1996 — The Middle East’s largest tyre retreading and rubber moulded goods plant, built at a cost of Dh10 million and covering 10,000 square metres, was inaugurated at Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone. Present at the opening ceremony was Sultan Bin Sulayem, free zone and Dubai Ports Authority chairman and managing director. The plant is one of the most modern of its kind and is projected as not only environment friendly since it reduces waste of used tyres, but also helps reduce costs for transport operators and cuts imports. It has been set up by Dubai-based Al Dobowi. It has a capacity to retread 30,000 truck tyres annually in a single shift operation. The plant was set up in technical collaboration with the world’s largest supplier of tyre retreading material, Vakuum Vulk. Half of the rubber will be imported from India and the other half from Belgium. The Jebel Ali plant, the fourth in the region, is the largest in the Middle East and the most modern.
Other important events:
1772 Warren Hastings is appointed Governor of Bengal in India.
1796 French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte defeat Austrians at Millesimo, Italy.
1848 Sicily declared independent of Naples.
1849 Hungarian Republic is proclaimed.
1919 British troops fire on a gathering in Jallianwala Bagh, India, killing 379 people.
1923 The Illinois state legislature votes to allow women to serve on juries.
1935 Commercial air service between London and Australia is established.
1936 British footballer Joe Payne scores a record 10 goals in one match against Bristol Rovers.
1961 UN General Assembly condemns South African apartheid.
1964 Sidney Poitier becomes the first black to win an Academy Award for best actor, for his role in Lilies of the Field.
1970 Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, is crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst.
1975 Civil war breaks out in Lebanon.
1986 Stampede by Hindu pilgrims kills at least 46 people at a religious festival near New Delhi.
1987 Portugal signs agreement to return Macau to China.
1989 Independent Solidarity trade union in Poland files for registration after seven-year ban.
1995 Turkish soldiers wave to their colleagues as they leave northern Iraq.
1997 Tiger Woods wins a historic Masters title with a 12-stroke victory at age 21.
2002 At least 160 police and Maoist rebels are killed in a single night of fighting, the worst carnage in the six-year-old insurgency in Nepal.
2003 Britain’s Paula Radcliffe breaks her own world record by nearly two minutes to retain her London Marathon title.
2006 UAE sets up the National Media Council and the National Transport Authority.
2008 Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki names Raila Odinga as prime minister.
2011 Egypt detains former president Hosni Mubarak, sons to investigate accusations of corruption and abuse of authority.
2013 Lion Air, an Indonesian plane, breaks in two after missing the runway at Bali airport and landing in the sea, no fatalities.
2015 Yemen’s Prime Minister Khalid Bahah sworn in as vice-president in exile in Riyadh.
