1966. The first F-4D Phantom was assigned to the Tactical Air Command. First flown
in May 1958, the Phantom II originally was developed for U.S. Navy fleet defense
and entered service in 1961.

1992. Air Combat Command and Air Mobility Command were activated.

1992. Strategic Air Command, Tactical Air Command and Military Airlift Command
were deactivated.

June 2

1949. General of the Army H.H. Arnold was given permanent five-star rank of
general of the Air Force by a special act of Congress. He was the first and only
individual to hold that grade.

June 3

1965. U.S. Air Force Astronauts Majs. James A. McDivitt and Edward H. White set a
U.S. space endurance record lasting 97 hours and 56 minutes. In the 62-orbit
Gemini 4 mission, White became the first U.S. astronaut to "walk" in space.

1959. The Air Force Academy graduated its first class with 207 new second
lieutenants.

June 4

1969. The Thunderbirds gave their first show using F-4 Phantoms.

1920. The Army Reorganization Act confirmed the legal status of the Air Service as
a combatant arm of the Army.

1918. An executive order was issued which removed all Army aviation from the
Signal Corps and vested it with the Director of Military Aeronautics and the
Bureau of Aircraft Production -- together known as the Air Service.

1794. The first flight by a woman. Marie Thible, Lyons, France, flew in a free
balloon to a height of 8,500 feet. The flight lasted about 45 minutes.

June 5

1968. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles after winning the
California primary in his bid for the presidency.

1783. The first balloon flight. Brothers Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier,
co-inventors, gave the first public demonstration of a hot air balloon flight at
Annonay, France. The balloon was 33 feet in diameter, rose to an estimated height
of 1,500 feet and traveled, wind borne, approximately 7,500 feet before landing.
The flight lasted 10 minutes.

June 6

1944. D-Day (Operation Overlord). The Allied Expeditionary Force landed in
Normandy, France, during World War II.

1937. "Donut Day" was founded by the Salvation Army to raise funds during the
Depression. It became an annual tradition that recalls serving donuts to doughboys
by the Salvation Army in World War I.

June 8

1995. U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot, Capt. Scott F. O'Grady, was
rescued by U.S. Marines after being shot down by Bosnian Serbs over Bosnia (the
former Yugoslavia). O'Grady, stationed at Aviano AB, Italy, was shot down June 2
and spent six days avoiding capture and surviving on insects and rain water.

June 9

1964. Strategic Air Command KC-135 tankers were used to support combat operations
in Southeast Asia for the first time.

1961. The delivery of the first Boeing C-135 Stratolifter jet cargo aircraft to
the Military Air Transport Service. Until this date MATS had been a totally
propeller-driven force.

June 11

1962. A B-52H set a record for the longest unrefueled flight by flying 12,532
miles in 22 hours, 9 minutes, from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, to Torrejon AB,
Spain.

1957. The first U-2 was delivered to Strategic Air Command.

June 12

1979. The first man-powered flight across the English Channel was made by Bryan
Allen, a Californian. He "pedaled" his aircraft Gossamer Albatross from Folkstone,
England, to Cape Gris-Nez, France, a distance of 22 miles, in 2 hours, 49 minutes.

1948. The Women's Armed Forces Integration Act created Women in the Air Force as
an integral part of the Air Force.

1939. Dedication of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, N.Y.

1924. Birthdate of George H.W. Bush, 41st president of the United States.

1918. U.S. Air Service bomber forces went into action for the first time, as the
96th Aero Squadron, flying French-built Breguet 14s, bombed the railroad yard at
Dommary Baroncourt in support of the French 8th Army, World War I.

June 13

1972. The secretary of the Air Force approved the move of Headquarters United
States Air Forces in Europe from Lindsey Air Base, Germany, to Ramstein AB,
Germany.

June 14 (Flag Day)

1775. Birthday of the U.S. Army.

June 15 (Father's Day)

1944. Forty-seven B-29 crews based in India and staging through Chengdu, China,
attack steel mills at Yawata in the first B-29 strike against Japan.

1785. The first fatal aviation accident involved Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier
and P.A. de Romain, France. They attempted to cross the English Channel from
France in a hot air balloon. The balloon caught fire and crashed. Pilatre de
Rozier, the first man to fly, became aviation's first fatality.

June 16

1963. First woman in space. Valentina Tereshkova, a 26-year-old Russian, manually
controlled her spacecraft, Vostok-6, in a 70.8 hour flight through 48 Earth
orbits.

June 17

1983. "Peacekeeper," America's newest Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, roared
down the Western Test Range on its maiden flight.

June 18

1983. First American woman in space. Dr. Sally Ride flew aboard the Space Shuttle
Challenger as a mission specialist.

1965. B-52s were used for the first time in Vietnam when 28 aircraft struck Viet
Cong targets near Saigon.

1965. The first launch of the U.S. Air Force Titan IIIC space booster.

1954. Headquarters 3rd Air Division was originally established at Andersen Air
Force Base, Guam.

1948. The first air refueling squadrons were activated -- the 43rd ARS at
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., and the 509th ARS at Roswell AFB, N.M.

1954. The first radar specifically designed for meteorological use was installed
by the Air Weather Service.

1941. U.S. Army Air Forces was established.

1940. The Air Transport Command was formed and assigned the global ferrying and
War Department air transportation missions, except troop carrier functions, and
the responsibility for operating and controlling Army Air Forces routes outside
the United States.

1782. The Great Seal of the United States was adopted. It was designed by Charles
Thomson, the first official record keeper of the United States.

1948. Strategic Air Command held its first bombing competition at Castle Air
Force Base, Calif. Ten B-29 groups participated.

June 21

1982. The U.S. Air Force Space Command was established to further consolidate Air
Force operational space activities.

1968. The first group of U.S. Marine Corps pilots to be trained by the Air Force
received their pilot wings at Laredo Air Force Base, Texas, and Vance AFB, Okla.

1954. Three Boeing B-47 Stratojets flew non-stop from March Air Force Base,
Calif., to Yokota Air Base, Japan, in a record 15 hours, covering 6,700 miles with
two air refuelings.

1941. The Army Air Forces as an autonomous command within the U.S. Army was
established.

June 24

1971. The Defense Race Relations Institute, Patrick Air Force Base, Fla. was
created and later designated the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute.

1954. The secretary of the Air Force announced the permanent location of the Air
Force Academy would be a 15,000-acre tract of land six miles north of Colorado
Springs, Colo.

June 25

1996. Nineteen airmen were killed in a terrorist bombing that destroyed a section
of the Khobar Towers complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

1950. The Korean War started.

1947. The first reported sighting of "flying saucers." The sighting was at Mount
Ranier, Wash.

June 26

1948. The Berlin Airlift (Operation Vittles) began. U.S. Air Force and Navy
aircraft, as well as the aircraft of the British Royal Air Force, participated.
The airlift lasted nearly 15 months, and some 2,326,204 tons of supplies had been
transported on 277,264 flights.

1948. The first B-36 Peacekeeper was delivered to the Strategic Air Command.

1945. B-29 crews begin nighttime raids on Japanese oil refineries.

June 27

1972. The Air Force Intelligence Service was established. Later it became part of
the Air Force Intelligence Command.

1972. The first flight of the F-15 Eagle.

1964. Hardened complexes for the first U.S. Air Forces in Europe CGM-13B Mace
missiles became operational.

1963. The flight of a U.S. Air Forces in Europe T-39 to Berlin was the first time
a purely military U.S. jet aircraft was flown in the air corridor to Berlin.

1958. A Strategic Missile Squadron successfully completed the first military
launch of an intercontinental missile.

1950. An Air Force F-82 pilot, 1st Lt. William G. Hudson, patrolling the skies
over Seoul and Inchon Harbor, Korea, shot down the first Communist aircraft during
the initial 48 hours of the Korean War.

1950. First Air Force victories in the Korean War.

June 28

1976. The first woman, Joan Olsen, was admitted to the U.S. Air Force Academy.

1974. Allied Air Force Central Europe was established.

1957. The first KC-135 all-jet tanker was delivered to Strategic Air Command.

June 29

1986. The first B-1B Lancer was delivered to the Strategic Air Command at Dyess
Air Force Base, Texas.

1955. The first B-52 Stratofortress was delivered to Strategic Air Command.

June 30

1977. The B-1 bomber program was canceled by President Jimmy Carter.

1975. Tactical Air Command's last C-47 retired from active inventory.

1973. The last C-123 Provider was transferred out of the Tactical Air Command.

1968. The first flight of the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, the largest jet transport
aircraft in the world.