From the world’s first flight to the opening of the first-ever motel in California and introduction of the jumbo jet, December has been an eventful month in travel history.

In 336, in Rome, the first recorded celebration of Christmas on Dec. 25 took place.

In 1535, the first Christmas in Canada was celebrated at Stadacona, Que., by French explorer Jacques Cartier and his crew.

In 1577, five ships commanded by Sir Francis Drake, who led in “The Golden Hind,” embarked from Plymouth Sound in England on a voyage around the world that was to last nearly three years.

In 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman reached New Zealand. Several of his men were killed while attempting to land when Maori natives interpreted an exchange of trumpet fanfares as a prelude to battle.

In 1789, the first stagecoach service in Upper Canada (now Ontario) began between Queenston and Fort Erie.

In 1800, explorer and geographer David Thompson crossed the Rockies.

In 1869, the vast territory owned by the Hudson’s Bay Co. was officially transferred to the Canadian government.

In 1890, the first electric underground rail line opened in London.

In 1901, Walt Disney was born in Chicago. He died Dec. 15, 1966. His father Elias was born in Bluevale, Ont.

In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright flew their first airplane at Kitty Hawk, N.C. The “Wright Flyer,” a biplane with two propellers chain-driven by a gasoline motor, flew 35 metres in 12 seconds – enough to convince the brothers that sustained flights were possible.

In 1907, the first recorded flight in Canada took place when Thomas Selfridge rose about 51 metres into the air in a kite designed by Alexander Graham Bell.

In 1904, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis closed after seven months and some 20 million visitors.

In 1913, the first drive-in automobile service station, built by Gulf Refining Company, opened in Pittsburgh.

In 1916, the Canadian Pacific Railway opened the eight-kilometre-long Connaught Tunnel near Revelstoke, B.C., the longest tunnel in Canada.

In 1917, the Quebec Bridge opened over the St. Lawrence. At nearly one kilometre in length, it’s the world’s longest cantilever span.

In 1918, an Order-in-Council created the Canadian National Railways Corp. The motion united five financially troubled railways; the Canadian Northern, the Grand Trunk, the Grand Trunk Pacific, Intercolonial and the National Transcontinental. CN’s more than 50,000 km of track in Canada and in the United States made it at that time the largest in the world.

In 1920, the first plane crash during a scheduled commercial flight took place in a London suburb. It killed eight of the 12 passengers on the Handley Page Continental Air Services plane, which was heading for Paris. The four survivors jumped clear just before impact.

In 1925, the first motel – the Motel Inn – opened in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

In 1960, the new terminal building at Montreal International Airport (Dorval) was officially opened.

In 1960, Edmonton International Airport was officially opened.

In 1968, British sculptor Henry Moore announced a donation of as many as 600 of his works to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. Moore’s work, displayed in its own wing at the gallery, is in wood, stone, and cement and known for its smooth, organic shape.

In 1969, the Boeing 747 jumbo jet got its first public preview as 191 people, most of them reporters and photographers, flew from Seattle to New York.

In 1970, Marc Modena of Montreal crossed the Pacific Ocean on a raft. Modena, 44, and three other men had left the Ecuadorian port of Guayaquil on May 29 on a rudderless raft made of seven tree trunks and arrived at the Australian port of Mooloobala on Nov. 6.

In 1985, the federal government agreed to sell Crown-owned de Haviland Aircraft of Canada to Boeing Commercial Aircraft Co. for $155 million.

In 1989, Canada became the first country to ban smoking on domestic flights.

In 1993, the Channel Tunnel, reconnecting Britain and France after an Ice Age rift, was finally completed and handed over to the operating company. The 50-km tunnel, dubbed “Chunnel,” with two rail tunnels, a service and an escape tunnel in the middle, was completed.

In 1999, Canadian Airlines accepted Air Canada’s $92-million buyout offer ending one of the most heated corporate takeovers in Canada.

In 2001, Richard C. Reid, a passenger on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami, tried to ignite explosives in his shoes, but was subdued by flight attendants and other passengers. He was later sentenced to life in prison.

In 2002, United Airlines, reeling from two years of heavy losses and unable to pay off nearly $1 billion in debt, filed for federal bankruptcy court protection. It was the largest such filing in aviation history. (It emerged from bankruptcy protection in February 2006.)

In 2010, a French court convicted Continental Airlines Inc. and mechanic John Taylor of manslaughter because debris from one of its planes caused the crash of an Air France Concorde jet on July 25, 2000, that killed 113 people. The Houston-based airline was fined almost $2 million and Taylor received a 15-month suspended sentence.

In 2010, for the first time ever, a private company (SpaceX) launched a spacecraft into orbit and then guided it back to Earth in a bold demonstration test for NASA.

In 2013, American Airlines emerged from bankruptcy protection and US Airways culminated its long pursuit of a merger partner as the two completed their deal to create the world’s biggest airline, American Airlines Group Inc.

In 2018, Virgin Galactic’s tourism spaceship climbed more than 80 km high above California’s Mojave Desert, reaching for the first time what the company considers the boundary of space. The rocket ship reached an altitude of 82 km before beginning its gliding descent and landing on a runway minutes later.

In 2018, drones spotted over the runway forced the shutdown of London’s Gatwick Airport during one of the busiest times of the year, stranding or delaying thousands of Christmas-season travellers. The prospect of a deadly collision between what police called “industrial”-grade drones and an airliner led authorities to stop all flights in and out.