We have liftoff! Dec 17, 2018

We have liftoff!

The Wright brothers documented the first sustained flight in a powered, controlled aircraft on this day in 1903. That historic achievement was the result of single-minded perseverance, study, and experimentation. The brothers had spent more than a dozen years designing, engineering, constructing, and tweaking various test craft, including groundbreaking work done on the glider shown here. Orville Wright snapped this photo of the plane as it’s piloted by his brother Wilbur, gliding down the slope of Big Kill Devil Hill in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in October 1902.

© Library of Congress

palette

Today in History

Dec 17, 2019When in Rome...celebrate Saturnalia
Dec 17, 2020Pining for spring
Dec 17, 2021Bournemouth beach huts
Dec 17, 2022Mountain goats at Glacier National Park in Montana
Dec 17, 2023Bohemian waxwings in Canada
Dec 17, 2024Traditional red fishermens cabins, Reine, Norway
Dec 17, 2025Eurasian red squirrel in Northumberland, England

More Desktop Wallpapers:

Jul 24, 2018Flock together for Cousins Day
Dec 5, 2025Maya site of Copán
Feb 20, 2020Après-ski in the Dolomites
Oct 14, 2020In praise of the old…the very old
Apr 10, 2020Brotherly cubs
Sep 13, 2025Point Reyes National Seashore in California
Feb 2, 2025Groundhog Day
Nov 15, 2020What’s blooming in New Zealand?
Jan 6, 2024Apple Tree Day
Dec 11, 2018‘The mountains are calling’
Jun 19, 2022Father s Day
Apr 30, 2020What kind of bird laid these eggs?
Mar 26, 2020Gray days ahead in Monterey
Feb 13, 2019Life goes on at the Beatles Ashram
Mar 25, 2021There was gold in them there hills…
Aug 3, 2021A reflection of Europe s past
Jun 22, 2023World Rainforest Day
Oct 22, 2024Palazzo Zuccari, Rome
Aug 24, 2018A new park with a new mission
Dec 29, 2024Borobudur Temple, Java, Indonesia
Nov 18, 2018An inland ocean
Jul 31, 2025Ring-tailed lemur
Oct 10, 2019A star blows a bubble
Jan 28, 2018Winter scenery near Kuhmo, Finland
Jan 24, 2021These patterns tell a story
Jul 9, 2021A center of antiquity on the Mediterranean
Jan 20, 2024Penguin Awareness Day
Aug 31, 2018Let’s have a ball
Jun 6, 2019Engineering an artificial harbor in Normandy
Mar 14, 2018Happy Pi Day!