1991 - The inaugural flight of Air China, a Boeing 707, from Beijing to Cairo via Dubai landed at the Dubai International Airport where it was accorded a warm welcome. An official Chinese delegation led by Yan Zhxiang, deputy director general of the Chinese Civil Aviation Department, and Xu Bai Ling, president of Air China, were received by Mohi Al Deen Bin Hindi, Director General of the Dubai Civil Aviation Department and other senior officials. The Air China flight was full as both the first class and economy class seats were all occupied. The flying time between Beijing and Dubai is about eight and a half hours and a further three and a half hours from Dubai to the Egyptian capital Cairo. Yan said he hoped not only tourists and businessmen but others will also fly this route on Air China.
Other important events
1912 - Montenegro declares war on Turkey.
1932 - The Indian Air Force is established.
1945 - US President Harry Truman announces the secret of the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada.
1954 - Communist Vietnamese forces occupy Hanoi.
1962 - Uganda becomes an independent nation within the British Commonwealth.
1965 - The Post Office Tower (now the BT Tower) in London is officially opened.
1967 - Che Guevara, a Marxist revolutionary, is captured
1982 - Poland bans Solidarity and all labour unions.
1984 - China announces plan to make primary school education compulsory by 1990 and eradicate adult illiteracy by 1995.
1988 - Riots break out in Algeria.
1990 - Britain joins the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM).
1992 - West Indian poet Derek Walcott wins Nobel prize for Literature.
1996 - PLO leader Yasser Arafat makes his first public visit to Israel.
1997 - Scientists report the Pathfinder probe’s exploration of Mars has yielded evidence that the planet was once hospitable to life.
2000 - Michael Schumacher wins Japanese Grand Prix.
2001 - An SAS airliner taking off for Denmark from Milan, Italy, hits a private jet and explodes, killing all 114 people on both planes and four people on the ground.
2002 - Pakistan conducts tests of a medium-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
2005 - A 7.5 magnitude quake kills thousands of people in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
2009 - A suicide car bomb explodes outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul, killing at least 17 people.
2010 - Kunduz province governor Mohammad Omar is killed in a bomb explosion at Shirkat mosque in Takhar, Afghanistan.
2012 - West Indies wins the ICC World Twenty20 after beating Sri Lanka in the final in Colombo.
2013 - Egypt orders authorities to remove the Muslim Brotherhood from the list of approved non-governmental organisations.
