📅 First balloon flight in the Americas (1793)
Where: Philadelphia, USA
📅 On This Day: January 9
January 9, 1793: First balloon flight in the Americas. On 9 January 1793, French aeronaut Jean-Pierre Blanchard rose into the sky in a hydrogen balloon from Philadelphia. It was the first balloon flight in the Americas, and President George Washington watched. The balloon flew about 46 minutes and landed in New Jersey.
✨ More events on this day
- 1839 💡 The French Academy of Sciences announced the daguerreotype, one of the first ways to take a photograph and keep the picture forever.
- 1923 💡 Spanish engineer Juan de la Cierva made the first flight of an autogyro, an aircraft with a spinning rotor on top that helped lead to helicopters.
- 1992 🚀 Astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced the first discovery of planets outside our solar system, circling a distant spinning star.
🧠 Question of the day
Which president watched Blanchard's flight?
- Abraham Lincoln
- George Washington
- Napoleon
Show the answer
Answer: George Washington
Questions
What happened on January 9?
January 9, 1793: First balloon flight in the Americas. It happened in Philadelphia, USA.
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