February 01, 1991: US Air Boeing 737 crashes at Los Angeles

 1991: US Air Boeing 737 crashes at Los Angeles

The Boeing 737-300 airliner, carrying 84 passengers and a crew of six from Columbus, Ohio, burst into flames after it collided with the smaller plane SkyWest, which was preparing to take-off on the same runway, slammed into an abandoned fire station and split in two. The commuter plane was taxiing for a flight to Palmdale, California. At least 35 people were killed, including all 12 aboard the commuter plane. Debris lay scattered round the wreckage and smoke covered the airport, for an hour. The rescue operations were suspended for the night because both planes were still smouldering and fuel leakage was causing a fire hazard. The Skywest Fairchild Metroliner commuter plane was so crushed in the collision it was not spotted by firefighters until after they had spent an hour putting out a giant blaze which sent columns of black smoke spiralling over Los Angeles International Airport.

1991: Quake kills 200 in Pakistan

More than 200 people were killed and hundreds injured by a severe earthquake in the village of Malakand in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. At least four people were killed in neighbouring Afghanistan by the quake which also jolted parts of India and Soviet Central Asia. Pakistani officials said bodies of 150 people killed had been spotted so far. Hundreds of people were also injured and hundreds of houses collapsed or were damaged. The death toll from Pakistan’s strongest quake in recent years was likely to rise as information was still awaited from remote mountainous areas, some of which were snowbound. Sixteen provinces in Afghanistan were severely hit by the quake. Some damage to roads and buildings was reported, with cracks appearing in walls and roofs. Two Pakistani villages were “completed destroyed” in the remote Kohistan area of Swat district. Army helicopters were used to evacuate injured from some of the stricken areas and to drop food and medical supplies. The earthquake hit before dawn. It was measured by a Pakistani seismological centre at 6.8 on the Richter scale.
 

Other important events on February 01 

1865 John Rock becomes the first African American attorney to be admitted to the bar of the US Supreme Court.

1881 First signs of nationalist movement appear in Egypt as military officers stage uprising.

1896 Crete begins revolution against Turkey.

1899 US flag is raised over Pacific island of Guam, formerly under Spanish control.

1908 Portugal’s King Carlos I and Crown Prince are murdered in Lisbon.

1924 Britain recognises the Communist government of Soviet Union.

1925 Ahmet Zogu becomes the first President of Albania.

1956 Guy Mollet becomes Prime Minister of France.

1968 Central Pacific nation of Nauru becomes independent.

1972 British Embassy in Dublin is bombed as anti-British demonstrations sweep Ireland.

1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran after 15 years in exile.

1984 China and Netherlands resume diplomatic ties.

1990 Romanian National Salvation Front agrees to a power-sharing arrangement until national elections can be held.

1991 Severe earthquake in Pakistan kills more than 200 people.

1992 US President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign Camp David declaration of the end of Cold War.

1995 Flooded rivers make refugees of almost 250,000 people in the Netherlands.

1997 An Air Senegal plane carrying European tourists crashes in Senegal, killing at least 20 people.

1998 Miguel Angel Rodriguez wins the presidency in Costa Rica.

2000 UAE issues federal law on the establishment of the Emirates Securities and Commodities Market.

2003 Space shuttle Columbia breaks up over Texas, killing all seven astronauts on board.

2004 At least 250 pilgrims crushes to death during a devil-stoning ritual in Mina, Saudi Arabia.

2008 Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum becomes Crown Prince of Dubai.

2009 The Hamdan Bin Mohammad e-University formerly known the e-TQM college is launched in Dubai.

2012 Riots after a football match in Egypt’s Port Saeed leave 73 people dead.

2014 Volcano Mount Sinabung erupts, killing at least 16 people in Indonesia.

2015 An Egyptian court bans the armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas and list it as a “terrorist” organisation.