American Airlines Boeing 707

This day in history, on January 25th, 1959, an American Airlines Boeing 707 made the first scheduled transcontinental U.S. flight, traveling from California to New York. It was not the first commercial jet flight (that was B.O.A.C. from London to Rome in 1952) or the first nonstop transcontinental flight (T.W.A., Los Angeles to New York, 1953) or even the first commercial long-haul jet trip (Pan American, Idlewild to Paris, October 1958).

It was, however, a major milestone- cutting more than three hours off cross-country propeller-plane flights, and was therefore cause for considerable celebration.