* Apollo 7 landed successfully (1968).

* First recorded solar eclipse in the history of the world (China, 2136 B.C.).

* A story about artificial satellites was published in the Atlantic Monthly (1862).

A favorite topic for science fiction writers has been space satellite operations. Author Victor Appleton II created a type of satellite servicing vehicle, seen on the cover of his novel Tom Swift and the Cosmic Astronauts.

* Lassel discovers two of Uranus' moons, Umbriel and Ariel (1851).

* First airplane passenger service between Los Angeles and New York began. The planes only flew in day- light, passengers slept in hotels during the nights (1930). (Key Dates, Winrich, NASA Lewis )

* Jimmy Doolittle wins the Schneider Trophy Race for the U.S. in a Curtiss R3C-2 at 232.57 mph (1925).

* French flyer Fernand Blanchard died in the crash of his Bleriot biplane, which resulted from a failure of the plane's controls (Paris, 1910).

Early pioneers of aviation studied how birds fly to understand how to control a plane. Sometimes mechanisms failed causing loss of life.

(Excerpt from "How an Airplane Flies," National Aeronautics and Space Administration Education Briefs for the Elementary School Classroom, ED-104/10-91.)

Now, aside from being propelled by thrust and kept up by lift, an airplane, once in flight, can move in three directions, called axes. Each plane has a longitudinal axis (length), a lateral axis (width), and a vertical axis (height). To control the way it moves in these three directions, it has other parts called ailerons, elevators, and rudders.

In the front or nose of the plane is the cockpit, or the pilot compartment where all of the controls to operate the plane are located. There is an instrument panel and radio equipment, with the rudder pedals on the floor.

* First launch of a Saturn 1 (1961).

* French astronomer Arago drew Halley's Comet (1835).

* An Ariane 2 rocket launch placed a direct-broadcast satellite in geostationary orbit (1988).

* NASA/ERDA 100 kw windmill dedicated; largest in operation (1975).

* Enos, the chimp, orbited the Earth twice (1961).

* First attempt to launch the Russian space shuttle Buran was aborted on the launch pad as a result of a service gantry arm failing to retract (1989). correctly .(1988). (Click on Buran.)

* Spacelab was launched aboard Challenger mission 61-A (1985).

* Orson Welles broadcast "The War of the Worlds."

* First launch of the Titan 34D by the United States Air Force (1982).

* Astronaut Ted Freeman was killed in a T-38 jet crash at Ellington Air Force Base near Houston, Texas (1964).

* The Soviet Reaction Propulsion Institute was established (1933).

* Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat visited the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas (1975).