2001 - Al Ain’s Dh45 million Al Jimi Shopping Centre was opened by Shaikh Tahnoun Bin Mohammad Al Nahyan, the Ruler’s Representative in the Eastern Province and Vice-Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council. “The centre plays a critical role in our ambitions to develop Al Ain into the premier Garden City of the Middle East and a prime tourist attraction,” said Shaikh Tahnoun. The facility, which took just over a year to build, replaces the Al Khabisi fruit and vegetable market. Already more than 95 per cent of the 46,000 square metre centre has been leased, said Philip Haddad, managing director of developer Addar Real Estate Services. The centre, promoted as “a shopping oasis in the heart of Al Ain”, is expected to attract more visitors to the city.
Other important events
1873 - Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis receive the US patent for the invention of men’s work pants.
1891 - The first public display of Thomas Edison’s prototype kinetoscope to members of the US National Federation of Women’s Clubs.
1919 - Volcano Keluit erupts in Java killing 550.
1902 - US ends its occupation of Cuba.
1920 - Mexican president Venustiano Carranza is murdered by political opponents after fleeing the capital.
1927 - US aviator Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island on his historic solo flight to France.
1941 - The first airborne invasion takes place as Nazi Germany captures the island of Crete.
1956 - US drops a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific atoll of Bikini in the Pacific, the first airborne test of an improved hydrogen device.
1963 - Sukarno is appointed president of Indonesia.
1974 - Libya and the Soviet Union sign a pact for increased trade and weapons aid to Tripoli.
1978 - Mavis Hutchinson becomes the first woman to run across America.
1990 - Romania holds free, democratic elections for the first time in 45 years.
1992 - India successfully launches a space satellite using domestic technology.
1994 - Ali Salem Al Beidh, Yemen’s vice-president, declares the southern part of the country independent, leading to civil war.
1996 - The UAE’s Federal Supreme Council draws up a permanent constitution and names Abu Dhabi as the federal capital of the UAE.
2000 - Taiwan inaugurates President Chen Shui-bian.
2002 - East Timor becomes an independent nation.
2005 - America West Holdings Corp. agrees to merge with US Airways Inc.
2007 - Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta is sworn in as East Timor’s second president.
2008 - Ma Ying-jeou takes office as president of Taiwan.
2009 - A military plane crash lands on a rice paddy in Magetan, East Java, and bursts into flames, killing 98 Indonesian soldiers and their families.
