1883 – French brothers Albert and Gaston Tissandier made the first flight in a balloon powered by an electric motor.. 

1890 – Frenchman Clement Ader’s steam-powered, propeller-driven aircraft became the first manned, full-sized airplane to leave the ground under its own power.  It was not considered a controlled and sustained flight. 

1905 – Wilbur Wright makes a flight of 24.2 miles (38.9 km) in Flyer III.  The flight lasts for almost 40 min at Huffman Prairie in Ohio.

1910 – Theodore Roosevelt (President of the United States of America 1901 – 09) becomes the first former state leader to fly (four minutes) in an airplane when he flies with exhibition pilot Arch Hoxsey in a plane built by the Wright Brothers at Kinloch Field in St. Louis.

1910 – The first mid-air collision takes place near Milan. Both pilots survive, but one is badly injured.

1911 – First aircraft to be used in war, an Italian Army Blériot XI, flies from Tripoli to Azizia to spy on Turkish positions

1922 – Lieutenant Commander Godfrey Chevalier made the first landing on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier. 

1940 – First flight of the North American P-51 Mustang

1947 – Capt Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, past MACH 1 in the Bell X-1 named Glamorous Glennis at Muroc AFB, CA; now Edwards Air Force Base, CA. www.chuckyeager.com

1962 – A US Air Force Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance flight over Cuba reveals the presence of launchpads for Medium Range Ballistic Missiles, triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis

1986 – The B-1 B achieved Initial Operational Capability.

1999 – Completing a career during which she set scores of speed and altitude records, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird makes its final flight.

2007 – The first passenger flight of the Airbus A380 took place with Singapore Airlines. 

2011 – Nippon Airways flies the first commercial flight of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, from Tokyo to Hong Kong.

 

The above is a partial list of aviation events that took place in the month of October.  A more complete listing can be found here.