December 17 · This Day in America
On a cold, wind-scoured beach in North Carolina, two bicycle mechanics from Ohio fly. The first flight lasts twelve seconds and covers a hundred and twenty feet — shorter than the wingspan of a modern jet. There is no crowd. There are five witnesses. The Wright brothers funded it themselves, out of a bike shop, and solved in a few years what governments and famous men had failed at for centuries. Sixty-six years later their countrymen would stand on the Moon. The line between those two days is almost straight.
Source: www.nps.gov
Also on this day · 1903
Wilbur won the coin toss for the first attempt on December 14 — and stalled it into the sand. So it was Orville's turn on the 17th, making him the first human to fly a powered aircraft. The whole arc of aviation hinged on a coin and a three-day repair.
Source: airandspace.si.edu