1992 - A confident UAE team simply outclassed Kuwait 99-77 to win the Fifth GCC Basketball Championship for the first time in the history of the tournament at Al Ahli Indoor Stadium in Dubai. The hosts were in an aggressive mood right from the word go to run away with an early 20-7 lead in the first quarter of the half. The Man-of-the-Game, UAE’s Abdullah Ebrahim who showed tremendous talent and accuracy, frustrated Kuwait’s defence time and again. Hamdan Saeed brought the huge crowd to its feet with his spectacular and rapid moves. His pinpoint shooting and placings were spot-on and it ripped apart the Kuwaiti defence. Hamdan, spurred by teammate Abdul Lateef, notched up more than 14 points. Kuwait tried hard to bridge the gap, but failed.
Other important events
1790 - The Tricolour is chosen as the official flag of France.
1861 - The first South American railroad line is inaugurated in Paraguay.
1879 - American inventor Thomas A. Edison demonstrates the first electric lamp.
1923 - The world’s first planetarium projector opens at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany.
1945 - Argentine politician Juan Peron marries actress Eva Duarte.
1950 - Chinese forces occupy Tibet.
1960 - The first British nuclear submarine, Dreadnought, is launched at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
1966 - More than 140 people, mostly children, are killed when a coal waste landslide engulfs a school and several houses in south Wales.
1969 - Willy Brandt is elected Chancellor of West Germany.
1975 - Mexico City subway crash kills 20 people when a stationary train is hit by another train.
1986 - American writer Edward Tracy is kidnapped by terrorists in Beirut.
1989 - A Honduran jet breaks apart in flight and crashes outside Tegucigalpa, killing at least 120 people.
1993 - Gunmen assassinate Asaad Saftawi, a leading member of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip.
1994 - At least 32 people are killed when a bridge in central Seoul collapses during the morning rush hour.
1996 - Arnoldo Aleman claims victory over Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua’s presidential election.
2000 - Thuraya-1, the first satellite of Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Co, is successfully launched into orbit.
2004 - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is sworn in as Indonesian President.
2009 - A Khartoum-bound cargo plane crashes two minutes after take-off from Sharjah Airport, killing all six crew members.
2014 - South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius sentenced to five years in jail for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
2015 - Abu Dhabi Global Market, a new international financial centre, opens for business with the approval of financial services licence applications.
