To be really pedantic, that sentence isn't technically wrong. It was the first time it was broken "over the high desert of California", even if not the first time on Earth.
Obviously the context implies that it was the first ever, but in a vacuum each of their claims could be rationalized.
QWERTYroch t1_itiytvb wrote
Reply to comment by peter-doubt in NASA poised to break sound barrier without the sonic boom by Ssider69
To be really pedantic, that sentence isn't technically wrong. It was the first time it was broken "over the high desert of California", even if not the first time on Earth.
Obviously the context implies that it was the first ever, but in a vacuum each of their claims could be rationalized.