Aviation pioneer and author Amelia Earhart made a flight from
Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California, becoming the first
woman to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean. The plane she
flew on that trip, a Lockheed Vega, is on display at the
National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. 

 
Amelia Earhart posing by her plane at the Oakland airport

 
The Lockheed Vega 5B at the National Air and Space Museum

 
Rick Nelson and his band were on their way to a New Year’s Eve
sock-hop in Dallas, Texas when a fire broke out aboard their 
plane, a Douglas DC-3. The pilots were forced to make a crash  
landing northeast of Dallas. Nelson and his fiancee were killed   
along with five members of his band. Both pilots were able to 
escape through the cockpit windows and survived. After an 
investigation into the crash, the cause was found to be a 
mechanical problem with the cabin heater. 

   
                               The crash site in De Kalb, Texas

 
Nelson’s grave marker at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, Cal.

United Airlines Flight 173  was a Douglas DC-8 en route from Denver to Portland International Airporton December 28, 1978. When the landing gear was lowered, only two of the green landing gear indicator lights came on.The plane circled in the vicinity of Portland while the crew investigated the problem. After about an hour the plane ran out of fuel and crashed in a sparsely populated area near 158th and East Burnside, killing 10 and seriously injuring 24 of the 189 on board the aircraft.

           A United Airlines Douglas DC-8-61, similar to Flight 173

           The Apollo 8 Astronauts, from left to right,were mission Commander
            Frank Borman, Lunar Module Pilot William Andres, and Command
            Module Pilot James Lovell. After coming out from the back side of
            the Moon,the crew read ten verses of the book of Genesis from the
            Bible. This was during a Christmas Eve TV broadcast, a portion
            of this broadcast is below.

                    

        The crew members of Apollo 8 were the first Americans to directly
        see the far side of the Moon and the first humans to see the planet
        Earth from beyond it’s low orbit.

 
         Howard Hughes, industrailist, movie producer and aviator.