[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 50 (Monday, December 20, 1999)]
[Pages 2628-2629]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7262--Wright Brothers Day, 1999

December 16, 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

[[Page 2629]]

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.
    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.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:59 a.m., December 20, 
1999]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
December 21.