Wright Brothers Day, 1999

Proclamation 7262 of December 16, 1999

Wright Brothers Day, 1999

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

We stand at a rare moment in human history: the end of
a century and the birth of a new millennium. The
arrival of the 21st century presents all Americans with
an opportunity to reflect on where we have been as a
Nation and to dream about where we will go in the
future. At the dawn of this century, Orville and Wilbur
Wright found themselves poised at such a moment. Behind
them lay years of painstaking effort and
experimentation, trial and failure, in their pursuit of
the dream of powered human flight. Ahead of them
stretched the sands of Kitty Hawk in North Carolina and
yet another attempt to fly in the aircraft they had
built by hand. On December 17, 1903, for 12 seconds and
120 feet, they achieved their dream and forever changed
the destiny of humankind.

That first brief flight showed that the sky was no
longer a limit but a new horizon; it ignited new dreams
in our people. Each succeeding generation of Americans,
building on the Wright brothers' achievement and fired
by the same vision, energy, and determination, has
refined the science of flight, increased the range,
efficiency, and safety of aircraft, and created a
modern air transportation system and aviation industry
that have energized our economy and helped transform
the world into a truly global community.

And, while they could never have foreseen it, the
Wright brothers also brought us to the threshold of
space. A scant six decades after that first flight,
Americans left the Earth's atmosphere and orbited our
planet. By 1969, Neil Armstrong had left the first
human footprint on the dusty surface of the Moon.
Today's astronauts fly space shuttle missions that are
helping us meet the challenge of global climate change,
bringing the International Space Station closer to
completion, and expanding our knowledge of Earth and
the universe. Yet even now the Wright brothers'
achievement continues to fire our dreams and beckons us
to make new discoveries.

The Congress, by a joint resolution approved December
17, 1963 (77 Stat. 402; 36 U.S.C. 169), has designated
December 17 of each year as ``Wright Brothers Day'' and
has authorized and requested the President to issue
annually a proclamation inviting the people of the
United States to observe that day with appropriate
ceremonies and activities.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim December
17, 1999, as Wright Brothers Day.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
sixteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twenty-fourth.