erm... don't want to understate the historical significance of Wilbur Wright's flights at Le Mans in 1908, but there isn't much justification for calling them the "first publicly recognised" flights.
Even if we disqualify the Wright Brothers' efforts from 1903-05 (and the witnesses they had on December 17th 1903 are good enough for me), a number of flights made by Alberto Santos Dumont in late 1906 were performed in front of sizeable crowds - - - here he is at Bagatelle on October 23rd, 1906, for example.
