By 1903, inventors and adventurers in Britain and France were launching their own experimental aircraft skyward. In the U.S., crowds gathered outside Washington, D.C. to see Samuel Langley of the Smithsonian Institution test his highly-anticipated “aerodrome”, only to watch the machine crash in the Potomac River. But on December 17th, 1903, on the sand dunes of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Wilbur Wright climbed onto the lower wing of his homemade “Flyer” to make history.

Order your copy of the new American History Tellers book, The Hidden History of the White House, for behind-the-scenes stories of some of the most dramatic events in American history—set right inside the house where it happened.

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