October 14, 1947: Captain Charles E. Yeager, U.S. Air Force, pilots a Bell X-1 plane he named Glamorous Glennis, after his wife, to a speed of 700 miles per hour, over the Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert of California. At his altitude, 45,000 feet (about 8 1/2 miles above sea level), that was faster than the speed of sound, making Chuck Yeager the 1st human to travel faster than sound.
He named the plane after his wife because, "You're my good-luck charm, Hon. Any plane I name after you always brings me home."
Yeager served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, earning 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 2 Silver Stars, a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He continued to serve in the Air Force until 1975, retiring with the rank of Brigadier General (1 star). That year, Congress awarded him a special silver medal, which it called "equivalent to a non-combat Medal of Honor."
He later served on the commission investigating the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger, and as a consultant for flight simulator video games. In 1997, on the 50th Anniversary of the event, he broke the sound barrier again. In 2012, on the 65th Anniversary, at the age of 89, he broke the sound barrier one last time.
In 2013, Flying magazine named 51 Heroes and Heroines of Aviation. Yeager was ranked 5th, the 2nd-highest-ranking living person, behind Paul Poberezny, who soon died, making Yeager the highest-ranking living one. Poberezny was a champion of home-built aircraft, including making a replica of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh was ranked 3rd, Orville and Wilbur Wright were a joint entry at 2nd, and Neil Armstrong -- a fighter pilot in the Korean War before he was the 1st man to walk on the Moon -- 1st. (John Glenn, also a fighter pilot in Korea, was only ranked 25th.)
A cousin of baseball player Steve Yeager, Chuck Yeager lived until December 7, 2020, age 97. He lived long enough to see the start of the Space Age, the 1st Moon landing, the speed of sound surpassed by a land vehicle; and a man jumping off a platform in the atmosphere, breaking the sound barrier without a vehicle, and parachuting safely to the Earth. Glennis died in 1990.
The Glamorous Glennis is now at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
On May 18, 1953, Jacqueline Cochran, who served as a WAAC and a WASP in World War II, became the 1st woman to break the sound barrier, flying an F-86 Sabrejet. She was older than Yeager, and was 74 when she died in 1980.
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October 14, 1947 was a Tuesday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. The NHL season started the next day. And the NBA season didn't start for another month. So there were no scores on this historic day.
Josip Hrvoje Peruzović, the Croatian professional wrestler who portrayed the Soviet wrestler Nikolai Volkoff, was born on this day.
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