The first automated robotic car parking facility opened in Dubai. A driver, once in front of the facility called Robot Park, activates the system through a missed call on their mobile. The system will then acknowledge the command by initiating a complete system review, diagnostic tests and safety checks. The gate will open and the motorist drives onto a parking platform. Once the car is on the platform, the motorist gets out. The system will automatically move the car up to its pre-assigned parking space. Instructions are provided on a television screen and also via voice instructions. To retrieve the car, the driver places another miss call on the given number. The car descends to the ground floor after a security check and a gate opens to drive it outside. It takes about a minute to park the car and the same time to retrieve it. The first-of-its-kind in the region, the robot car park on Al Maktoum Street covers 7.5 square metres and can park 16 cars at a time.
Other important events
1657 English fleet defeats Spanish fleet off Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
1789 George Washington becomes the first US president.
1803 US double in size with the purchases of the Louisiana Territory and New Orleans from France.
1824 Crete is captured by Egyptian allies of the Turks.
1881 France invades Tunisia from Algeria, and later establishes a protectorate.
1897 British physicist Joseph Thomson announces the discovery of electrons.
1900 Hawaii becomes a US territory.
1945 Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin bunker with his new wife, Eva Braun.
1948 The Organization of American States holds its first meeting, in Bogota, Colombia.
1953 People’s Progressive Party wins first election in British Guyana.
1975 Vietnamese Communist troops take over Saigon, ending Vietnam War.
1986 Indian troops storm Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, Punjab.
1990 American hostage Frank Reed is freed after four years in the hands of pro-Iranian kidnappers in Lebanon.
1993 Monica Seles is stabbed in the back by a spectator during a match in Germany.
1994 Austrian Roland Ratzenberger dies after a high-speed crash during final qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix.
1995 US President Bill Clinton ends US trade and investment with Iran, accusing the Tehran government of supporting terrorism.
1998 A noted Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani dies at his London home, at the age of 75.
2004 Ten countries join European Union, the biggest expansion in its 47-year history.
2006 Nepal’s Parliament calls for a ceasefire with communist rebels and elections for an assembly to rewrite the constitution.
2007 A gasoline tanker crashes and bursts into flames near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in California.
2009 Qatari Minister of Commerce Shaikh Fahd Bin Jasem Bin Mohammad Al Thani dies in a car accident.
2012 A double-decker ferry with more than 350 passengers sinks in the Brahmaputra river in Assam, India, killing at least 270 people.
2013 Prince Willem-Alexander crowns as new king of The Netherlands, becomes the first male monarch in the country in 123 years.
2014 British actor Bob Hoskins dies after a bout of pneumonia, he was 71.
