[Title 3 CFR 7262]
[Code of Federal Regulations (annual edition) - January 1, 2000 Edition]
[Title 3 - Presidential Documents]
[Proclamation 7262 - Proclamation 7262 of December 16, 1999]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]


3Presidential Documents12000-01-012000-01-01false7262Proclamation 7262Presidential Documents
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.
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  

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