July 1

1980. The Air Force Academy became the first service academy to align with a major athletic conference when the Falcons joined the Western Athletic Conference. U.S. Air Force Academy site.

1993. The Air Training Command was re-designated as the Air Education and Training Command.

1992. Air Force Materiel Command was activated.

1992. Air Force Security Command was deactivated.

1992. Air Force Logistic Command was deactivated.

1976. The Strategic Air Command drone reconnaissance program was transferred to the Tactical Air Command.

1976. The Air National Guard aerial refueling wings transferred from the Tactical Air Command to the Strategic Air Command.

1976. The National Air and Space Museum opened in Washington, D.C.

1975. The Air Force Electronic Warfare Center was established as a subordinate unit of the U.S. Air Force Security Service.

1974. The Air Force implemented the worldwide Area Defense Counsel program. This removed defense counsels from the local commander's staff and placed them directly under the judge advocate general.

1971. Article XXVI of the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It gave the right to vote to citizens 18 or older.

1970. Selfridge Air Force Base, Mich., was turned over to the Air National Guard. It was the first major active Air Force base to come under control of the Air Guard.

1969. Air Force service numbers were replaced by Social Security account numbers.

1968. The first Women Air Force Service Pilots in the Air National Guard was sworn in as a result of passage of Public Law 90-130. It allowed the Air National guard to enlist women.

1966. The Civil Air Patrol became a permanent peacetime institution.

1958. The Strategic Air Command assumed responsibility for all B-47 and KC-97 combat crew training from the Air Training Command.

1957. The Far East Air Force was redesignated Pacific Air Forces.

1954. The Air Force assumed responsibility for its own recruiting.

1940. Ladd Field, Alaska, was officially dedicated. When the runway was completed it had more concrete than all the streets and sidewalks in Alaska combined.

1937. The Army Air Forces Weather Service was established.

1847. The first U.S. postage stamps were printed.

July 3

1840. Idaho became the 43rd state.

July 4

1960. The 50th star was added to the U.S. Flag.

1942. Douglas A-20 Havoc bombers made the first U.S. bombing raid on Europe, during World War II.

1908. The first American air trophy, which was offered by the Scientific American for the first official flight of one kilometer, was won by Glenn H. Curtiss at Hammondsport, N.Y., in his plane "June Bug."

1776. The U.S. Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress.

July 6

1989. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is presented to Air Force Gen. James H. Doolittle at the White House.

1960. The Air Force Distinguished Service Medal was established.

1960. The Air Force Cross was established.

1951. A KB-29M tanker of the Air Materiel Command, operated by a Strategic Air Command crew, conducted the first air refueling operation over enemy territory under combat conditions in the Korean War.

1926. The Distinguished Flying Cross was established.

July 7

1943. The Air Training Command was established as Army Air Forces Training Command, Forth Worth, Texas.

1898. Hawaii was annexed to the United States.

July 8

1968. The Air Force Human Resources Laboratory, Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, for research and development activities in human resources, education, training and management fields, was activated.

1979. Strategic Air Command held operation Global Shield -- the first time every phase of its role in the Single Integrated Operations Plan, short of nuclear warfare, was exercised.

July 9

1959. The last C-45 Expediter transport was phased out of the Tactical Air Command.

1958. Air Training Command assumed responsibility for training a new type of student -- sentry dogs -- previously trained by the U.S. Army.

1918. The Silver Star was established.

1918. The Distinguished Service Medal was established.

1910. Walter Brookins became the first aviator to fly to the height of one mile. He actually flew to a height of 6,175 feet in a Wright plane at Atlantic City, N.J. He won a $5,000 prize from the Atlantic City Aero Club.

July 10

1965. Two F-4C air crews downed two MiG-17 jet fighters over North Vietnam to score the first Air Force air-to-air victories in the Vietnam War.

1953. The U.S. Air Force announced a new policy of "utilizing native personnel in lieu of U.S. citizens in overseas areas" in a move to secure "more defense for less money."

July 11

1955. The first Air Force Academy class of cadets was sworn in at the temporary campus, Lowry Air Force Base, Colo.

1767. Birthdate of John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States. He was the only president whose father had also been president.

July 12

1980. The McDonnell-Douglas KC-10 Extender made its first flight.

July 14

1951. The first KC-97 tanker was delivered to Strategic Air Command.

1921. An organization called the Property Maintenance Cost Compilation Section was established by the U.S. Army Air Service at Fairfield Air Intermediate Depot near Dayton, Ohio. It functioned as a headquarters type of agency to manage the Air Services supply and maintenance depots. As such, the organization was the direct progenitor of Air Force Logistics Command.

1918. Birthdate of Gerald R. Ford, 38th president of the United States. He was the first non-elected vice president and president of the United States.

July 15

1961. The first Minuteman wing was activated, 341st Strategic Missile Wing, Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont.

1961. At United Nations request, U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Military Airlift Command began airlifting United Nations troops and cargo to the strife-torn former Belgian Congo. In the first 12 months of the airlift almost 38,000 United Nations troops from 19 countries and more than 14 million pounds of cargo were ferried to and from the Congo in 1,106 sorties.

July 16

1945. The first atomic bomb explosion took place at Trinity Site, Alamagordo, N.M.

July 17

1962. The first space flight of a manned aircraft was by Maj. Robert White piloting the X-15.

1948. B-29s arrived in England for training at British bases. These were the first U.S. bombers based in the United Kingdom after Word War II.

1944. Napalm incendiary bombs are dropped for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near St. Lo, France.

July 18

1946. The Army Air Force Training Command forerunner of the Air Training Command introduced the first formal jet transition course at Williams Field, Ariz., using P-80 aircraft.

1914. Statutory recognition of Army aviation began. The Aviation Section of the Signal Corps was created. Also created were the grades of junior military aviator and aviation mechanic which provided flying pay and restricted aviation students to unmarried lieutenants under 30 years of age. (See Feb. 23)

July 19

1943. Rome is bombed for the first time. Flying from Benghazi, Libya, 158 B-17 crews and 112 B-24 crews carried out a morning raid. A second raid was staged that afternoon.

1848. The first Woman's Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, N.Y.

July 20

1974. The Thunderbirds gave their first show using T-38 Talon aircraft.

1969. Man's first landing on the moon. Neil A. Armstrong was the first man on the moon and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. was the second.

1917. The War Department designated a site near Shiloh Valley Township, Ill., as Scott Field, now known as Scott Air Force Base. Named after Corporal Frank S. Scott, it's the only U.S. Air Force air base named for an enlisted man. (See Sept. 28)

July 25

1909. The first airplane crossing of the English Channel. Louis Bleriot of France made the flight in a 28-horsepower monoplane with a wingspan of 23 feet.

July 26

1947. The National Defense Establishment was established. (See Aug. 10)

1947. President Truman signed the Armed Forces Unification Act. It created the Department of the Air Force, co-equal with the Army and Navy departments.

1788. New York became the 11th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

July 27

1972. The F-15 Eagle made its initial flight.

1953. The Korean War armistice was signed at Panmunjan.

1943. An airplane was flown for the first time into the center of a tropical storm. This generally is considered to be the original airborne attempt to obtain storm data for use in plotting the position of such a disturbance. From this effort evolved the tropical cyclone reconnaissance mission of the U.S. Air Force's weather reconnaissance units.

1789. The Department of Foreign Affairs, the first executive department of the United States, was created.

1866. The Atlantic telegraph cable was completed.

July 28

1976. Two world records for speed were set for the SR-71 A "Blackbird" reconnaissance aircraft at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., by Air Force pilots. Capt. Eldon W. Joersz set the record over a straight course (2193.16 mph). Maj. Adolphus H. Bledsoe set the record over a closed circuit (2,092.294 mph).

July 29

1952. The first non-stop trans-Pacific flight by jet aircraft. An RB-45 flew from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, to Yokota Air Base, Japan. The crew was awarded the MacKay Trophy.

1953. Two days after the armistice ended the Korean War, the Air Force announced that the Far East Air Force shot down 839 MiG-15 jet fighters, probably destroyed 154 more, and damaged 919 others during the 37 months of war. United Nations Air Forces lost 110 aircraft in air-to-air combat, 677 to enemy ground fire, and 213 airplanes to "other causes".

July 31

1957. The Distant Early Warning Line, the radar defense system extending across the Canadian Arctic, was reported to be fully operational. (See Oct. 20)

1952. Two U.S. Air Force Sikorsky H-19 helicopters completed the first trans-Atlantic helicopter flight. They flew in five stages from Westover Air Force Base, Mass., to Prestwick, Scotland.

1861. The first successful aerial observation by American forces was made near Fortress Monroe for the Union Army by John LaMountain from an observation balloon at an altitude of about 1,400 feet.

1816. The U.S. Coast Guard Academy was founded.