Profile America — Sunday, August 16th. During the summer months, most every weekend is marked by a fly-in somewhere in the country, featuring vintage aircraft of all sorts. Today in Oologah, Oklahoma, one such event will honor two of the state’s favorite sons — humorist Will Rogers and pioneer aviator Wiley Post. Post was the first person to fly solo around the world, and Rogers was one of the top entertainers of the time, appearing in movies, on radio, on stage, and in newspaper columns. The two friends from Oklahoma died in a crash in northern Alaska in 1935, stunning the nation. At that time, there were just under 15,000 licensed pilots. Now that number is close to 600,000.
You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.
Sources: Chase's Calendar of Events 2009, p. 409 Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 772 Statistical Abstract of the United States 2009, t. 1042 http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2009edition.html
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