December 17, 1903: The brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright made the 1st verified heavier-than-air flight, at Kill Devil Hill, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Wilbur, 36, and Orville, 32, had been bicycle builders in their native Dayton, Ohio. They took what they learned in aerodynamics from that, and put it to work in building gliders, and finally their first airplane, the Wright Flyer.
They chose Kitty Hawk -- the site is now in the town of Kill Devil Hill, which broke away decades later -- because of the favorable wind conditions. Their 1st flight lasted only 12 seconds, and went just 120 feet. But they did it. By the end of the day, they were able to fly for a full minute.
They made improvements, built new planes, and by 1908, they were ready to show the world -- particularly France, which was challenging them for pioneer status in this regard -- that they had forever put to rest the old saying, "If man was meant to fly, God would have given him wings."
Wilbur died in 1912, from typhoid fever, only 45 years old. No antibiotics in those days. Orville saw how airplanes could be used in warfare, exacting a terrible toll in both World Wars. But he also saw the achievements of people like Charles Lindbergh, Charles Kingsford Smith, Wiley Post, Amelia Earhart, and Chuck Yeager. On January 30, 1948, 3 months after Yeager became the 1st person to fly faster than the speed of sound, Orville died, at 76. It would be another 13 years before man flew in space.
The Wright Flyer is now a featured exhibit in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. And because of their achievement, when the Commemorative Quarters for each State were produced by the U.S. Mint, the Wrights were depicted for both Ohio and North Carolina.
In a 2012 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, YouTube personalities Rhett McLaughlin and Charles Lincoln "Link" Neal played Wilbur and Orville Wright, respectively; against "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist as Mario and "Nice" Peter Shukoff as Luigi, of the Mario Brothers franchise.
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December 17, 1903 was a Thursday. Erskine Caldwell was born on that day. He wrote the novels Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre. Although North Carolina, where the Wright Brothers made their 1st flight, is a tobacco-producing State, and its multi-sided basketball rivalry has been nicknamed "Tobacco Road," Caldwell had actually written about his native Georgia.
Baseball was out of season. Football season had ended as well. Basketball did not exist at the professional level. There may have been league hockey games that day, but they weren't professional, either. The Ottawa Hockey Club, nicknamed the Silver Seven and later to be known as the original Ottawa Senators, were the holders of the Stanley Cup, and would play the Winnipeg Rowing Club on December 30, 1903; and January 1 and 4, 1904, to keep the Cup.
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