Woman pilot flies Concorde
1993 - A woman pilot flew the Concorde, the world’s only commercial supersonic aircraft, for the first time. Barbara Harmer, 39, one of 40 women pilots with British Airways, flew the Concorde at twice the speed of sound to New York, marking aviation history. The Concorde 001 to New York was hurtling down the Heathrow tarmac at 225mph (362km/h) with its first woman pilot at the controls. “This represents the achievement of a long-held ambition,” she said before takeoff. “It is the ultimate aircraft in civil aviation.” The Concorde is a popular aircraft on the trans-Atlantic route of the airline. Harmer, a Briton who is single and lists yacht racing and skiing as her hobbies, went into aviation at the age of 21 as an air traffic control trainee.
March 25
1807 - British parliament abolishes slave trade throughout the British Empire.
1815 - Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia form an alliance against Napoleon Bonaparte.
1843 - The Thames Tunnel in London opens to the public.
1863 - The first US Army Medal of Honor is awarded to Jacob Parrott.
1895 - Italian troops invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
1896 - The modern Olympics begin in Athens, Greece.
1911 - A fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York City kills 146 immigrant workers.
1913 - The Palace Theatre opens on Broadway in New York City.
1915 - A US submarine USS F-4, explodes and sinks off Honolulu, Hawaii, killing all 21 crew.
1941 - Yugoslavia joins Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Alliance in the Second World War.
1965 - Martin Luther King Jr leads 25,000 marchers to the state capital in Montgomery to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks.
1969 - Pakistan’s President Ayoub Khan turns power over to the military after an 11-year rule.
1975 - Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal is assassinated in Riyadh.
1989 - Heads of Egypt, Jordan and Palestine Liberation Organisation meet to coordinate Middle East peace strategy.
1990 - A fire races through a packed, illegal nightclub in a New York slum, killing at least 87 people.
1992 - Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth from the Mir space station after a 10-month stay.
1994 - American troops withdraw from Somalia after a 16-month humanitarian mission marred by fighting with Somali warlords.
2002 - An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale strikes the districts of Nahrin and Burkha in Afghanistan, killing more than 4,800 people.
2007 - Yemen becomes the 105th country in the world and the fourth Arab nation to ratify the International Criminal Court statute.
2010 - Sixteen runaway train carriages go downhill for five kilometres and crash into a port building in Oslo, killing three.
2012 - Spain’s Fernando Alonso wins the Malaysian Grand Prix.
2015 - The second phase of Dubai Healthcare City is launched.
