2008 Emaar, The Economic City, the Tadawul-listed company developing King Abdullah Economic City, and global marine terminal operator DP World signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop and operate the seaport of KAEC. Under the patronage and presence of Dr Jubarah Al Suraisiri, Saudi Minister of Transport, Amr Al Dabbagh, Governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, hosted the signing event at King Abdullah Economic City, and in the presence of Mohammad Al Abbar, chairman of Emaar, Sultan Ahmad Bin Sulayem, chairman of Dubai World and other Saudi government officials and entrepreneurs. The seaport will be the largest in the Red Sea and one of the world’s top 10 ports with a capacity to handle 20 million TEU.
Other important events
1841 - US President William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia.
1844 - Germany occupies Southwest Africa, Togoland and Cameroon.
1939 - Faisal II becomes the last King of Iraq.
1945 - US forces liberate the Nazi death camp at Ohrdruf in Germany.
1949 - North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington.
1960 - Senegal declares independence from France.
1968 - Civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
1975 - The Microsoft company is founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
1979 - Former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is hanged.
1984 - US President Ronald Reagan signs a policy directive designed to combat international terrorism.
1992 - More than 1,200 French troops, the first major contingent of a UN peacekeeping force, arrive in war-torn Croatia.
1994 - Serbs launch major attack on besieged Muslim enclave of Gorazde in Bosnia.
1996 - US Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and an entourage of top American business executives are killed in a plane crash in Croatia.
2000 - The E-government initiative is launched in Dubai.
2001 - Sudan’s Defence Minister and 14 other military officers are killed when their plane crashes on takeoff.
2006 - Kuwaiti women cast votes for the first time in a by-election for a municipal council seat less than a year after winning full political rights.
2007 - Iran announces the release of 15 captive British sailors and marines charged for trespassing after 13 days.
2009 - Denmark Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is named new Nato Secretary-General.
2011 - The International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) officially confirms the UAE as the permanent headquarters of the global agency.
2015 - World number one Serena Williams joins an elite club, winning her eighth Miami WTA title.
2016 - Mehbooba Mufti sworn in as the first woman chief minister of India’s Jammu and Kashmir state.
