Four men who used a pistol and an arsenal of wooden replica weapons to hijack an Air Tanzania jet from Africa to Europe released their hostages and surrendered after being allowed to speak with an exiled Tanzania politician. The 50-hour, 10,000km forced journey ended with the hijackers using two of their children, a boy and girl aged about 10, to ferry their weapons from the plane to police. Then the hijackers and a group of their relatives, some waving white flags, left the plane and walked in a cluster across the runway to waiting officers in Stansted, England. All the 91 hostages have been released. They took over the white, blue and yellow Boeing 737 on February 26, in a bid to force the resignation of Tanzania’s President Julius Nyerere. They surrendered after being allowed to speak with exiled Oscar Kambona, a former Tanzanian minister who fled into exile in 1967 after opposing Nyerere’s socialist policies.
Other important events:
1806 French forces capture Barcelona, Spain.
1825 Britain and Russia sign treaty covering respective rights in Pacific Ocean area.
1861 The Territory of Colorado is organised.
1877 Turkey and Serbia sign peace treaty.
1922 English princess Mary marries Viscount Lascelles.
1942 Japanese forces land in Java, Indonesia, in Second World War.
1961 US President John F Kennedy names Henry Kissinger as special adviser.
1975 Forty two passengers are killed in London’s Underground when a subway train smashes into the end of a tunnel.
1982 UAE University’s first convocation is held in Al Ain.
1985 The IRA carry out a mortar bomb attack on a police station in Newry, Northern Ireland, kill-ing nine Royal Ulster Constabulary officers.
1986 Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme is assassinated in Stockholm.
1993 A bomb blast inside a gift shop rips through Zamboanga airport, Philippines, injuring 23 people.
1994 US jets down four Serb warplanes in Bosnia, Nato’s first air attack in the war.
1995 The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ends with the signing of the Montevideo Declaration
1997 A 6.1-magnitude earthquake kills 965 people in Azerbaijan, Iran and Pakistan.
2002 Martial law is imposed in Madagascar.
2004 A tanker carrying 3.5 million gallons of industrial ethanol explodes and sinks off the Virginia coast, killing three crew members.
2005 Lebanese Prime Minister Omar Karami announces the resignation of his pro-Syrian government.
2006 EFG Hermes is the first to join Dubai International Financial Exchange as broker.
2007 Two Picasso paintings worth nearly $66 million (Dh242.41 million) are stolen from the artist’s granddaughter’s house in Paris.
2008 Ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra returns from exile to Bangkok.
2009 President Robert Mugabe throws himself a lavish birthday party and calls on Zimbabwe’s last white farmers to leave.
2010 Fiercest winter storm hits western Europe, at least 56 dead.
2011 A travel ban is imposed on former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his family.
2013 Thailand signs its first-ever public agreement with a rebel group in its Muslim-majority south, pledging to seek peace talks.
2014 At least 15 people, including 13 children, are killed when a bus carrying students on a trip to the seaside collides with a lorry in eastern Thailand.
