Alberta

Well, there appears to be some controversy over this first flight claim as you can see below.

For the source and more detailed information concerning this issue, click on the related links section indicated below the following list of claims.

20th century

* Dr Wilhelm Kress, Austria - 1901

Tested tandem monoplane seaplane, similar to Samuel Langley, which made brief airborne hops but could not sustain itself.

* Gustave Whitehead, United States - August 14, 1901

First publicized account of a flight by an aeroplane heavier than air propelled by its own motor. Reports were published in the New York Herald, and the Bridgeport (CT) Herald. The event was reportedly witnessed by several people, one of them a reporter for the Bridgeport Herald. Children and youngsters who were present signed affidavits about 30 years later about what they saw. Reports said he started on the wheels from a flat surface, flew 800 meters at 15 meter height, and landed softly on the wheels.

* Lyman Gilmore, United States - May 15, 1902

Gilmore reportedly became the first person to fly a powered aircraft (a steam-powered glider). Several people saw him accomplish this.[citation needed]

* Orville & Wilbur Wright, United States - October 1902

Completed development of the three-axis control system with the incorporation of a movable rudder connected to the wing warping control on their 1902 Glider. They subsequently made several fully controlled heavier than air gliding flights, including one of 622.5 ft (189.7 m) in 26 seconds. The 1902 glider was the basis for their patented control system still used on modern fixed-wing aircraft.

* Richard Pearse, New Zealand - March 31, 1903

Reportedly first heavier-than-air powered flight in New Zealand. Several people witnessed Pearse make powered flights including one on this date of over 100 feet in a high-wing tricycle undercarriage monoplane powered by a 15hp air-cooled horizontally-opposed engine. Flight ended with a crash into a hedgerow.

* Karl Jatho, Germany - August 18, 1903

On August 18, 1903 he flew with his self-made motored gliding aircraft. He had four witnesses for his flight. The plane was equipped with a single-cylinder 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) Buchet engine driving a two-bladed pusher propeller and made hops of up to 200 ft (60 m), flying up to 10 ft (3 m) high.

First flight, December 17, 1903.

* Orville & Wilbur Wright, United States - December 17, 1903

First controlled, powered, sustained heavier than air flight, in Wright Flyer. In the day's fourth flight, Wilbur Wright flew 279 meters (852 ft) in 59 seconds. First three flights were approximately 120, 175, and 200 ft, respectively. The Wrights laid particular stress on fully and accurately describing all the requirements for controlled, powered flight and put them into use in an aircraft which took off from a level launching rail, with the aid of a headwind to achieve sufficient airspeed before reaching the end of the rail.

* John Joseph Montgomery and Daniel Maloney, United States 1905

First high altitude flights with Maloney as pilot of a Montgomery tandem-wing glider design. The glider was launched by balloon to heights up to 4,000 feet with Maloney controlling the aircraft through a series of prescribed maneuvers to a predetermined landing location in front of a large public gathering at Santa Clara, California.

* Wilbur Wright, United States - October 5, 1905

Wilbur Wright pilots Wright Flyer III in a flight of 24 miles (39km) in 39 minutes, a world record that stood until 1908.

Traian Vuia

* Traian Vuia, Romania - March 18, 1906

First flight by a fully self-propelled, fixed-wing aircraft using a tractor propeller. He flew for 12 meters without the aid of external takeoff mechanisms, such as a catapult, a point emphasized in newspaper reports in France, the U.S., and the UK. This was a proof for the fact that a "heavier than air" machine can take off and sustain a flight with no help from additional external devices. At that time, this fact was heavily contested by the Academy of Science in Paris, who refused to witness the flight, claiming it was trickery.

* Jacob Ellehammer, Denmark - September 12, 1906

Built monoplane, which he tested with a tether on the Danish Lindholm island.

Santos-Dumont 14 Bis

* Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazil - October 23, 1906

First officially-verified flight of a fixed-wing, manned, powered aircraft-the "14 Bis" at Bagatelle field, Paris. Aero Club of France certified the distance of 60 meters (197 ft); height was about 2-3 meters (6-10 ft). Winner of the Archdeacon Prize for first official flight of more than 25 meters. Described by some scholars as the first "sportsman of the air". As reported in previous years and months for Ader, Whitehead, Pearse, Jatho and Vuia, the 14-Bis flew and landed without a rail, catapult, or the presence of high winds, propelled by its own (internal combustion) engine.

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I noticed your question does not specify airplanes.

First hot-air balloon flight: 1783 in France

-HW

The Marquess of Lorne was Canada's Governor General from 1878 to 1883. He was married to Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Louise Caroline Alberta.

When the Marquis got wind of Canada's plan to create two new provinces out of the Northwest Territories, he suggested that one of them be named after his wife.

Et voilà!

It certainly helps to have good connections whenever you want to have a province named after your wife.