A technical breakdown at the Umm Al Nar Eastern Power Station was blamed for the six-hour power cut which blacked out an estimated 70 per cent of Abu Dhabi city. It was the first major power breakdown to hit Abu Dhabi in more than two decades. In some parts of the city, the power cut meant that supplies of water and gas were also affected. Power was lost at 11.40am and partially restored in different parts of the city after six hours at around 6.00pm. However, the street lights of the city were still out as darkness enveloped the city. No casualties were reported although all the city’s major hospitals were on standby to receive heat stroke victims. In an official statement, the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) said the power disruption was the result of “a technical breakdown” in Umm Al Nar Eastern Power Station as a result of problems which developed in many of the power distribution sub-stations.
Other important events on June 27
1844 Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, is shot dead by a mob in Carthage, Illinois.
1890 George Dixon becomes the first black world boxing champion.
1893 The New York stock market crashes.
1898 Joshua Slocum becomes the first man to circumnavigate the world solo when he lands in Rhode Island.
1923 American airmen Lowell Smith and John Richard performs the first ever aerial refuelling of a plane.
1929 Colour television technology is first demonstrated in New York.
1932 A constitution is proclaimed in Siam, now Thailand.
1940 Soviet Union invades Romania during Second World War.
1954 The world’s first nuclear power station opens in Obninsk, near Moscow.
1957 More than 500 people are killed as Hurricane Audrey hits Louisiana and Texas.
1976 Portuguese general Antonio Eanes is elected president.
1977 French Somaliland becomes Africa’s 49th independent state, Djibouti.
1978 Seasat I, the first oceanographic satellite, is launched by the US.
1981 Cambodia adopts its constitution.
1982 US space shuttle Columbia carries its first commercial and military payloads.
1984 France is crowned European football champions with a 2-0 victory over Spain.
1988 A runaway commuter train crashes into another at a station in Gare de Lyon, Paris, 59 people die.
1991 The last Soviet troops left Czechoslovakia, nearly 23 years after the
Warsaw Pact invasion of 1968.
1992 Crown Prince Alexander, the heir to the Yugoslav throne, receives an emotional welcome upon his return.
1995 Qatar’s Crown Prince Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani takes over control from his father.
1998 An earthquake rattles Adana in southern Turkey, killing 144 people.
2001 The World Court rules 14-1, that US had violated an international treaty by not halting the execution by the state of Arizona of two German brothers in 1999.
2007 Gordon Brown replaces Tony Blair as Britain’s Prime Minister.
2010 Kyrgyzstan votes in favour of a new constitution.
2011 The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi, accusing him of killing civilians.
2014 16 people are killed after a gas pipeline of state owned Gas Authority of India Limited in East Godavari district in Hyderabad exploded.
2015 More than 516 people are injured in an explosion at a water park in Taipei, Taiwan.
