Sunday · November 15, 2026
Get the app
Edited daily
American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
The events of June 21 · Read the full edition → · More from June 21 →
20041776 Club

Melvill lights a hybrid rocket over the Mojave and rides a private ship past 100 kilometers

SpaceShipOne, built by Burt Rutan for roughly $25 million of Paul Allen's money, breaks a 43-year government monopoly on crewed spaceflight.

For forty-three years, reaching space had been a government monopoly — the exclusive province of NASA, the Soviet program, and their billion-dollar agencies. On June 21, 2004, pilot Mike Melvill climbed into a five-foot-wide pressurized cabin beneath the carrier aircraft White Knight and rode it to 14 kilometers above the Mojave Desert before lighting a hybrid rocket that pushed him past 100 kilometers in altitude. SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan and funded by Paul Allen for roughly $25 million, had done what no private team had ever done. Hours after landing, Melvill became the first licensed U.S. commercial astronaut…

1776 Club

This story is held for members.

Members read every story of the day — and tomorrow's, and the next.

Join the 1776 Club
$17.76 your first year · then $39.99/yr · cancel anytime
More from June 21
1768

Otis stands before the General Court and charges King and Parliament with tyranny

The Boston lawyer who called taxation without representation unlawful delivers his sharpest attack yet; word is already moving toward London.
1788

New Hampshire ratifies; the Constitution crosses the nine-state threshold

Eight states had approved it and it meant nothing; the Granite State's vote today makes the Philadelphia document the law of a real nation.
1942

Japanese submarine shells Fort Stevens; Doney orders blackout, holds his guns

Commander Tagami surfaces I-25 at the Columbia River mouth after dark, fires seventeen rounds, and slips away undamaged, leaving cut telephone lines on the Oregon coast.
18641776 Club
A ravine hides Mahone's men from both Union corps, and the Weldon Railroad stays Confederate as Grant's siege enters its first week.
Read this as a member →
Read the full June 21 edition →Everything that happened on June 21 →
More from Modern America
1995

Discovery lifts off at last; woodpecker damage and a mid-count signal flag had held it back

Six hours after launch, the crew deploys TDRS-G, the last first-generation tracking satellite, raised toward geostationary orbit by the Inertial Upper Stage.
2013

Cassini turns its camera toward Earth; Saturn's shadow makes it possible

Imaging leader Carolyn Porco positioned the spacecraft to catch the sun eclipsed by Saturn, putting Earth in the frame 1.44 billion kilometers away, and millions look up and wave.
1997

Old Ironsides sails again; Cronkite takes the helm off Marblehead

The 1797 frigate moves under her own canvas for the first time in 116 years, on sails paid for through a national campaign of citizen and student donations.
1999

Collins becomes first woman to command a shuttle; Columbia loses an engine on the way up

A loose pin ruptures coolant tubes during ascent, but Columbia still reaches orbit to release the heaviest payload NASA had ever flown.
The Daily Record · free by email

Tomorrow's edition in your inbox — one featured story, one quote, and today's flag status. Free, every morning.

The full experience

Read every story, narrated, in the app.

Take this story with you.

The complete daily edition, the deep-cut narration, and a library that's yours — the 1776 Club lives in the app.

Your membership comes with you — every event, narrated, with flag alerts, CarPlay, and your saved library.

Download on the App Store