January 1909 - January 7, 1909 (Thursday)

January 7, 1909 (Thursday)

• The first pilot's licenses were issued in France, by the Aero-Club de France. The first eight "pilote-aviateur" licenses were presented in Paris to aviation pioneers Orville Wright, Wilbur Wright, Albert Santos-Dumont, Louis Bleriot, Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Léon Delagrange, Henri Farman and Captain Ferdinand Ferber.
• Working at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, British astronomer John Evershed made the important discovery that gas radiates over the surface of sunspots, from the inner border to the outer edge, and described it in a paper later that year. The phenomenon is now referred to as the Evershed effect.