2002 - Steve Curtis and Bjorn Rune Gjelsten in Spirit of Norway clinched the 2002 UIM Arbank Class 1 World Offshore Powerboat Championship as their closest rivals for the title, Ali Nasser and Ali Al Qama in Victory 7 rounded off an intriguing season by winning a dramatic Dubai Grand Prix. Even before the start of the championship’s last of eight rounds, sponsored by Emirates airline and Dubai Duty Free, it was clear that it would need a mechanical disaster to prevent Curtis and Gjelsten from clinching the world crown, but the Anglo-Norwegian pairing had a smooth passage to finish second. The real drama unfolded on the 13th of 15 laps, as Nasser and Al Qama, who had led for virtually the entire race, moved wide on a turn, and Saeed Al Tayer and Mohammad Al Merri in Victory 1 briefly took the lead.
Other important events
1672 - Poland surrenders the Ukraine to the Turks after an invasion.
1842 - The first telegraph cable is laid by Samuel Morse in New York harbour.
1867 - US takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia.
1892 - The first long-distance telephone line is opened between Chicago and New York.
1898 - The American flag is raised in Puerto Rico shortly before Spain formally relinquishes control of the island to the US..
1969 - US federal government bans artificial sweeteners known as cyclamates because of evidence they caused cancer in laboratory rats.
1981 - Andreas Papandreou’s Panhellenic Socialist Movement wins 48 per cent in national elections, becoming Greece’s first leftist government.
1985 - African National Congress poet Benjamin Moloise is hanged in Pretoria central prison.
1989 - East German Communist Party leader Erich Honecker quits.
1991 - Commonwealth lifts ban on South Africa after 15 years.
1995 - Pakistan begins pulling back soldiers from the Indian border.
1998 - Over 1,000 people are killed when a petroleum pipeline explodes in Nigeria.
2004 - India’s most wanted bandit Veerappan is killed in a shootout with security forces.
2007 - Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto makes a tearful return to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile.
2009 - A suicide bomber kills seven commanders of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and up to 42 other people in an area of southeastern Iran.
2010 - Canadian BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) signs a new agreement with the UAE to enable advanced e-government services.
2011 - The Sharjah Cricket Stadium enters the Guinness Book of World Records for hosting the maximum number of one-day International matches.
2013 - Saudi Arabia rejects membership of the UN Security Council, a day after it was elected to the body.
2015 - Renowned Egyptian novelist and journalist Jamal Al Gitani dies in a hospital in Cairo.
