Today, Howard Hughes flies the "Spruce Goose," a massive wooden airplane, for the first and only time in 1947.
The Hughes Flying Boat, once the biggest aircraft ever built, is flown on its first and only flight by creator Howard Hughes. The gigantic wooden aircraft, built of laminated birch and spruce (thus the moniker the Spruce Goose), had a wingspan larger than a football field and was planned to transport more than 700 men to battle. When Howard Hughes created the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932, he was a renowned Hollywood movie producer. He personally tested cutting-edge aircraft of his own design and set a transcontinental flight time record in 1937. He flew around the world in three days, 19 hours, and 14 minutes in 1938.
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Chevrolet officially joins the automotive market in 1911, competing with the Ford Model T.
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Kendall Jenner, an American model and television personality, was born in Los Angeles, California in 1995.
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Today, Barack Obama is elected President of the United States, becoming the first African-American to do so, beating Republican contender John McCain.
Today, in 1755, Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, who is said to have said "let them eat cake," was born in Vienna, Austria.
Today is 1933. Amartya Sen is an Indian economist and Nobel laureate who was born in Santiniketan, West Bengal, India.
Today, the Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2 in 1957, with space dog Laika, a mostly-Siberian husky, onboard, becoming the first animal in orbit.
Today, in Springfield, Illinois, American socialite Mary Todd marries Illinois Congressman and lawyer Abraham Lincoln in 1842.
Today, Howard Carter discovers Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt in 1922.
Today, Amar Bose, an American entrepreneur and professor, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1929.
Today, The Times of India, the world's most widely read English-language daily broadsheet newspaper, was launched in 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce Today.
Today, in 1950, Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw dies at the age of 94.
Today, in Pune, India, Nizari Imam Aga Khan III marries his first cousin Shahzadi Begum in 1896.
Today, Shah Rukh Khan, an Indian actor, producer, and television personality, was born in New Delhi, India in 1965.
Shakuntala Devi, an Indian writer and mental calculator known as the "Human Computer," was born today in Bangalore, Mysore, British India, in 1929.
Today, Aga Khan III, a Shia Imam who was a founder of the All-India Muslim League and subsequently President of the League of Nations, was born in Karachi, British India, in 1877.
Matthew McConaughey, an American actor, was born today in Uvalde, Texas, in 1969.