France bid an emotional farewell to the Concorde as the supersonic airliner touched down at Charles de Gaulle airport at the end of its final scheduled flight for Air France. Some 15,000 people turned out round the airport perimeter to witness the close of a 27-year chapter in aviation history, as the sleek delta-shape of flight AF001 from New York roared down to the tarmac for the last time. The aircraft was escorted down the runway by a convoy of police and fire vehicles with sirens blaring.
As it passed the crowds massed behind wire fencing to see the landing, the pilot dipped the plane’s characteristic nose-cone in salute. At the same time a second aircraft took around 100 passengers on a farewell tour of honour over the French capital. The aircraft, which for many in France was an emblem of national prowess, is being withdrawn from service after 27 years as a result of soaring costs and plummeting passenger numbers.
Other important events:
1884 Dr John Harvey Kellogg applies for a patent for flaked cereal.
1910 The Union of South Africa is founded.
1911 General Porfirio Diaz goes into exile in France, ending 34 years as strongman president of Mexico.
1916 HMS Invincible explodes, killing 1,026 people.
1926 Portuguese president Bernardino Machedo resigns after coup.
1931 Oil is found in Bahrain, the first petroleum discovery in the Arab world.
1961 South Africa becomes independent republic outside British Commonwealth.
1966 Court in the Congo sentences former premier Evariste Kimba and three others to death on charges of plotting a coup.
1970 Earthquake hits Peru, leaving more than 66,000 dead and 20,000 missing.
1973 US Senate votes to cut off all funds for US bombing operations in Cambodia.
1974 Israel and Syria sign an agreement concerning the Golan Heights.
1976 Indonesia completes its takeover of East Timor.
1977 The trans-Alaska oil pipeline is completed after three years of work.
1985 English Football Clubs ban from Europe following Heysel Stadium Disaster.
1987 Brazilian Ayrton Senna wins the Monaco Grand Prix.
1990 Terrorists attack a private bus, killing at least 30 of its passengers near the Korangi township in Karachi.
1991 The Angolan peace accords are signed in Lisbon, ending a 16-year civil war.
1999 A major fire sweeps through a New Delhi shopping complex, killing 16 people
2000 Hong Kong closes its last refugee camp for Vietnamese boat people.
2005 Emaar Properties sign an agreement with Italian fashion group Giorgio Armani to invest $1 billion in the hotel industry.
2006 The US and Vietnam sign a trade pact that removes one of the last major hurdles in Hanoi’s bid to join the World Trade Organisation.
2007 The Vatican and the UAE sign a communique to establish diplomatic ties.
2009 Famed writer and painter Kamala Das dies aged 75 in Pune after a battle with diabetes.
2010 Tropical storm Agatha kills 180 across Central America and leaves an 18-metre wide sinkhole in Guatemala City.
2013 Oklamohama tornadoes kill five people and wreak massive damage in the area.
2017 At least 90 people are killed and 400 injured when a massive truck bomb rips through Kabul’s diplomatic quarter.
