Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, who won worldwide acclaim but was never very popular in his own country, died in hospital, three weeks after being awarded an Oscar for lifetime achievement. The lanky, 70-year-old Ray had been treated for a heart ailment in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Kolkata, where he lived and worked all his life, for almost three months. Members of his family said he went into a deep coma after his condition suddenly deteriorated. He was awarded an Oscar for lifetime achievement at his hospital bed by Hollywood’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In a videotape of the presentation shown at the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Ray said: “It is a magnificent award, certainly the best achievement of my movie-making career, spanning over four decades.” It was the second time Ray had received a major award in hospital. French President Francois Mitterrand personally made him a member of the Legion of Honour when Ray was recovering from heart surgery in 1989.
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1975 US President Gerald Ford declares that the Vietnam War is over.
1988 The human-powered aircraft Daedalus sets a record-breaking flight from Crete to Aegean island in less than three hours and 55 minutes.
1990 Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations.
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1992 McDonald’s opens its first fast-food restaurant in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
1993 Lalith Athulathmudali, Sri Lanka’s top opposition leader, is assassinated by a lone gun-man.
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2004 US President George W. Bush takes steps to restore normal trade ties with Libya.
2006 Hungary’s Socialist-led governing coalition wins runoff parliamentary ballots.
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2011 Yahsat, a UAE-based satellite communications company, launches its first satellite into orbit.
2013 Kuwaiti Saud Al Sanousi wins the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
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