Many of the events this year will very likely draw crowds, VIPs and excitement. So it only seems fitting that the first week\u2019s \u201cfirst\u201d would be an event of similar scale that occurred on Jan. 9, 1793 \u2014 nearly 233 years ago.<\/p>\n
On that day, French aeronaut Jean Piere Blanchard completed the first successful balloon flight in America, starting in the yard of Walnut Street Prison and, after about 45 minutes in the air, landing in Gloucester County, N.J.<\/p>\n
The Historic District have set up a Saturday \u201cFirstival\u201d ceremony to kick off each weekend. The free public events, which will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., will introduce and celebrate the topic through entertainment and activities, a sculpture painted by a local artist<\/a>, music, giveaways and storytelling by Historic Philly\u2019s Once Upon a Nation historical experts<\/a>.<\/p>\n The inaugural \u201cfirstival\u201d happens this Saturday at the Athenaeum on 219 S. 6th Street<\/a>, where aeronautics expert Debbie Harding and the library\u2019s staff will provide details about the historic event.<\/p>\n Billy Penn couldn\u2019t wait until Saturday to learn about the balloon flight, so we hopped on a call with Thomas Paone, who curates the lighter-than-air collection at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.<\/a>, to get an account of the flight.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here are the highlights.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[Blanchard] said when he [took] off, he [looked] down and there\u2019s just people everywhere. Every rooftop, every street, anywhere that you could be, was covered with people who would come to watch this launch,\u201d Paone said.<\/p>\n In the coming weeks<\/p>\n Here are the first months of other firsts being highlighted this year, along with the Saturday firstival dates and locations.<\/p>\n Jan. 10 at the Mummers Museum\u200b\u200b, 1100 S. 2nd Street<\/p>\n Jan. 17 at the Fireman\u2019s Hall Museum, 147 N. 2nd Street<\/p>\n Jan. 24 at Xfinity Mobile Arena\u00a0<\/p>\n Jan. 31 at the PECO Building, 2301 Market Street<\/p>\n Feb. 7 at Mother Bethel AME Church, 419 S. 6th Street<\/p>\n Feb. 14 at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, 701 Arch Street<\/p>\n Feb. 21 at Chinatown Friendship Gate, N. 10th Street<\/p>\n Feb. 28 at the Historic Germantown Mennonite Meetinghouse, 6119 Germantown Ave.<\/p>\n March 7 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center<\/p>\n March 14 at Drexel University, 60 N. 36th Street<\/p>\n March 21 at the Science History Institute, 315 Chestnut Street<\/p>\n March 28 at the Perelman School of Medicine, 3400 Civic Center Blvd.<\/p>\n \t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/billypenn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/air-voyage-america.avif\")
This 1931 woodcut by Charles A. Gardner is titled \u201cThe First Air Voyage in America,\u201d and appeared in a book published in 1943 about the balloon flight. (Courtesy of the Anathaeum Philadelphia)<\/p>\n\n
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