National Aviation Day
On August 19th, National Aviation Day is celebrated annually by Americans in honor of the country’s aviation industry and systems. It also celebrates Aviation development and the invention of the airplane, celebrated on the birthday of Orville Wright of the Wright brothers fame.
Common commemorations are school events that hold educational programs about the aviation industry and airplanes. These lessons honor innovators of aviation, including the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart. Many people may visit special events at aviation museums and the Wright Brothers National Memorial, which is in North Carolina. Every year, the president issues a proclamation to observe the holiday, chiefly asking businesses and homes to display the American Flag.
Amelia Earhart is another commonly celebrated figure in aviation. She made the record of the first female pilot to fly alone across the Atlantic, for which she received the Distinguished Flying Cross. She helped form the Ninety-Nines, a group of female pilots. Other achievements include serving as a professor of aviation at Purdue and the writing of several autobiographical books, which helped promote her acclaim. In 1937, Purdue funded her attempt at a circumnavigational flight, but disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean—one of today’s persisting mysteries.
President Franklin Roosevelt established August 19th as National Aviation Day in 1939.
