China allows British pilot to fly out
2000 - Two British aviators, midway through an around-the-world voyage, arrived in Hong Kong, after one was forced to land in a paddy field in China and the other inadvertently set the record for the longest helicopter flight over water. Colin Bodill, flying a so-called microlight plane, said he was chased by two Chinese fighter jets after a storm blew him off the authorised course over mainland China when he flew from Hanoi to Hong Kong. The fighters dropped flares and flew extremely close to his Mainair Flexwing microlight, which flies at an average speed of 60 knots, said Bodill. The fly-by forced him to land in a paddy field in the storm, he said. The Chinese authorities later told him they had only wanted to guide his plane to a civilian airport, he said.
June 26
1549 - The 17 provinces of The Netherlands are declared independent of the Holy Roman Empire.
1714 - Spain and Holland sign Peace of Utrecht.
1843 - Hong Kong is proclaimed a British Crown Colony.
1945 - Charter establishing United Nations is signed in San Francisco, California.
1948 - The Berlin airlift begins after the Soviets blockade West Berlin. The lift feeds two million Berliners for eleven months.
1959 - Queen Elizabeth II and US President Dwight Eisenhower open St Lawrence Seaway.
1960 - British Somaliland becomes independent.
1972 - Australian bowler Bob Massie takes 16 wickets (8-84 and 8-53) on Test cricket debut vs England.
1988 - A new Airbus 320 crashes and explodes during an air show on France’s border with Switzerland, killing four of its passengers.
1991 - Martial law is lifted in Kuwait.
1995 - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak survives an assassination bid in Ethiopia.
1998 - In a ceremony heavy in symbolism, US President Bill Clinton opens a state visit to China in Tiananmen Square.
1999 - Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta returns to East Timor following 24 years in self-exile.
2000 - The International Cricket Council approves to make Bangladesh the tenth Test playing nation.
2005 - Gunmen on motorcycles in Sao Paulo, Brazil, kill six people after opening fire at patrons of an outdoor bar.
2008 - South Korea lifts its ban on US beef imports.
2011 - Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel wins the European Grand Prix in Valencia.
