 15 minutes.
 * 2 December – A manned illuminated balloon is launched from the front of Notre Dame de Paris during the Coronation of Napoleon I.
 * 1803
 * British Rear Admiral Charles Knowles proposes to the Admiralty that the Royal Navy loft an observation balloon from a ship in order to reconnoitre French preparations for the invasion of Britain in Brest. The proposal is ignored.
 * 18 July – Etienne Gaspar Robertson and his copilot Lhoest ascend from Hamburg, Germany, to an altitude of around 7300 m in a balloon.
 * 3–4 October – André-Jacques Garnerin covers a distance of 395 km from Paris to Clausen, Germany.
 * 7–8 October – Francesco Zambeccari and Pasquale Andreoli make a balloon flight which crashes into the Adriatic Sea.
 * 1804
 * Sir George Cayley builds a model glider with a main wing and separate, adjustable vertical and horizontal tail surfaces.
 * August/September – The scientists Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Jean Baptiste Biot use a balloon to conduct experiments on the Earth's magnetic field and the composition of the upper atmosphere.
 * 23 August – Francesco Zambeccari and Pasquale Andreoli make a second balloon flight which crashes into the Adriatic Sea.
 * 1806
 * Lord Cochrane flies kites from the Royal Navy 32-gun frigate HMS Pallas to spread propaganda leaflets along the coast of France. It is the first use of an aerial device in European maritime warfare.
 * 1807
 * Jakob Degen, a clockmaker from Vienna, experiments with an ornithopter with flap-valve wings.
 * 1809
 * Degen propels a hydrogen-filled balloon by flapping large ornithopter-style wings.
 * September – Sir George Cayley publishes the first part of his seminal paper On Aerial Navigation, setting out for the first time the scientific principles of heavier-than-air flight.
 * 1810
 * September – Frenchwoman Sophie Blanchard makes a flight starting from Frankfurt, making her the first woman to fly in a balloon in Germany.
 * Chemist Johann Gottfried Reichard makes his first flight in a self-constructed gas balloon from Berlin, making him the second person to fly in a gas balloon in Germany.
 * 1811
 * 16 April – Wilhelmine Reichard makes her first solo flight, starting in Berlin, making her the first native German woman to fly in a balloon.
 * 31 May – Albrecht Berblinger crashes a hang glider (possibly a copy of Degen's) into the Danube. A reproduction built according to the design drawing in 1986 is capable of flight.
 * 1812
 * 21 September – Francesco Zambeccari dies when his balloon catches fire on landing.
 * 1819
 * 6 July – Sophie Blanchard launches fireworks from her balloon in flight during an exhibition at the Tivoli Gardens in Paris. The fireworks ignite the gas in the balloon, which crashes on the roof of a house. She falls to her death, becoming the first woman to die in an aviation accident.
 * 1824
 * 25 May – Englishman Thomas Harris dies when his balloon crashes near Carshalton. His female passenger survives. The exact cause is not determined but is apparently due to a valve Harris has designed to release gas from the balloon becoming stuck open. Despite dropping all ballast Harris is unable to stop a precipitous plunge.
 * 1836
 * 7–8 November – Flight of a coal gas balloon (named The Great Balloon of Nassau) by Charles Green covering 722 km from London to Weilburg, Germany, in 18 hours with passengers Robert Hollond and Thomas Monck Mason. It is the first overnight balloon flight, and it sets a world ballooning distance record that will stand until 1907 in aviation.
 * 1837
 * Robert Cocking jumps from a balloon piloted by Charles Green at a height of 2000 m to demonstrate a parachute of his own design, and is killed in the attempt.
 * 1838
 * 4 September – Charles Green, George Rush, and Edward Spencer ascend to an altitude of 19,335 ft over England in the Great Balloon of Nassau before landing at Thaxted.
 * 10 September – Green and Rush ascend to a world record altitude of 27,146 ft over England in the Great Balloon of Nassau, reaching speeds of 80 to 100 mph during the flight.
 * 1839
 * The American John Wise introduces the ripping panel which is still used today. The panel solved the problem of the balloon dragging along the ground at landing and needing to be stopped with the help of anchors.
 * Charles Green and the astronomer Spencer Rush ascend to 7900 m in a free balloon.
 * 1840
 * Louis Anslem Lauriat makes the first manned flight in Canada, at Saint John, New Brunswick, in his balloon Star of the East.
 * 1842
 * November – English engineer William Samuel Henson makes the first complete drawing of a power-driven aeroplane with steam-engine drive. The patent follows the works of Cayley. The English House of Commons rejects the motion for the formation of an "Aerial Transport Company" with great laughter.
 * 1843
 * William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow file articles of incorporation for the world's first air transport company, the Aerial Transit Company
 * 1845
 * William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow build a steam-powered model aircraft, with a wingspan of 10 ft.
 * 1846
 * French balloonist Francisque Arban makes his twelfth flight from Rome in April, and is rescued from the sea after a flight from Trieste later in the year.
 * 1848
 * John Stringfellow flies a powered monoplane model a few dozen feet in a powered glide at an exhibition at Cremorne Gardens in London.
 * 1849
 * 12–25 July – While blockading Venice, the Austrians launch unmanned incendiary balloons equipped with explosive charges from land and as well as from the steamship SMS Vulcano in an attempt to bombard Venice. Although the experiment is mostly unsuccessful, it is both the first use of balloons for bombardment and the first time a warship makes offensive use of an aerial device.
 * 2–3 September – French balloonist Francisque Arban makes the first (and until 1924 only) balloon flight over the Alps, flying a hydrogen balloon from Marseille to Turin.
 * 7 October – Francisque Arban takes off from Barcelona, but his balloon is blown over the Mediterranean Sea and is lost.
 * Sir George Cayley launches a 10-year-old boy in a small glider being towed by a team of people running down a hill. This is the first known flight by a person in a heavier-than-air machine.
 * 1852
 * 24 September – French engineer Henri Giffard flies 27 km from the Paris Hippodrome to Trappes in a steam-powered dirigible, reaching a speed of about 10 km/h.
 * 1853
 * Late June or early July – Sir George Cayley's coachman successfully flies a glider, designed by his employer, some proportion of the distance across Brompton Dale in Yorkshire, becoming the world's first adult aeroplane pilot. Unimpressed with this honour, the coachman promptly resigns his employment.
 * 1855
 * First use of the word "aeroplane", in a paper by Joseph Pline.
 * 1856
 * December – French Captain Jean Marie Le Bris is towed into the air in his Artificial Albatross glider, flying 600 ft.
 * 1857
 * Félix Du Temple flies clockwork and steam-powered model aircraft, the first sustained powered flights by heavier-than-air machines.
 * French brothers du Temple de la Croix apply after successful attempts with models for a patent for a power-driven aeroplane.
 * 1858
 * John Wise and three companions complete a Montgolfière flight over a distance of 802 mi from St. Louis to Henderson
 * French airman Nadar takes the first aerial photographs.

1860s

 * 1860
 * 13 October – Ascending in Samuel Archer King's balloon The Queen of the Air, James Wallace Black takes eight photographs of Boston from an altitude of 1200 ft. The single clear print is the first successful aerial photograph in the United States and the first clear aerial photograph of a city ever taken anywhere.
 * 1861
 * The first use of observation balloons in naval warfare takes place during the American Civil War (1861–1865).
 * The United States Navy barge George Washington Parke Custis becomes the first ship configured to conduct air operations, transporting and towing observation balloons along the Potomac River. She continues these operations into early 1862.
 * 16 June – Floating 500 ft above the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the balloon 'Enterprise' with a telegraph key wired directly to the White House, Thaddeus Lowe sends a telegram to President Abraham Lincoln to demonstrate the value of balloons in military reconnaissance. It is the first telegram to be sent from the air. The Union Army Balloon Corps will be formed under Lowe's command, for observation and artillery direction, and balloons will see major use in the American Civil War over the next four years.
 * 3 August – The United States Army steamship Fanny becomes the first ship to loft a captive manned balloon when a civilian aeronaut, John La Mountain, ascends from her deck to observe Confederate military positions at Hampton Roads, Virginia. He ascends again a few days later either from Fanny or a ship named Adriatic.
 * 1862
 * With the permission of the British War Office, British Army Captain F. Beaumont and Lieutenant George Grover perform observation balloon trials at Aldershot, assisted by the civilian aeronaut Henry Tracey Coxwell. It is the first balloon experiment in the British armed forces, although the first official experimentation will not occur until 1878.
 * Late March – Civilian aeronaut John H. Steiner takes United States Navy officers aloft in an observation balloon from the deck of a flatboat on the Mississippi River so that they can direct the fire of U.S. Navy mortar boats against the Confederate-held Island Number Ten It will be the last aerial guidance of naval gunfire anywhere in the world until 1904.
 * March–May – The George Washington Parke Custis transports and tows observation balloons along the York River in Virginia during the Peninsula Campaign.
 * April – John B. Starkweather ascends several times in a balloon from the deck of the Union paddle steamer May Flower to observe Confederate positions at Port Royal, South Carolina.
 * June – The Confederate States Navy chooses the steamer CSS Teaser to embark a balloon for use in observation of Union Army positions along the James River in Virginia.
 * 1–3 July – The Confederate States Navy steamer Teaser operates a coal-gas silk observation balloon to reconnoitre Union Army positions along the James River in Virginia, the only use of a balloon by the Confederate States Navy. Her capture on 4 July by the steamer USS Maratanza (1861) ends Confederate naval balloon operations.
 * 5 September – Aeronaut Henry Tracey Coxwell and English physicist James Glaisher officially reach a height of 29,527 ft in a coal gas balloon according to their balloon's barometer, although later estimates place the maximum altitude they attained at between 35,000 and 37,000 ft. The two men nearly die of hypoxia during the flight, Glaisher falling unconscious and Coxwell losing all feeling in his hands.
 * 1863
 * The Union Army Balloon Corps is disbanded early in the year.
 * Dirigible airship flown by Solomon Andrews over Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
 * John H. Steiner takes Ferdinand von Zeppelin, an officer from the Army of Württemberg assigned to the Union Army as an observer, aloft in a balloon. Zeppelin later will credit this ascent as his inspiration to create the rigid airship, which he first flies in 1900.
 * 1864
 * Outbreak of the Paraguayan War between the Alliance of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay against Paraguay. The Alliance forces made much use of balloon reconnaissance over the next six years.
 * English philosopher-scientist Matthew Piers Watt Boulton of the UK writes his short paper, On Aerial Locomotion, detailing several inventions, including that of the aileron almost as an afterthought (he later patents them in 1868). Boulton's inspiration has been attributed to French Count Ferdinand Charles Honore Phillipe d'Esterno, whose detailed analysis of flapping and soaring bird flight, Du Vol des Oiseaux (On the flight of birds) was published as a pamphlet in 1864.
 * 1865
 * Solomon Andrews flies a dirigible twice over New York City.
 * German experimenter Paul Haenlein takes out a patent for the "Earliest Known Airship With a Semi-rigid Frame," envisioned to have a coal-gas-burning engine which draws its fuel from the craft's envelope, which is filled with coal gas. He later will construct the craft in Germany.
 * Jules Verne describes in his novel The Journey to the Moon the launch of a rocket from Florida, from which many years later American space flights actually will start.
 * The Frenchman Le Comte Ferdinand Charles Honore Phillipe d'Esterno writes in his book About the Flight of Birds, "Gliding seems to be characteristic for heavy birds; there are no odds which are stacked against that humans can not do the same at fair wind." He had earlier published the 1864 pamphlet Du Vol des Oiseaux (On the flight of birds).
 * French artist and farmer Louis Pierre Mouillard makes a tentative gliding flight. After years of studies of bird flight he publishes his book L'Empire de l'Air in 1881. He thinks that imitation of gliding and soaring flight of birds is possible, but not the imitation of the flapping of wings.
 * 20 September – Jacob Brodbeck, in his coil-spring-driven airship, flies 100 feet before crashing in a field near Luckenbach, Texas.
 * 1866
 * First South American military balloon reconnaissance ascent. On 6 July, Lieutenant Colonel Roberto A. Chodasiewicz, an Argentine Army military engineer, makes the first South American military observation ascent, manning a Brazilian Army's captive ballon over Paraguayan troops, during the Paraguayan War.
 * Foundation (12 January in London) of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain later to become the Royal Aeronautical Society, the world's oldest society devoted to all aspects of aeronautics and astronautics.
 * Francis Herbert Wenham, British, presents his paper on "Aerial Locomotion" to the RAeS. Patented superposed wing design (biplane, multiplane).
 * Jan Wnęk claims gliding flights (1866–1869) from the Odporyszów church tower. Kraków Museum of Ethnography, the source of claims of documentary evidence, refuse to allow independent researchers access to these.
 * First exhibition of aviation in London's Crystal Palace.
 * 1868
 * British inventor Matthew Piers Watt Boulton patents the aileron in its modern form.
 * 1869
 * 4 July – Frederick Marriott makes the first successful flight of an unmanned powered airship in the United States at San Francisco, a small scale dirigible called the Avitor Hermes, Jr..

1870–1889

 * 1870
 * Balloons are used by the French to transport letters and passengers out of besieged Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Between September 1870 and January 1871, 66 flights – of which 58 land safely – carry 110 passengers and up to three million letters out of Paris, as well as 500 carrier pigeons to deliver messages back to Paris. One balloon accidentally sets a world distance record by ending up off the coast of Norway.
 * 1871
 * The Englishmen Wenham and Browning construct the first wind tunnel and conduct airflow experiments.
 * Alphonse Pénaud flies his Planophore, a small rubber-powered model which is designed to have automatic pitch and roll stability.
 * 1872
 * 2 February – French naval architect Henri Dupuy de Lôme achieves 9 to 11 km/h with his airship driven by a propeller turned by eight men.
 * 13 December – The German experimenter Paul Haenlein tests the first airship with an internal combustion engine in Brünn, Austria-Hungary, achieving 19 km/h; the engine burns coal gas drawn from its balloon. The tests are stopped because of a shortage of money.
 * 1873
 * The New York Daily Graphic sponsors the first attempt in history to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, using a 400000 ft3 balloon carrying a lifeboat. The attempt is abandoned when the balloon rips and collapses during inflation.
 * 1874
 * 20 September – Felix and Louis du Temple de la Croix build a piloted steam-powered monoplane which achieves a short hop after gaining speed by rolling down a ramp.
 * 1875
 * Englishman Thomas Moy tests a tethered aeroplane with a wing span of 4 m powered by a steam engine.
 * German experimenter Paul Haenlein improves his airship by providing it with a car suspended below its framework to accommodate the crew and engine. This will become a standard practice in the design of later dirigibles.
 * 15 April – In the balloon Zénith (balloon), the French Navy officer Théodore Sivel, the French journalist Joseph Crocé-Spinelli, and the French scientist and editor Gaston Tissandier ascend to a record altitude of 8600 m. Hypoxia kills Sivel and Crocé-Spinelli during the flight and leaves Tissandier deaf.
 * 1876
 * Alphonse Pénaud and Paul Gauchot apply for a patent for a power-driven aeroplane with a retractable undercarriage, wings with dihedral and joystick control.
 * 1877
 * First flight of a steam-driven model helicopter built by Enrico Forlanini.
 * Imperial Japanese Army flying experience begins with the use of balloons.
 * 1878
 * Charles F. Ritchel publicly demonstrates of his hand-powered, one-man rigid airship, and eventually sells five of them.
 * At the Balloon Equipment Store at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, British Army Captain James Templer conducts the British Army's first official experiments with an observation balloon. It is considered the birth of British military aviation.
 * 1879
 * The British Army gains its first balloon, the Pioneer.
 * Frenchman Victor Tatin builds a power-driven model aeroplane with airscrews and a compressed air motor, successfully flying it off the ground.
 * American scientist Edmund Clarence Stedman proposes a rigid airship inspired by the anatomy of a fish, with a framework of steel, brass, or copper tubing and a tractor propeller mounted on the front of the envelope, later changed to an engine with two propellers suspended beneath the framework. The airship never is built, but Stedman's design foreshadows that of the Zeppelins of World War I.
 * Biot makes short hops in the Biot-Massia glider.
 * 1880
 * The Russian naval officer Alexander Fjodorowitsch Mozhaiski patents a steam-powered aircraft.
 * Friedrich Wölfert and Ernst Baumgarten attempt to fly a powered dirigible in free flight, but crash.
 * Balloons are used in British military manoeuvres for the first time at Aldershot.
 * 1882
 * 4 July – The first balloon flight in New Mexico is made by Park Van Tassel.
 * 1883
 * M.A. Goupil proposes a steam-powered monoplane with tractor propeller. His full-size test rig lifts itself and two men in a light breeze, but the design is never built.
 * The first electric-powered flight is made by Gaston Tissandier who fits a Siemens AG electric motor to a dirigible. Airships with electric engines (Tissandier brothers, Renard and Krebs).
 * Wölfert unsuccessfully tests a balloon powered by a hand-cranked propeller
 * The Berlin-based "German Society for Promoting Aviation" publishes a magazine, the "Zeitschrift für Luftschiffahrt" (Magazine of Aviation).
 * 1884
 * 9 August – The first fully controllable free-flight is made in the French Army dirigible La France by Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs. The flight covers 8 km in 23 minutes. It was the first flight to return to the starting point.
 * Mozhaiski finishes his monoplane (span 14 m, or 46 ft). It makes a short flight, taking off after running down a launching ramp.
 * John J. Montgomery makes first controlled heavier-than-air unpowered flight in America.
 * The British Army deploys observation balloons in combat for the first time, when it takes balloons subordinated to the Royal Engineers along on the Bechuanaland Expedition in South Africa.
 * The Imperial Russian Army adopts the balloon for military service.
 * Englishman Horatio Phillipps has a patent issued for curved aerofoil sections.
 * Goupil publishes his book on La Locomotion Aérienne.
 * 1885
 * The Prussian Airship Arm (Preussische Luftschiffer Abteilung) becomes a permanent unit of the army.
 * The British Army deploys observation balloons in Sudan to take part in the expedition to Suakin during the Mahdist War.
 * Frenchmen Hervé and Alluard achieve a hot air balloon flight of over 24 hours.
 * John J. Montgomery experiments with a second glider in California.
 * 1886
 * John J. Montgomery conducts studies on the flow of water and air over angles surfaces and experiments with a third glider in California.
 * 1887
 * 30 January – Thomas Scott Baldwin makes the first parachute jump in the western United States at San Francisco from a tethered balloon owned by Park Van Tassel and using a parachute co-invented with Park Van Tassel.
 * 1888
 * Wölfert flies a petrol powered dirigible at Seelburg, the first use of a petrol-fuelled engine for aviation purposes. The engine was built by Gottlieb Daimler.
 * 4 July – Clara Van Tassel makes the first parachute jump by a woman in the western United States at Los Angeles from a balloon operated by her husband Park Van Tassel.
 * 1889
 * Percival G. Spencer makes a successful parachute jump from a balloon at Drumcondra, Ireland
 * Otto Lilienthal publishes in his book Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst (Bird Flight as the Basis for the Art of Aviation) measurements on wings, so called polar diagrams, which are the concept of description of artificial wings even today. The book gives a reference for the advantages of the arched wing.
 * Pichancourt develops a mechanical bird which aimed to imitate the motion of a bird's wings in flight.
 * Lawrence Hargrave, a British immigrant to Australia, constructs a rotary engine driven by compressed air.
 * A British Army observation balloon section takes part in the Army Manoeuvres at Aldershot.

1890–1900

 * 1890
 * The British Army establishes a Balloon Section of the Royal Engineers, commanded by Lieutenant H. B. Jones. A balloon factory and a ballooning school support the new section.
 * 9 October – The first brief flight of Clément Ader's steam-powered fixed-wing aircraft Eole takes place in Satory, France. It flies uncontrolled approximately 50 m at a height of 20 cm before crashing, but it is the first take-off of a powered airplane solely under its own power.
 * 1891
 * Otto Lilienthal flies about 25 m in his Derwitzer Glider.
 * Clément Ader makes a second flight in Eole, an uncontrolled 100 m hop that ends in a crash. Ader later will experiment with an even less successful twin-engined steam-powered aircraft before giving up his aircraft experiments.
 * 29 April – Chuhachi Ninomiya flies the first model airplane in Japan, a rubber-band-powered monoplane with a four-bladed pusher propeller and three-wheeled landing gear. It makes flights of 3 and 10 m. The next day it flies 36 m.
 * 1892
 * February – The first contract is awarded for the construction of a military airplane: Clément Ader is contracted by the French War Ministry to build a two-seater aircraft to be used as a bomber, capable of lifting a 75-kilogram (165-pound) bombload.
 * August – Clément Ader later claims to have made an uncontrolled flight of 200 m in the Avion II (also referred to as the Zephyr or Éole II) at a field in Satory in this month.
 * Otto Lilienthal flies over 82 m in his Südende-Glider.
 * Austria-Hungary's army gains a permanent air corps, the Kaiserlich und Königliche Militäraeronautische Anstalt ("Imperial and Royal Military Aeronautical Group")
 * 1893
 * Otto Lilienthal flies about 250 m in his Maihöhe-Rhinow-Glider.
 * Lawrence Hargrave demonstrates a human-carrying glider in Australia at an aeronautical congress in Sydney. It is based on the box kite, an invention of Hargrave's. It becomes an example for several scientific kites and aeroplane constructions.
 * British Army Captain Baden Baden-Powell begins experiments with man-lifting kites.
 * Horatio Phillips builds a steam-powered test rig at Harrow. A "venetian blind" style multiplane with a stack of wings each with a span of 19 ft and a chord of only 4 cm. Tethered to the centre of a circular track, its rear wheels rose 60 – while front wheels remained on ground.
 * 1894
 * Czeslaw Tanski successfully flies powered models in Poland and begins work on full-size gliders.
 * Railway engineer Octave Chanute publishes Progress in Flying Machines, describing the research completed so far into flight. Chanute's book, a summary of many articles published in the "American Engineer and Railroad Journal", is a comprehensive account on the stage of development worldwide on the way to the aeroplane.
 * Otto Lilienthal's Normal soaring apparatus is the first serial production of a glider. Using different aircraft constructions he covers distances of up to 250 m.
 * The British Army forms a kiting section for the operation of man-lifting kites within the Royal Engineers.
 * 31 July – Hiram Maxim launches an enormous biplane test rig with a wingspan of 32 m propelled by two steam engines. It lifts off and engages the restraining rails, which prevent it from leaving the track.
 * November – Lawrence Hargrave demonstrates stable flight with a tethered box kite.
 * 4 December – German meteorologist and Aerologist Arthur Berson ascends to 9155 m in a balloon, setting a new world altitude record for human flight.
 * 1895
 * Percy Pilcher makes his first successful flight in a glider named the Bat.
 * Pablo Suarez flies his Suarez Glider in Argentina, following correspondence with Lilienthal.
 * By the mid-1890s, the Imperial Russian Navy has established "aerostatic parks" on the coasts of the Baltic Sea and Black Sea.
 * 1896
 * 6 May – Samuel Pierpont Langley flies the unmanned Aerodrome No. 5 from a houseboat on the Potomac River a distance of 3300 ft, the first truly successful flight of one of his powered models.
 * June – Octave Chanute organises a flyer camp at Lake Michigan during which both a copy of one of Lilienthal's designs and a biplane built by Chanute are tested.
 * 9 August – Otto Lilienthal crashes after a stall caused by a gust, breaking his back. He dies the following day.
 * October – Ground testing of an all-aluminium airship designed by the Austro-Hungarian engineer David Schwarz and built by Carl Berg, begins in Berlin. Schwarz will die of a heart attack before seeing it fly.
 * November – Samuel Pierpont Langley flies the unmanned Aerodrome No. 6 a distance of 4200 ft.
 * Germans August von Parseval and Hans Bartsch von Sigsfeld invent the kite balloon for observations in strong winds.
 * William Paul Butusov, a Russian immigrant to U.S, with the Chanute group, construct the Albatross Soaring Machine which achieves an unmanned unpowered uncontrolled hop from a ramp.
 * William Frost, Welsh, flies the Frost Airship Glider 500 meters, possibly with balloon assist.
 * 1897
 * 11 June – Salomon Andrée, Nils Strindberg, and Knut Frænkel attempt an expedition to the North Pole by free balloon from Spitsbergen. They crash within three days but manage to survive for several months in the pack ice. Their remains are discovered in 1930 on White Island. It was possible to develop the preserved film material.
 * 12 June – Friedrich Hermann Wölfert and his mechanic are killed when their petrol-powered airship catches fire during a demonstration at the Tempelhof field.
 * 14 October – Clément Ader later asserts that on this date he made a 300 m flight in his steam-powered uncontrolled Avion III also referred to as Aquilon or the Éole III. His claim is disputed. The French Army is not impressed and withdraws funding.
 * 3 November – The first flight in a rigid airship is made by Ernst Jägels, flying the all-aluminium craft designed by David Schwarz and built by Carl Berg. It reaches an altitude of 24 m, proving metal-framed airships can become airborne, but after an engine failure is damaged beyond repair in an emergency landing.
 * Carl Rickard Nyberg starts working on his Flugan.
 * 1898
 * March – Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt calls for the creation of a four-officer board to study the utility of Samuel P. Langley's "flying machine," the Langley Aerodrome. Roosevelt asserts that "the machine has worked." It is the first documented United States Navy expression of interest in aviation. The machine is commissioned by the United States Army Signal Corps.
 * 2 September – Alberto Santos-Dumont flies his first airship design.
 * 22 October – Augustus Moore Herring claims a heavier-than-air flight along the beach at St. Joseph, Michigan, of 70 ft by attaching a compressed air motor to a biplane hang glider. However, there are no witnesses.
 * The Aéro-Club de France is founded.
 * The French Navy torpedo boat tender Foudre operates a spherical balloon experimentally during naval maneuvers in the Mediterranean Sea.
 * Lyman Wiswell Gilmore, Jr., American, builds a steam driven monoplane.
 * Edson Fessenden Gallaudet, American, builds a hydroplane.
 * 1899
 * The Hague Convention of 1899 prohibits military aircraft from discharging projectiles and explosives, but permits the wartime use of aircraft for reconnaissance and other purposes.
 * The Wright brothers begin experimenting with wing-warping as a means of controlling an aircraft.
 * Samuel Cody begins experiments with kites big enough to lift a person.
 * Percy Pilcher flies various gliders and is close to completing a powered machine but is killed when his glider crashes at Stanford Hall, England after a tail strut fails. Pilcher used a team of horses to pull the glider into the air.
 * 22 November – The first of three British Army observation balloon sections arrives in South Africa to take part in the Second Boer War. The war will see the first large-scale use of observation balloons by the British armed forces.
 * 11 December – A British Army observation balloon section takes part in the Battle of Magersfontein during the Second Boer War.
 * 1900
 * February – In the Second Boer War, a British Army observation balloon section takes part in the relief of Ladysmith.
 * 2 July – Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin pilots his experimental first Zeppelin, LZ 1, over Lake Constance, reaching an altitude of 400 m with five men on board. Although the flight lasts only 18 minutes, covers only 5.6 km, and ends in an emergency landing on the lake, it is the first flight of a truly successful rigid airship.
 * 12 September – The Wright brothers arrive at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to begin their first season of glider experiments there.
 * 3 October – Probably on this date, Wilbur Wright makes the Wright brothers' first glider flight at Kitty Hawk. During their tests, they will fly the 1900 glider both as a glider and as a kite under various wind conditions.
 * 17 October – On her second flight, the Zeppelin LZ 1 remains aloft for 80 minutes.
 * 23 October – The Wright brothers abandon their 1900 glider in a sand hollow and break camp at Kitty Hawk to return home to Dayton, Ohio.
 * November – The British Army's observation balloon section's duty in the Second Boer War comes to an end. It is ordered home from South Africa because the Boers have switched to guerrilla tactics, making the balloons unsuitable for supporting British operations.

Births

 * 1825
 * 8 February – Henri Giffard, French inventor, dirigible designer (suicide 1882)
 * 1838
 * 8 July – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German airship manufacturer (died 1917)
 * 1848
 * 23 May – Otto Lilienthal, German glider pilot (died 1896 in aviation accident)
 * 1853
 * 25 July – Park Van Tassel, American balloonist and parachute designer (died 1930)
 * 1854
 * 28 March – Sir George White, 1st Baronet, English aircraft manufacturer (died 1916)
 * 1858
 * 15 February – John Joseph Montgomery, American aviator (died 1911)
 * 1859
 * 3 February – Hugo Junkers, German aircraft manufacturer (died 1935)
 * 1863
 * 13 December – Mason Patrick, Chief of United States Army Air Service (died 1942)
 * 1865
 * 10 June – E. Lilian Todd, American aircraft designer (died 1937)
 * 1866
 * 16 January – Percy Pilcher, English glider pilot (died 1899 in aviation accident)
 * 1867
 * 6 March – Samuel Franklin Cody, American-born showman and aviator (died 1913 accident)
 * 16 April – Wilbur Wright, American aviator (died 1912 of typhoid fever)
 * 1871
 * 19 August – Orville Wright, American aviator (died 1948)
 * 1872
 * 13 March – Léon Delagrange, French aviator and sculptor (died 1910 in aviation accident)
 * 1 July – Louis Blériot, French aviator (died 1936)
 * 1873
 * 3 February
 * Karl Jatho, German aviation pioneer (died 1933)
 * Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, English military aviator (died 1956)
 * 20 July – Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian aeronautical engineer (suicide 1932)
 * 26 September – Thérèse Peltier, French sculptor and pioneer aviator (died 1926)
 * 1874
 * 26 May – Henri Farman, Anglo-French aviator (died 1958)
 * 1875
 * 11 May – Harriet Quimby, American aviator, journalist and screenwriter (died 1912 in aviation accident)
 * 11 September – Horatio Barber, English aviation pioneer (died 1964)
 * 1876
 * 14 October – Charles de Tricornot de Rose, French military aviator (died 1916 in aviation accident)
 * 1877
 * 22 March – Sefton Brancker, English air vice marshal (died 1930 in aviation accident)
 * 27 August – Charles Rolls, English aviator and automobile pioneer (died 1910 in aviation accident)
 * 1878
 * 8 January – Millicent Bryant, Australian pilot (drowned 1927)
 * 21 May – Glenn Curtiss, American aircraft manufacturer (died 1930)
 * 28 September – Lilian Bland, Anglo-Irish journalist and pioneer aviator (died 1971)
 * 29 December – Marthe Niel, French pilot (died 1928)
 * 1879
 * 21 August – Claude Grahame-White, English aviator (died 1959)
 * 1880
 * 5 February – Gabriel Voisin, French aircraft manufacturer (died 1973)
 * 1881
 * 27 September – Raymond Saulnier, French aircraft manufacturer (died 1964)
 * 1 October – William Boeing, American aircraft manufacturer (died 1956)
 * 1882
 * 27 July – Geoffrey de Havilland, English aircraft manufacturer and sportsman (died 1965)
 * 19 November – Aurel Vlaicu, Romanian aeronautical engineer and pilot (died 1913 in aviation accident)
 * 1883
 * 10 January – Hubert Latham, French aviator (died 1912)
 * 16 January – Oswald Short, English aeronautical engineer (died 1969)
 * 19 July – Louis Paulhan, French aviator (died 1963)
 * 1884
 * 8 February – John Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara, English aviator and politician (died 1964)
 * 14 May – Claude Dornier, German aircraft designer (died 1969)
 * 12 June – Henry Petre, English solicitor and pioneer Australian military aviator (died 1962)
 * 25 October – B. C. Hucks, English aviation pioneer (died 1918)
 * 1885
 * 5 March – Graham Gilmour, English aviator (died 1912 in aviation accident)
 * 14 March – Raoul Lufbery, French American fighter ace (died 1918 in action)
 * 6 June – Roy Fedden, English aircraft engine designer (died 1973)
 * 15 November – Frederick Handley Page, English aircraft manufacturer (died 1962)
 * 30 November – Albert Kesselring, German military aviator (died 1960)
 * 1886
 * 8 February – Gunther Plüschow, German aviator (died 1931 in aviation accident)
 * 23 February – Didier Masson, French aviator (died 1950)
 * 25 June – Henry H. Arnold, American military aviator, General of the Air Force (died 1950)
 * 23 July – Arthur Whitten Brown, English aviator (died 1948)
 * 1887
 * 24 May – Mick Mannock, British fighter ace (died 1918 in action)
 * 22 September – Maurice Prévost, French aviator (died 1952)
 * 26 September – William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse, English military aviator (died 1915 of wounds)
 * 11 November – Walther Wever, German military aviator (died 1936 in aviation accident)
 * 1888
 * 18 January – Thomas Sopwith, English aircraft manufacturer (died 1989)
 * 24 January – Ernst Heinkel, German aircraft manufacturer (died 1958)
 * 25 May – George Herbert Scott, English aviator (died 1930 in aviation accident)
 * 6 October – Roland Garros, French aviator (died 1918 in action)
 * 29 October (10 November OS) – Andrei Tupolev, Russian aircraft designer (died 1972)
 * 1889
 * 22 January – Harry Hawker, Australian-born aviator (died 1921 in aviation accident)
 * 1 May – Herbert Smith, English aeronautical engineer (died 1977)
 * 25 May – Igor Sikorsky, Russian-born aircraft manufacturer (died 1972)
 * 13 June – Adolphe Pégoud, French acrobatic pilot and first fighter ace (died 1915 in action)
 * 25 June – Gustav Hamel, German-born British aviator (lost on flight 1914)
 * 1890
 * 6 April – Anthony Fokker, Dutch aircraft manufacturer (died 1939)
 * 13 August – Lydia Zvereva, Russian aviation pioneer (died 1916)
 * 22 August – Hans-Joachim Buddecke, German fighter ace (died 1918 in action)
 * 21 September – Max Immelmann, German fighter ace (died 1916 in action)
 * 8 October – Eddie Rickenbacker, American fighter ace (died 1973)
 * 25 October – Floyd Bennett, American naval aviator (died 1928)
 * 30 December – Lanoe Hawker, English fighter ace (died 1916 in action)
 * 1891
 * 22 January – Bruno Loerzer, German military aviator (died 1960)
 * 30 January – Walter Beech, American aircraft manufacturer (died 1950)
 * 18 February – Julius Busa, German fighter ace (died 1917 in action)
 * 3 March – Fritz Rumey, German fighter ace (died 1918 in action)
 * 24 March – Rudolf Berthold, German fighter ace (died 1920 in Kapp Putsch)
 * 5 April – Eric Gordon England, Argentine-born English aviator, pioneer glider pilot and racing driver (died 1970)
 * 16 May – Adolf Ritter von Tutschek, German fighter ace (died 1918 in action)
 * 19 May – Oswald Boelcke, German fighter ace (died 1916 in action)
 * 11 July – Joseph Sadi-Lecointe, French aviator (died 1944)
 * July 30 – Roderic Dallas, Australian World War I fighter ace (died 1918 in action)
 * December 6 – Gotthard Sachsenberg, German naval aviator, fighter ace (died 1961)
 * December 17 – Karl Emil Schäfer, German fighter ace (died 1917 in action)
 * Zee Yee Lee, Chinese aviation pioneer (died 1944)
 * 1892
 * January 26 – Bessie Coleman, American pilot (died 1926)
 * 15 March – Charles Nungesser, French fighter ace (died 1927 accident)
 * 30 March – Erhard Milch, German military aviator (died 1972)
 * 6 April – Donald Wills Douglas Sr., American aircraft manufacturer (died 1981)
 * 13 April
 * Arthur "Bomber" Harris, English military aviator (died 1984)
 * Robert Watson-Watt, Scottish pioneer of radar (died 1973)
 * 2 May – Manfred von Richthofen, German fighter ace (died 1918 in combat)
 * 6 July – Willy Coppens, Belgian fighter ace (died 1986)
 * 11 July – Trafford Leigh-Mallory, English military aviator (died 1944 in aviation accident)
 * 17 July – Edwin Harris Dunning, English naval aviator (died 1917 in aviation accident)
 * 5 November – John Alcock, English aviator (died 1919 in aviation accident)
 * 14 November – Dieudonné Costes, French aviator (died 1973)
 * 8 December – Bert Hinkler, Australian pioneer aviator (died 1933 in aviation accident)
 * 24 December – Ruth Chatterton, American actress, novelist and aviator (died 1961)
 * 27 December – Alfred Edwin McKay, Canadian fighter ace (died 1917 in combat)
 * 1893
 * 12 January – Hermann Göring, German military aviator (suicide 1946)
 * 5 August – Sydney Camm, English aircraft designer (died 1966)
 * 17 December – Charles C. Banks, English fighter ace (died 1971)
 * 1894
 * 7 March – Frank Halford, English aircraft engine designer (died 1955)
 * 27 March – René Fonck, French fighter ace (died 1953)
 * 5 April – Larry Bell, American aircraft manufacturer (died 1956)
 * 6 May – Alan Cobham, English aviator (died 1973)
 * 13 December – Friedrich Hefty, Austro-Hungarian fighter ace (died 1965)
 * 24 December – Georges Guynemer, French fighter ace (died 1917 in action)
 * 1895
 * 28 March – James McCudden, English fighter ace (died 1918 in aviation accident)
 * 20 May – R. J. Mitchell, English aircraft designer (died 1937)
 * 14 July – Leefe Robinson, English military aviator (died 1918)
 * 21 September – Juan de la Cierva, 1st Count of la Cierva, Spanish aeronautical engineer (died 1936 in aviation accident)
 * 28 October (probable) – Clyde Pangborn, American aviator (died 1958)
 * 1 November – Arthur Raymond Brooks, American fighter ace and aviator (died 1991)
 * 1896
 * 12 April – Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr., American aviator (died 1974)
 * 26 April – Ernst Udet, German military aviator (suicide 1941)
 * 14 August – Albert Ball, English fighter ace (died 1917 in combat)
 * 1897
 * 9 February – Charles Kingsford Smith, Australian aviator (died 1935 in aviation accident)
 * 23 February – Edgar Percival, Australian aircraft designer (died 1984)
 * 24 July – Amelia Earhart, American aviator (lost 1937 on flight)
 * 15 August – Ludovic Arrachart, French aviator (died 1933 in aviation accident)
 * 1898
 * 18 January – George McCubbin, South African fighter pilot and cricketer (died 1944)
 * 22 November – Wiley Post, American aviator (died 1935 in aviation accident)
 * 1899
 * 17 January – Nevil Shute (Norway), English-born novelist and aeronautical engineer (died 1960)
 * 24 January – Hoyt Vandenberg, American military aviator (died 1954)
 * 9 April – James Smith McDonnell, American aircraft manufacturer (died 1980)
 * 1 August – Jimmie Angel, American aviator (died 1956)
 * 24 August – Max Näther, German fighter ace (died 1919 in combat)


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Category:Illusions

Articles related to illusions, distortions of the senses, which can reveal how the human brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort our perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people.

title: Category:Illusions