Late takeoff foils Fossett’s glider record attempt
2002 - A late takeoff foiled aviation pioneer Steve Fossett’s attempt to fly New Zealand’s turbulent “mountain waves” of wind to set a new gliding altitude record. A communications fault with the temperature-controlled pressurised suits worn by Fossett and his co-pilot delayed the glider’s launch by more than an hour, Perlan Project team member Bill Walker said. “During that period they were towed to an area where the (wind) wave was dumping on them rather than going up and they struggled to get away,” he said. He and former NASA test pilot Einar Enevoldson will make one final attempt to smash the 16-year-old gliding record held by American Bob Harris, Walker said. Fossett spent nearly three weeks waiting in New Zealand for the right conditions to fly.
August 10
1759 - Carlos III becomes king of Spain.
1787 - Turkey declares war on Russia, fearing designs on Georgia.
1792 - French monarchy is overthrown after mobs in Paris attack the palace of King Louis XVI.
1809 - Ecuador declares independence from Spain
1866 - Bolivia cedes territory between the Andes and Pacific Ocean to Chile.
1907 - The greatest automobile race in history takes place, stretching 8,000 miles from Beijing to Paris. It lasts 62 days.
1913 - Bulgaria gives up its claim to Macedonia in a peace treaty signed in Bucharest.
1979 - India’s 17-tonne SLV-3 rocket, its first giant space rocket, fails and the fourth stage plunges into the Bay of Bengal.
1980 - Jacques Laffite wins the West German Formula One Grand Prix in Hockenheim.
1986 - General Arun Vaidya, former army chief of staff, is assassinated.
1988 - Rodrigo Borja becomes president of Ecuador.
1989 - US President George H. W. Bush appoints Army General Colin Powell as chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first black man to hold the post.
1995 - Nato and UN commanders sign a memorandum aimed at streamlining the procedures for calling air strikes in Bosnia.
2000 - A huge car bomb kills 12 people in the Kashmir capital Srinagar.
2002 - Turkey’s economy minister, Kemal Dervis, resigns from the government of Premier Bulent Ecevit.
2005 - Jordan signs a deal with Britain that enables British courts to deport Jordanians who incite or condone acts of terrorism.
2010 - The UAE Rugby Association signs an agreement with Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union on the first stage of rugby’s handover in the region, the first of its kind.
2011 - Rioting takes place in English cities including Manchester, Liverpool, Salford, Birmingham and Nottingham.
2013 - Kenyan Edna Kiplagat becomes the first woman to retain the marathon world title at the opening World Athletics Championships.
2016 - Michael Phelps wins the 21st gold medal of his incredible Olympic career.
