Dubai turns on parking meters
The order for the introduction of parking meters by Dubai Municipality became fully operational. The order was signed by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Finance Minister and Chairman of Dubai Municipality, and will seek to curb unauthorised parking in the city’s commercial areas. The parking fee will be Dh2 per hour and Dh4 for two hours and Dh1 for 30 minutes. The maximum parking time on the meters is two hours, the paid hours will be from 8am to 1pm and 3pm to 8pm, except on Fridays and public holidays. The fines ranging from Dh50 to Dh200 will be levied for illegal parking and for the refusal to pay parking fees. Traffic police will be stationed nearby to enforce the new order, and outright refusal to pay fines will lead to one month’s imprisonment. Many cars were parked neatly in front of the new meters in Baniyas Square, most of the meters displayed the “expired” sign, meaning that no fee had been paid. Nor were there any signs that the offenders were being ticketed.1839 Milos Obrenovic, the king of Serbia, abdicates and is succeeded by his son Milan.
Other important events
1886 Bavaria’s King Louis II drowns himself.
1940 With German troops not far off, Paris is declared an open city.
1944 Germany launches first V-1 missiles against London.
1946 A transcontinental round-trip flight is completed in one day, from California to Maryland and back for the first time.
1953 A military coup led by Colombia’s General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla overthrows Laureano Gomez.
1955 Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, is discovered.
1956 The last British troops leave Suez Canal base, turning the waterway over to Egypt after operating it for 74 years.
1958 China’s first atomic reactor begins operating.
1969 Withdrawal of US combat troops from South Vietnam begins with pullout of unit fighting in Mekong Delta.
1971 Francois Mitterrand is named head of the French Socialist Party.
1973 US, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and Viet Cong sign new pact in Paris designed to reinforce Vietnam ceasefire.
1974 Army in Republic of Yemen seizes power in bloodless coup.
1982 King Khalid of Saudi Arabia dies and Crown Prince Fahd becomes the new king.
1993 Kim Campbell becomes Canada’s first female prime minister.
1994 Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela sign a free-trade pact.
1997 A disastrous fire in a packed Uphaar cinema hall in Delhi’s posh Green Park area kills more than 60.
1998 Nigeria football team pull off a stunning World Cup victory over Spain in Nantes.
2000 Ras Al Khaimah opens a free-trade zone to boost regional commerce.
2001 One of Mexico’s most-wanted alleged drug traffickers, Ramon Alcides Magana, is arrested.
2002 Hundreds of people are killed and 370,000 rendered homeless as heavy rain lashes western China.
2002 Hamid Karzai wins Afghanistan’s presidential election in a landslide vote.
2007 Hamas launches a battle for control of the entire Gaza Strip.
2008 Three armed robbers steal two Pablo Picasso prints from a Sao Paulo art museum.
2009 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is officially declared the president of Iran as opposition supporters protest in Tehran.
2010 More than a million are evacuated and 147 killed in China as a deadly storm strikes.
2012 A military court in Tunisia sentences ousted president Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali to 20 years imprisonment in absentia.
2014 Venice’s mayor Giorgio Orsoni resigns over corruption scam.
2015 A 103-year-old man and a 91-year-old woman hold their wedding in Britain, becoming the oldest couple to get married in the world.
