German bomber flying over Britain during the Blitz.

On the evening of December 29, 1940, London suffers its most devastating
air raid when Germans firebomb the city. Hundreds of fires caused by the
exploding bombs engulfed areas of London, but firefighters showed a
valiant indifference to the bombs falling around them and saved much
of the city from destruction. The next day, a newspaper photo of St. Paul’s Cathedral standing undamaged amid the smoke and flames seemed to
symbolize the capital’s unconquerable spirit during the Battle of Britain.

The dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, visible through smoke generated by German incendiary bombs.

United Airlines Flight 173 was a scheduled flight from John F.
Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Portland
International Airport in Portland, Oregon, with a scheduled stop
in Denver, Colorado. On December 28, 1978, the aircraft flying
this route ran out of fuel while troubleshooting a landing gear
problem and crashed in a suburban Portland neighborhood
near NE 157th Avenue and East Burnside Street killing 10
people. 

Flight 173 was piloted by an experienced cockpit crew,
consisting of Captain Malburn McBroom (above), First
Officer Roderick "Rod" Beebe, and Flight Engineer
Forrest Mendenhall.  McBroom had been with United
Airlines for 27 years; he was one of the airline’s most
senior pilots with more than 27,600 hours of flight time,
of which about 5,500 hours had been as a DC-8 captain.

On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to exploded in midair
over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members
aboard, as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground. A bomb hidden
inside an audio cassette player detonated in the cargo area when the plane
was at an altitude of 31,000 feet. The disaster, which became the subject of
Britain’s largest criminal investigation, was believed to be an attack against
the United States. One hundred eighty nine of the victims were American.

Islamic terrorists were accused of planting the bomb on the plane while it
was at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany.

Flight 103 impact crater at Lockerbie, Scotland.

    
Depiction of the moment the bomb was detonated.

 
    
    
Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first
successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft.

Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane, which
stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural
flight.

Orville Wright (left) and brother Wilbur.

The Wright Brothers’ 1903 Flyer, which is on display at the National
Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC.

Lufthansa cargo terminal at JFK Airport.      
    

On December 11, 1978 half a dozen masked robbers raided the Lufthansa
Airlines cargo building at JFK Airport in New York, making off with more
than $5 million in cash ($21 million in today’s dollars) and almost $1
million in jewelry. To this day, the Lufthansa heist, as it is known, is
considered one of the greatest in U.S. history. The plan was dreamed
up by Peter Gruenewald, a Lufthansa cargo worker at JFK Airport. The 
heist was dramatized in the classic mafia film "Goodfellas."

A van used during Lufthansa Airlines robbery at JFK
International Airport.

Vincent Asaro, a member of the Bonanno crime family, allegedly
helped carry out the bold heist of cash and jewelry from a cargo
terminal at JFK airport.

1990