The new regional office of General Civil Aviation Authority’s (GCAA) opened on Al Ramoul Road in Dubai by Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Department of Civil Aviation and Chairman of Emirates airline group. The UAE Communications Minister and GCAA Board Chairman Ahmad Humaid Al Tayer, was also present. Al Tayer confirmed that it was not just air traffic control movements that were on the rise in the UAE, the authority’s profits and total assets had also increased. Al Tayer said last year’s profit was Dh17.4 million compared to Dh15 million in 1999. Total assets came to Dh121 million, up Dh17 million from 1999. The authority, with its main office in Abu Dhabi, was set up by the government in 1996 to deal with aviation developments. It controls civil aviation in the UAE and is responsible for enroute air navigation services and flight safety.
Other important events
1864 - Archduke Maximilian of Austria accepts title of Emperor of Mexico.
1912 - The Titanic sets sail on its ill-fated maiden voyage.
1919 - Revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata is killed in an army ambush in Chinameca, Mexico.
1932 - Paul von Hindenburg is re-elected German president over Adolf Hitler.
1941 - Nazi puppet state formed in Croatia.
1944 The Soviet Red Army recaptures the Ukrainian port city of Odessa.
1945 - US troops liberate Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany.
1959 - Japan’s Crown Prince Akihito marries a commoner, Michiko Shoda.
1963 - The nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher fails to surface off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in a disaster that claims 129 lives.
1972 - United States and Soviet Union sign treaty banning biological warfare.
1981 - Imprisoned Irish Republican Army hunger striker Bobby Sands wins election to the British Parliament.
1983 - Essam Sartawi, a key Palestinian Liberation Organisation peacemaker, is assassinated in Portugal.
1988 - An army ammunition dump blew up near Rawalpindi, Pakistan, killing more than 100 people.
1990 - A Frenchwoman and a Belgian man are freed after 2 1/2 years in captivity in Lebanon.
1992 - John Major wins election and becomes British prime minister.
1993 - Chris Hani, one of South Africa’s top black leaders is murdered.
1995 - Former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai dies at the age of 81.
1998 - British and Irish governments join with the Ulster parties to seal historic pact.
2001 - South Africa becomes the first country in the world to approve a solution that can be used in place of blood in transfusions
2008 - Nepal holds its first election in nine years.
2009 - Abdelaziz Bouteflika wins a third term as President of Algeria.
2010 - Polish President Lech Kaczynski and some of the country’s highest military and civilian leaders are killed in the plane crash in western Russia.
2013 - British scientist and test-tube baby pioneer Robert Edwards dies at the age of 87.
2014 - Dubai launches $1.5 million World Peace award to a person or organization.
2015 - 31 schoolchildren are killed in a head-on collision between a truck and a bus that caught fire in Morocco.
