[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 244 (Tuesday, December 21, 1999)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 71631-71632]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-33278]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 244 / Tuesday, December 21, 1999 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 71631]]


                Proclamation 7262 of December 16, 1999

                
Wright Brothers Day, 1999

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                We stand at a rare moment in human history: the end of 
                a century and the birth of a new millennium. The 
                arrival of the 21st century presents all Americans with 
                an opportunity to reflect on where we have been as a 
                Nation and to dream about where we will go in the 
                future. At the dawn of this century, Orville and Wilbur 
                Wright found themselves poised at such a moment. Behind 
                them lay years of painstaking effort and 
                experimentation, trial and failure, in their pursuit of 
                the dream of powered human flight. Ahead of them 
                stretched the sands of Kitty Hawk in North Carolina and 
                yet another attempt to fly in the aircraft they had 
                built by hand. On December 17, 1903, for 12 seconds and 
                120 feet, they achieved their dream and forever changed 
                the destiny of humankind.

                That first brief flight showed that the sky was no 
                longer a limit but a new horizon; it ignited new dreams 
                in our people. Each succeeding generation of Americans, 
                building on the Wright brothers' achievement and fired 
                by the same vision, energy, and determination, has 
                refined the science of flight, increased the range, 
                efficiency, and safety of aircraft, and created a 
                modern air transportation system and aviation industry 
                that have energized our economy and helped transform 
                the world into a truly global community.

                And, while they could never have foreseen it, the 
                Wright brothers also brought us to the threshold of 
                space. A scant six decades after that first flight, 
                Americans left the Earth's atmosphere and orbited our 
                planet. By 1969, Neil Armstrong had left the first 
                human footprint on the dusty surface of the Moon. 
                Today's astronauts fly space shuttle missions that are 
                helping us meet the challenge of global climate change, 
                bringing the International Space Station closer to 
                completion, and expanding our knowledge of Earth and 
                the universe. Yet even now the Wright brothers' 
                achievement continues to fire our dreams and beckons us 
                to make new discoveries.

                The Congress, by a joint resolution approved December 
                17, 1963 (77 Stat. 402; 36 U.S.C. 169), has designated 
                December 17 of each year as ``Wright Brothers Day'' and 
                has authorized and 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, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, do hereby proclaim December 
                17, 1999, as Wright Brothers Day.

[[Page 71632]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                sixteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord 
                nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and of the 
                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and twenty-fourth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 99-33278
Filed 12-20-99; 10:59 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P