1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
On Sept. 23, 1911, Earle Lewis Ovington piloted the first official airmail flight in the United States. Ovington flew in a Blériot XI and carried a sack of mail from Nassau Boulevard aerodrome in Garden City to Mineola, New York. He circled at 500 feet and tossed the bag over the side of the cockpit and the sack burst on impact, scattering letters and postcards. He delivered 640 letters and 1,280 postcards, including a letter to himself from the U.S. Post Office Department designating him as “Official Air Mail Pilot #1.” The aeronautical engineer, aviator and inventor, had previously served as a lab assistant to Thomas Edison.
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