August 13, 2001: Helios sets new altitude record

2001 - An unpiloted, solar-powered aircraft set two new world altitude records as it soared to 29.4 kilometres, US space officials said. The record for a propeller-driven aircraft was set when the wing-shaped plane dubbed Helios reached the altitude of 24.4 kilometres, beating the record set in 1998 by the aircraft Pathfinder Plus — a smaller version of Helios — said spokeswomen of Nasa’s Dryden Flight Research Centre. Forty minutes later, Helios broke another altitude record established by an SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance jet in 1976 as it soared to 25.9 kilometres. Later, Helios reached 29.4 kilometres. The temperature at that altitude was -40 degrees Celsius. The flight was expected to last 14 to 16 hours, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.

Other important events

1624 - France’s King Louis XIII names Cardinal Richelieu as first minister.

1784 - Britain’s India Act places East India Company under government-appointed Board of Control.

1792 - French revolutionaries imprison France’s royal family.

1814 - Britain agrees to hand back all Dutch colonial possessions, including Indonesia.

1868 - Earthquakes in Peru and Ecuador kill 25,000 and damage property worth $300 million (Dh1.1 billion).

1898 - US forces capture Manila from Spain during the Spanish-American War.

1960 - The Central African Republic and Chad proclaim their independence from Franc.

1961 - East Germany closes the Brandenburg Gate to seal the border between East and West Berlin.

1970 - Iraq and Syria reaffirm their opposition to Egyptian efforts to seek a peaceful solution to the Middle East crisis.

1983 - The Indian government starts to erect a barbed-wire fence along the entire 2,500-mile (4,023km) border with Bangladesh.

1993 - A six-storey hotel in Thailand crashes down, killing at least 24.

1994 - Nato Secretary-General Manfred Woemer dies after a long battle with cancer.

1995 - Norwegian hostage Hans Christian Ostroe is killed by Kashmir militants.

1998 - Rebels fighting Congolese President Laurent Kabila capture a power transformer in western Congo, plunging the capital Kinshasa into darkness.

1999 - German tennis legend Steffi Graf retires from the sport.

2000 - Mika Hakkinen of Finland wins Hungarian Grand Prix.

2007 - Karl Rove, dubbed ‘Bush’s brain’ and the architect of bush’s two election victories, resigns.

2008 - Lebanon’s newly-chosen President Michel Sulaiman arrives in Syria on a landmark visit.

2011 - The 50th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall is marked.

2013 - Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva wins the women’s pole vault title for a third time at the World Athletics Championships held in Moscow.