China space mission successful
2003 - China moved a major step closer to joining an elite group of nations to send a human into orbit when its unmanned spaceship, Shenzhou IV, returned safely to earth, state media reported. Shenzhou IV touched down in Inner Mongolia in northern China six days after its launch into space. Shenzhou IV is China’s fourth test spacecraft to successfully complete its mission in the nation’s bid to put a human into orbit and it is regarded as the final precursor to a manned space flight. “The return of the spaceship represents a success of the fourth test flight of the programme, which began in 1992,” Xinhua news agency quoted unnamed experts in charge of the programme as saying. The US and the former Soviet Union are the only nations to independently send a human into orbit.
January 5
1895 - German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X-rays.
1925 - Nellie T. Ross succeeds her late husband as governor of Wyoming, becoming the first female governor in US history.
1940 - Edwin H. Armstrong demonstrates FM radio broadcasting over a long-distance relay network, using five radio stations each in a different US state.
1941 - Amy Johnson, a pioneering British aviator, dies after bailing out of her plane which had run out of fuel.
1953 - Passenger ships Willem Ruys and Orange collide in the Red Sea.
1961 - US severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
1976 - Cambodia is renamed the Democratic Kampuchea by the Khmer Rouge.
1993 - Sharjah Museum opens to the public.
1997 - General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum is named Humanitarian Personality of the Year 1996.
2000 - Palestinians hoist their flag over a former Israeli military camp following a deal for West Bank land transfers.
2002 - Younes Al Aynaoui becomes the first Arab player to win the Qatar Open after beating Spain’s Felix Mantilla in the final.
2003 - Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, one of the ‘Gang of Four’ British politicians, dies at the age of 82.
2006 - His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum is elected Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE.
2007 - Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer bow out on a high as Australia win fifth and final Ashes Test to complete their first Ashes whitewash in 86 years.
2014 - Portugal’s football legend Eusebio dies at the age of 71.
