Proclamation 3433—Wright Brothers Day, 1961

Whereas December 17, 1903, marked the beginning of a revolution in the transportation and defense methods em­ployed by all the nations of the world, when the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, by their enterprise and genius made the first successful flights in a heavier-than-air, mechanically propelled airplane, near Kitty Hawk, North Caro­lina; and

Whereas this historic event has placed the United States in the front ranks of world aviation; and

Whereas it is most appropriate that the Wright brothers, whose enterprise and genius have made the continents of this planet only hours apart and have changed the pattern of our lives, should be memorialized on the anniversary day of their success; and

Whereas the Congress, by a joint resolution approved September 22, 1961, has designated the seventeenth day of December 1961 as Wright Brothers Day, and has requested the President to issue a proclamation inviting the people of the United States to observe that day with appropriate ceremonies and activities:

Now, Therefore, I, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America, do hereby call upon officials of the Government to display the flag of the United States on Wright Brothers Day, December 17, 1961; and I invite the people of the United States to observe that day with ceremonies and activities designed to commemorate the achievements of the Wright brothers and to further and stimulate interest in avia­tion in this country:

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be, affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this twenty-second day of September in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-sixth.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

By the President:

CHESTER BOWLES,

Acting Secretary of State.