|
1888, Oct. 25 |
Born in Winchester, Virginia, son of Richard Evelyn Byrd
and Eleanor Bolling Flood. |
|
1904-07 |
Attended Shenandoah Valley Military Academy and
Virginia Military
Institute. |
|
1907-08 |
Attended the
University of Virginia. |
|
1908-12 |
Attended the
United States Naval
Academy. |
|
1912 |
Assigned to duty aboard the
USS Kentucky,
followed by an assignment to the
USS Wyoming,
where he had an accident that reinjured an athletic
injury. Reassigned to the
USS Missouri. |
|
1914 |
Assigned to the
USS Washington
during naval occupation of Vera Cruz, Mexico. The rescue
of a seaman in Santo Domingo led to his being awarded
Congressional Life-Saving Medal. Had first flight on an
airplane. Assigned to
USS Dolphin,
the yacht of the Secretary of Navy. |
|
1915 |
Married Marie Ames of Boston. Assigned to Presidential
yacht
Mayflower. |
|
1916 |
Retired from active duty and appointed administrator of
naval militia of State of Rhode Island. Appointed as a
retired officer on active duty to Bureau of Naval
Personnel in Washington, D.C. and served as Secretary of
the Commission on Training Campus. |
|
1916-17 |
Naval aviation cadet at Pensacola. |
|
1917, April |
Received pilot wings and became assistant superintendent
at Pensacola with responsibility for investigating
aircraft crashes. |
|
1918, July |
Proposed to fly NC-1 aircraft across Atlantic and
assigned to Halifax to establish refueling stations in
Newfoundland as part of the trans-Atlantic crossing, but
experiment ended when the war ended. |
|
1919, Feb. 6 |
Assigned to newly created Transatlantic Flight Section
of the Bureau of Aeronautics. |
|
1919-20 |
Involved in creation of
Navy Bureau of
Aeronautics. |
|
1921 |
Navy rejected Byrd's plan for trans-Atlantic flight and
assigned him to England to help navigate an airship
home. Byrd missed train and lost his space on the
airship, which exploded. |
|
1922 |
Assigned responsibility for creating an air station in
Massachusetts to train reserve pilots. |
|
1924 |
Organized naval reserve units in Midwest. Byrd ordered
to assist in planning the flight of the dirigible
Shenandoah
over North Pole but a storm damaged the
Shenandoah. |
|
1924, June |
Promoted to Lieutenant Commander, inactive. |
|
1925, August |
Commander of Naval Aviation Attachment with the
MacMillan Arctic expedition. |
|
1926, May 9 |
Departed for
North Pole
from Spitzbergen. |
|
1926, Dec. |
Promoted to Commander and awarded Congressional Medal of
Honor. |
|
1927, April 20 |
Crash of
America,
Byrd's multi-engine plane which was to make a
transatlantic crossing. |
|
1927, June 29 |
2nd take-off and successful landing of
America
off Normandy coast. |
|
1928, Sept. |
First expedition to Antarctica. |
|
1929, Nov. |
Completed flight across South Pole. |
|
1930 |
Returned to U.S. from Antarctica and promoted to Rear
Admiral. |
|
1933 |
2nd expedition to Antarctica commenced. |
|
1934, Feb 3 |
CBS radio broadcast from Little America at Antarctica. |
|
1934, March 28 |
Moved to Advance Base to spend Antarctic winter alone. |
|
1934, Aug. 10 |
Rescue of Byrd at Advance Base. |
|
1935, Feb. 7 |
Departure from Little America to the U.S. |
|
1935, Oct.-May 1936 |
Lecture tour visited 156 cities. |
|
1939, July 7 |
Expedition of U.S. Antarctic Service announced. |
|
1939, Nov. |
Commencement of U.S. Antarctic Service expedition with
Byrd as Commander. |
|
1940, March |
Departed Antarctica for the U.S. |
|
1942 |
Reassigned to Navy Bureau of Aeronautics. |
|
1942, May-July |
Toured Pacific islands to locate possible sites for air
stations. |
|
1946 |
Operation Highjump
departed for Antarctica with Byrd as "Officer in
Charge." |
|
1947, April |
Returned from Antarctica. |
|
1955-56 |
Operation Deep Freeze. |
|
1957, Feb. 21 |
Awarded Medal of Freedom. |
|
1957, Mar. 11 |
Died. |
