Within a decade of Etienne de Boré's 1795 breakthrough in granulating sugar, seventy plantations lined the Mississippi from present-day Kenner to English Turn. The Kenner family acquired Oakland, Belle Grove, and Pasture Plantations in the 1840s, eventually owning nearly everything that would become the modern city. Sugar ruled until suburbanization swallowed the fields. Then the airport arrived, and Kenner became the first thing most visitors see when they land in Louisiana. On July 9, 1982, it also became the site of one of the worst aviation disasters in American history. Pan Am Flight 759, a Boeing 727, crashed seconds after takeoff, killing all 145 people aboard and 8 on the ground. The wreckage destroyed six homes in a residential neighborhood less than 5,000 feet from the runway. The tragedy led directly to the development of airborne windshear detection systems, which the FAA mandated on all commercial aircraft by 1993. Kenner absorbed the loss and kept growing around the airport. The Rivertown Historic District, sixteen blocks along the river, preserves what came before — including the spot where LaSalle's expedition camped and where, in 1870, Gypsy Jem Mace and Tom Allen fought what is recognized as the first world heavyweight championship prizefight.