US Air Force transport plane crashes, killing 13
1990 - A giant US Air Force transport plane crashed and burst into flames in West Germany, killing 13 people in the worst loss of life since the Gulf military build-up began. The C-5A Galaxy was flying as part of the US ‘Operation Desert Shield’ to ferry troops and equipment to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. The four-engine jet ploughed through trees into a field a few hundred metres from the end of the runway just after taking off from Ramstein Air Force Base west of Frankfurt. US Air Force officials said the crash was not likely to slow down the transport of troops to the Gulf. Brigadier General Richard Swope said a news conference in Ramstein some 12 hours after the crash that the runway, shut down just after the accident, was already back in service.
August 29
1782 - Almost 1,100 people drown when English Man-of-War sinks while being repaired at Portsmouth, England.
1842 - Treaty of Nanking ends the First Opium War.
1885 - The world’s first motorcycle made by German engineer Gottlieb Daimler, is patented.
1935 - Queen Astrid of Belgium is killed in accident.
1949 - The Soviet Union successfully detonates its first atomic bomb, code name “First Lightning”.
1960 - Jordan’s Premier Hazza Al Majali is assassinated.
1981 - A bomb explodes outside the door of the Iranian radio and television office in Beirut, killing one person.
1991 - The Soviet parliament suspends all activities of the Communist Party ending the 75-year control of the Soviet Union.
1993 - A dam burst in China’s Qinghai province kills at least 223 people.
1992 - The last batch of Russian diplomats pull out of Kabul, Afghanistan.
1994 - Palestinians of the West Bank are given control over civilian government.
1998 - A Cuban airplane bursts into flames and crashes during takeoff from Quito, Ecuador, killing 79 people.
1999 - East Timorese vote in a historic referendum on independence from Indonesia.
2003 - A car bomb kills at least 82 outside one of the holiest Shiite shrines in the Iraqi city of Najaf.
2006 - The euro rises above 150 yen in Tokyo for the first time.
2007 - Nelson Mandela’s statue unveiled opposite the Houses of Parliament in London.
2010 - Thousands of Indonesians evacuate from the slopes of Sinabung volcano after its eruption for the first time in 400 years.
