Quick like a bunny now - what centenary was marked yesterday (Dec 17 2003)? If you said "the first manned, powered, controlled flight", take a candy from the jar at the front of the room. If you said anything less well-qualified, go stand at the back of the room.

My point (and I do have one) is this: various characters from around the world have legitimate claims to various parts of the record - the first powered flight, or the first manned flight, or combinations thereof (1, 2), but, at least in the opinion of Scientific American, what was significant about the Wright Brothers' equivocal success was precisely that it simultaneously embodied all three of the properties essential for practical flight.

The first non-Governmental supersonic flight on the same day by Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne, a hot contender for the X-Prize, was a nice touch.