Since Carolingian times, cereals have been grown in Gonesse. In the period of the 12th through to the 16th centuries, the cultivation of grain was supplemented by drapery, in particular the production of the coarse woollen material of the gaunace. The commune was an important producer of wheat for the Parisian market in modern times, until the decline of its bakery trade at the end of the 18th century helped feed a strong migration to the capital. The world's first hydrogen filled balloon—the unmanned balloon launched by Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers from the Champ de Mars in Paris on 27 August 1783—flew for 45 minutes and landed in Gonesse, where the reportedly terrified local peasants destroyed it with pitchforks. This caused the government to issue a statement on the harmlessness and the scientific value of such experiments. In 1815, Marshal Grouchy arrived in Gonesse in the course of the War of the Sixth Coalition, with 40,000 troops and 120 artillery pieces. On 2 July, the Duke of Wellington made his headquarters at the commune. Since June 1939, the property Frapart is used as the main establishment of the urban administration. Jean Camus, Louis Furmanek, Pierre Lorgnet, and Albert Drouhot from Gonesse belonged to the French Resistance movement during the German occupation of France from 1940 to 1944. On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590—a Concorde supersonic transport—crashed onto a hotel in the town after a tyre blew out, caused by running over a strip of metal that had fallen off a DC-10 at nearby Charles de GaulleInternational Airport. The crash led to the deaths of all 109 people on board and four more on the ground. The Concorde crash occurred fewer than 6 km from Goussainville, the site of the crash of the supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 during the 1973 Paris Air Show.
Gonesse has been twinned with the town of Leonessa in Rieti, Italy, since 1981.
Sights
Among the places worthwhile to visit in the town are the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, the old Hotel-Dieu, the Hotel-Dieu, the lofts Garlande and Orgemont, and the estates of Malmaison and of Coulanges.
Transport
Gonesse is served neither by the Paris Métro, RER, nor the suburban rail network. The closest station is the Villiers-le-Bel - Gonesse - Arnouville station on the Paris RER line D. This station is located in the neighbouring commune of Arnouville-lès-Gonesse, from Gonesse town centre.
Education
, the commune had 20 municipal primary schools with a total of 3,526 ;pupils, including 11 pre-schools with a total of 1,389 pupils and nine elementary schools with 2,137 total pupils. Junior high schools:
