This day marks the first flight of an Indian in a balloon. Ram Chandra Chatterjee took the flight with British balloonist Percival G. Spencer.
Chatterjee had been trained by Spencer. The balloon, called The Viceroy, took off from the Oriental Gas Company premises in Narkeldanga. It was filled with 20,000 cubic feet of coal gas.
After a flight of about an hour, Spencer and Chatterjee landed in a village near Barasat.
Chatterjee later bought the balloon and named it The City of Calcutta.
His first solo flight was announced on April 27, 1889, but it was postponed because of bad weather and took place on May 4, 1889. He took off from the gas works grounds and landed near Sodepur.
Chatterjee, who was an acrobat and a gymnast, started a professional ballooning company. His second solo flight took place in Allahabad on June 27, 1889. On March 22, 1890, he stunned Kolkata by leaping from 3,500ft in a parachute.
For the next two years, he toured north India. It was during this period that he was injured when his balloon hit a hill. He returned to Kolkata but died on August 9, 1892.
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