Our Museum in Washington, DC is turning 40 on July 1, and we want you to help us celebrate! Join us in DC and online for an all-night 40th anniversary event and the official reopening of the Boeing #MilestonesofFlight Hall. #airandspace40

April 18, 1942: Legendary pilot Jimmy Doolittle led sixteen B-25 bombers on the first American aerial assault against the Japanese mainland during World War II– known as the Doolittle Raid. For this high-risk mission, Doolittle received the Medal of Honor.

March 10, 2010: 2010: The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), civilian pilots who flew in non-combat situations for the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, were awarded this Congressional Gold Medal, "in recognition of their pioneering military service and exemplary record, which forged revolutionary reform in the Armed Forces of the United States of America." See this medal on display at our Udvar-Hazy Center in VA. #WomensHistoryMonth

February 20, 1962: Today in 1962: John H. Glenn Jr. became the first American to orbit the Earth in this Mercury capsule he named "Friendship 7." Glenn's flight was the third piloted mission of Project Mercury, following two suborbital flights by astronauts in 1961. Glenn orbited the Earth three times and splashed down in the Atlantic 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds after launch. “Friendship 7” is currently in the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar at our Udvar-Hazy Center in VA.

What would you write on the walls of a spacecraft? Unseen for almost 50 years, these markings were made inside the Apollo 11 Command Module “Columbia,” which took astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to lunar orbit and back. Just last week, our work with the Smithsonian 3D Digitization office gave us the opportunity to take a closer look inside this historic spacecraft and brought to light these handwritten notes.

February 9, 1969: the first 747-100 "jumbo jet" made its first flight. This nose section from a Northwest Airlines Boeing 747-151 is on display in the "America by Air" exhibition at our Museum in DC. Discover its story.

Wishing you a happy Year of the Monkey with our very own! Maggie, a stuffed spider monkey, was carried on one of four Douglas World Cruisers during an attempt to become the first to circumnavigate the globe by air in 1924. She served as a good luck charm and mascot to pilot Lt. Leigh Wade on the Boston. While the Boston was forced down at sea en route to Iceland, Maggie was saved and can be seen at our Museum in Washington, DC. Read more about her adventures.

In honor of Super Bowl 50, archivist Elizabeth Borja uncovered these images of Robert “Bob” Eucker sporting a football helmet while standing atop his Bell P-63A Kingcobra. Eucker had just won the Sohio Handicap Trophy Race in the 1948 National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio. To celebrate his $3,150 win, Eucker borrowed a football helmet from his local high school and can be seen celebrating atop his airplane "Spirit of 'Tick'"

January 24, 2004 (PST): the Mars Exploration Rover "Opportunity" landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars. Opportunity continues to operate on Mars, far exceeding the three months originally planned for the mission. Its twin, "Spirit," landed on Mars at Gusev Crater on January 3, 2004 (PST). Spirit ceased operations in 2010. In this photo, late afternoon sunlight casts a long shadow of Opportunity, perched at the edge of Endurance Crater. Credit: NASA

January 10, 1968: The Surveyor 7 spacecraft, last lunar lander in the Surveyor program, landed on the Moon. The Surveyor series was designed to carry out soft landings on the Moon and provide data about its surface and possible atmosphere. Pictured here is an engineering model, S-10, used for thermal control tests. See it on display at our Museum in DC.