This day in history

Piloted by Americans Richard Rutan and Jeana Yeager, the experimental plane Voyager circles the globe in 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds.

The Voyager, made mostly of plastic, was essentially a flying gas tank with a capacity of 1,500 gallons; its weight decreased by 80 percent as the fuel was consumed. On 23 December, 1986, Voyager became the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe without refuelling when it returned to its starting point at Edwards Air Force Base in California after travelling over 25,000 miles.

President Woodrow Wilson passes the Federal Reserve Act, which creates the Federal Reserve System, and the central bank of the U.S.A.

One week after the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth harbour in present-day Massachusetts, U.S.A. construction of the first permanent European settlement in New England begins.