1997 India launched its first fully operational satellite aboard a locally developed rocket, and said it would resist international efforts to contain its success in strategic areas. India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) slid into orbit an earth-imaging satellite after a textbook lift-off from Sriharikota Island. “A time will come when the world will have to treat us as equal partners,” said a beaming Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral soon after the 1,200 kilogram satellite was put into orbit. The 468-tonne rocket left a trail of white smoke as it roared into the clear blue sky. Scientists broke into applause and hugged each other when the rocket put the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-ID) into an 817km-high orbit. “It was a perfect mission, a textbook launch,” said K. Kasturirangan, chairman of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Gujral said India would resist international efforts to contain its scientific and technological achievements and prevent their transfer to the defence sector.
Other important events
1829 London’s reorganised police force, which becomes known as Scotland Yard, goes on duty.
1885 The first practical public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England.
1911 Italy declares war on Turkey, eventually conquering Libya.
1915 New Orleans hurricane hits Louisiana, at least 275 people are killed.
1923 Britain begins ruling Palestine under a League of Nations mandate.
1944 Soviet troops invade Yugoslavia.
1962 Alouette 1, the first Canadian satellite, is launched.
1965 Soviet Union admits it is supplying arms to North Vietnam.
1972 China and Japan normalise relations.
1976 Syrian troops in Lebanon drive out Palestinian militants from most of their key mountain positions east of Beirut.
1978 Pope John Paul I is found dead just over a month after becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church.
1979 Ousted Equatorial Guinea dictator Francisco Macias Nguema and six former aides are executed.
1987 Army Commander Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka appoint himself head of Fiji’s government, declares a republic.
1988 United Nations peacekeeping forces win the 1988 Nobel peace prize.
1990 The US and Vietnam hold a meeting, the first ever between the two nations since the Vietnam War.
1992 Brazilian lawmakers impeach President Fernando Collor de Mello.
1996 Bosnia’s first post-war elections are watched by international groups.
1998 Pandeli Majko is appointed Albanian Prime Minister.
2000 The Maze high security prison in Northern Ireland is closed.
2003 Adventurer David Hempleman-Adams succeeded in his third attempt to cross the Atlantic by balloon.
2006 A Brazilian jetliner clips a smaller jet in midair and crashes into the Amazon jungle, killing all 155 on board.
2007 A homemade bomb explodes outside a crowded city park in the Maldives, wounding at least 12 people.
2008 Astronaut Zhai Zhigang, the first Chinese man to walk in space, is hailed as a national hero in Beijing.
2013 Kenyan Wilson Kispang breaks marathon world record in Berlin with the time of 2:03:23.
2014 Afghanistan inaugurates its first new president in a decade, Ashraf Gani swearing in as president.
2015 Fifa bans former vice-president Jack Warner for life from all football-related activity.
