On this day: October 26
POSTED: 12:17 PM PDT Oct 25, 2012
UPDATED: 11:00 PM PDT Oct 25, 2012
The Erie Canal opens, the Pony Express closes, Wyatt Earp shoots it out in Tombstone, "Baby Fae" gets a baboon heart, and the Patriot Act is signed into law, all on this day.
U.S. Air Force
1940: The P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight. The long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber would be used during World War II, the Korean War and several other conflicts, with Mustang pilots claiming 4,950 enemy aircraft shot down during World War II, second only to the carrier-borne Grumman F6F Hellcat among Allied aircraft.
