Who made the first aeroplane and when?

The Wright brothers (Wilbur and Orville) are generally credited with the first controlled, sustained, powered flight by a heavier than air aircraft, on December 17, 1903.

But, despite popular myth they didn't invent the aeroplane - what they did was manage to produce a working version of ideas that had preceded them by a number of years.

The principles had been known and explored by others (Cayley, Lilienthal, Ader et al) and varying degrees of success had been achieved by all of these.