Air Force Maj. Edward H. White makes the first U.S. spacewalk. He and Air Force Maj. James A. McDivitt set a space endurance record as Gemini 4 stays aloft for 97 hours and 32 seconds in 62 orbits. The Gemini 4 mission is the first U.S. spaceflight to be controlled from the Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston, Tex.
Happy Birthday US Air Force: 78 Today
Sept. 18, 2025
Seventy-eight years ago today, on Sept. 18, 1947, Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson swore in Stuart Symington as the first ever Secretary of the Air Force, and the Air Force officially became the first new military service since the Revolutionary War.