Today in History: June 21, first privately funded space vehicle takes flight

On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded spacecraft to achieve human spaceflight, marking a milestone in commercial space exploration.

Getting your Trinity Audio //trinityaudio.ai player ready...Today is Sunday, June 21, the 172nd day of 2026. There are 193 days left in the year. Summer begins today. Today in history: On June 21, 2004, the aircraft SpaceShipOne made the first privately funded human spaceflight. Also on this date: In 1788, the United States Constitution went into effect as New Hampshire became the required ninth state to ratify it. In 1834, Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent for his mechanical reaper. In 1893, the first Ferris wheel opened to the public as part of the Chicago World’s Fair. In 1942, an Imperial Japanese submarine fired shells at Fort Stevens on the Oregon coast, but caused little damage. In 1954, scientists of the American Cancer Society presented a study to a meeting of the American Medical Association in San Francisco which found that men who regularly smoked cigarettes died, particularly from lung cancer, at a considerably higher rate than non-smokers. In 1964, civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were killed in Neshoba County, Mississippi; their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later. Forty-one years later, on this date in 2005, Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman, was found guilty of manslaughter in their deaths; he was sentenced to 60 years in prison, where he died in January 2018. In 1982, a jury in Washington, D.C., found John Hinckley Jr. not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1981 shootings of President Ronald Reagan, Press Secretary James Brady, Metropolitan Police Officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service Special Agent Tim McCarthy. In 1989, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled, in Texas v. Johnson, that burning the American flag as a form of political protest was protected by the First Amendment. In 1997, the WNBA made its debut as the New York Liberty defeated the host Los Angeles Sparks 67-57. In 2010, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to charges of plotting a failed car bombing in New York’s Times Square. Shahzad was later sentenced to life in prison. In 2021, Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib became the first active NFL player to come out as gay, saying he felt representation and visibility were important; other NFL players came out as gay after their careers were over. Today’s Birthdays: - Musician Ray Davies The Kinks is 82. - Actor Meredith Baxter is 79. - Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi is 79. - Actor Michael Gross is 79. - Author Ian McEwan is 78. - Musician Nils Lofgren is 75. - Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed is 69. - Country musician Kathy Mattea is 67. - Filmmaker Lana Wachowski is 61. - Rapper-DJ-producer Pete Rock is 56. - Actor Juliette Lewis is 53. - Actor Chris Pratt is 47. - Rock singer Brandon Flowers The Killers is 45. - Britain’s Prince William is 44. - Singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey is 41. - Golfer Scottie Scheffler is 30. - Singer Rebecca Black is 29. - Country singer Elizabeth Nichols is 24.