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His Highness Shaikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, takes the salute at a colourful ceremony marked the passing out of the 28th batch of recruits at the Armed Forces Headquarters of Central Military Command, Dubai in July 1980. - Gulf News Archives

Military command merges with UAE armed forces

1997 - General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Minister of Defence, issued a resolution ordering completion of the full amalgamation of the forces affiliated to what is referred to as the Armed Forces Central Military Command (CMC). The order’s first article stipulates that in compliance with the directives of President and Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces His Highness Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the development and upgrading of the armed forces and the enhancement of their capabilities shall continue to be pursued. The resolution covers procedures for the completion of the integration of the forces of the CMC so as to attain a complete integration within the armed forces.

December 7

1895 - Ethiopians defeat Italians at Ambia Alagi, Abyssinia.

1901 - England and Italy agree on settling Sudan frontier.

1916 - David Lloyd George becomes British Prime Minister.

1917 - The US declares war on Austria-Hungary during the First World War.

1922 - Northern Ireland votes for nonalignment in Irish Free State.

1941 - Japanese air forces attack the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

1971 - Unmanned Soviet space capsule sends back radio and television signals from Mars.

1975 - Indonesia invades East Timor and annexes the region as its 27th province.

1981 - Spain becomes a member of the Nato alliance.

1982 - Wadi Al Beih dam and the Khat mineral springs open in Ras Al Khaimah.

1987 - A Pacific Southwest Airlines flight crashes near Cayucos, California, as a result of a murder–suicide by one of the passengers. All 43 people on board are killed.

1988 - An estimated 100,000 people are killed or buried alive in a powerful earthquake in northern Armenia.

1995 - Nasa’s Galileo spacecraft reaches Jupiter after a six-year journey.

1996 - The Columbia space shuttle returns to Earth after nearly 18 days, ending the longest space shuttle flight ever.

2001 - The Taliban regime in Afghanistan ends as it surrenders its final bastion in Kandahar.

2002 - For the first time, Iraqi President Saddam Hussain apologises for invading Kuwait in 1990.

2004 - Hamid Karzai is sworn in as the first popularly elected President of Afghanistan.

2007 - Dubai International Financial Exchange lists its first non-dollar security in the form of Jebel Ali Free Zone’s Dh7.5 billion local currency sukuk.

2009 - Two remote-controlled bombs blow up in a market in Lahore, Pakistan, killing 46 people.

2012 - Hamas leader Khalid Mesha’al arrives in the Gaza Strip, ending 45 years of exile.

2016 - A Pakistan International Airlines flight crashes in the mountain at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing all 47.