Proclamation 3883—Wright Brothers Day, 1968

Sixty-five years ago, two bicycle makers—two amazingly inventive and persevering young brothers from Ohio—made four flights in one day with a machine that was heavier than air and propelled by motor.

Their first journey was shorter than the floor of the giant C-5 cargo ship that was test flown earlier this year. But those brief flights, in the sand hill area outside Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, launched the air age. They changed mankind's way of life.

Orville and Wilbur Wright gave their names to history. Through their determination to master the secret of flight, they symbolized American ingenuity and courage. It is fitting that we should commemorate their achievement, as we enjoy the tremendous advances in convenient travel that have evolved from it.

To this end, the Congress by a joint resolution approved December 17, 1963 (77 Stat. 402), has designated the seventeenth day of December of each year as Wright Brothers Day, and has 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, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby call upon' the people of this Nation, and their local and national government officials, to observe Wright Brothers Day, December 17, 1968, with appropriate ceremonies and activities, both to recall the accomplishments of the Wright Brothers and to provide a stimulus to aviation in this country and throughout the world.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this sixteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred sixty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-third.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON