COLUMBUS – Take that, North Carolina! In your face, Connecticut!
No less a figure than the President of the United States has designate Dec. 17, 2015, as Wright Brothers Day, commemorating the historic flight of the Dayton men in 1903 that ushered in the era of powered flight (above).
Both North Carolina, where the flight took place, and Connecticut, which claims a native of the Nutmeg State beat Orville and Wilbur to it, have tried to claims to be the birthplace of flight.
Congress voted in 1963 to designate Dec. 17 as Wright Brothers Day, in honor of the 12-second flight the brothers took at Kitty Hawk, N.C. and requesting the president to issue an annual proclamation, which President Barack Obama did on Wednesday, calling on the nation to “continue investing in pioneering research, innovative startups, and programs that encourage science, technology, engineering, and math education for our daughters and sons.”
He also said the U.S. should “keep fostering an atmosphere in our communities and classrooms where lifetime quests for knowledge are encouraged.”
He noted that Orville and Wilbur Wright, after a lifetime of tinkering and experimenting, finally built a machine at their bicycle shop in Dayton that flew for a few second at Kitty Hawk. Sixty-six years later, Obama noted, Americans walked on the moon, the result of what he called a “new era of possibility” that began with the brothers’ flight.