Today in History- October 14th YEAGER BREAKS SOUND BARRIER: October 14, 1947 U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.Yeager, born in Myra, West Virginia, in 1923, was a combat fighter during World War II and flew 64 missions over Europe. He shot down 13 German planes and was himself shot down over France, but he escaped capture with the assistance of the French Underground. After the war, he was among several volunteers chosen to test-fly the experimental X-1 rocket plane, built by the Bell Aircraft Company to explore the possibility of supersonic flight.For years, many aviators believed that man was not meant to fly faster than the speed of sound, theorizing that transonic drag rise would tear any aircraft apart. All that changed on October 14, 1947, when Yeager flew the X-1 over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California. The X-1 was lifted to an altitude of 25,000 feet by a B-29 aircraft and then released through the bomb bay, rocketing to 40,000 feet and exceeding 662 miles per hour (the sound barrier at that altitude). The rocket plane, nicknamed "Glamorous Glennis," was designed with thin, unswept wings and a streamlined fuselage modeled after a .50-caliber bullet.Because of the secrecy of the project, Bell and Yeager's achievement was not announced until June 1948. Yeager continued to serve as a test pilot, and in 1953 he flew 1,650 miles per hour in an X-1A rocket plane. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1975 with the rank of brigadier general. ------------------------------------------------------------------ MORE GENERAL INTEREST 1066 The Battle of Hastings 1912 Theodore Roosevelt shot in Milwaukee 1964 King wins Nobel Peace Prize historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=general&month=10272962&day=10272979 AUTOMOTIVE 1857 Birth Of An Inventor historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=automotive&month=10272962&day=10272979 CIVIL WAR 1863 Battle of Bristol Station historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=civil&month=10272962&day=10272979 COLD WAR 1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis begins historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=coldwar&month=10272962&day=10272979 CRIME 1976 A purse-snatcher is charged with attempted robbery historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=crime&month=10272962&day=10272979 ENTERTAINMENT 1977 Bing Crosby dies historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=entertainment&month=10272962&day=10272979 LITERARY 1822 Victor Hugo marries Adele Foucher historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=literary&month=10272962&day=10272979 OLD WEST 1939 Ralph Lauren, designer of popular western-style clothing, is born in New York historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=oldwest&month=10272962&day=10272979 VIETNAM WAR 1964 Khrushchev ousted as premier of Soviet Union historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=vietnamwar&month=10272962&day=10272979 WALL STREET 1943 Another Noble Enterprise historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=wallstreet&month=10272962&day=10272979 WORLD WAR II 1944 "The Desert Fox" commits suicide historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=worldwarii&month=10272962&day=10272979 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Create a profile for your subscriptions; emailmgr.aetv.com/newprofile.jsp?brand=thc