30 November 1913

On 30 November 1913, many sources aver that American pilots Dean Ivan Lamb and Phil Rader (flying as mercenaries in the Mexican civil war) engaged in the first aerial combat by firing pistols at each other. But in his book, The Incredible Filibuster (1934), Lamb claims it was a "put up job" to impress their employers and that he and Rader never aimed at each other. And there is some evidence that the whole story is a fabrication.