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Pilot Wiley Post circles the earth to make aviation history
On this day in 1931, Texas native Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off in an attempt to fly around the world. Post, born at Corinth in Van Zandt County, was one of the best-known fliers in the world. He and Gatty circled the globe in 8 days, 15 hours, and 51 minutes. Their route passed through the northern latitudes and was some 15,000 miles long. Two years later, Post beat his earlier time by more than twenty-one hours. He is most famous, however, for piloting the plane in which he and humorist Will Rogers died at Point Barrow, Alaska, on August 15, 1935.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- POST, WILEY HARDEMAN
- AVIATION
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Provisional government declares Texas independence (1819)
- Monument honors Alabama Indian subchief (1990)
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