2001 - Emirates Group has entered into a $103 million (Dh378.83 million) refinancing arrangement based on Islamic principles for a new A330-200 with a group of banks, including Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), National Bank of Dubai (NBD) and HSBC. This is only the second time that Emirates Group has tapped into Islamic financing — the earlier one was in 1992 with Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Bank, said Dermot Mannion, Emirates chief director for finance, IT and services. This time round, 85 per cent of the total $103 million is “backed” by United Kingdom’s Export Credit Guarantee Department, Germany’s Hermes and Coface based in France. The European Export Credit Agency provided the initial credit, which is financed at 5.94 per cent interest.
Other important events
1811 - Paraguay declares independence.
1880 - One of Europe’s Gothic masterpieces, Cologne Cathedral in Germany, is finally completed.
1898 - US forces capture Manila during the Spanish-American War.
1900 - International forces capture Beijing, China, relieving foreigners besieged there for 56 days during the Boxer Rebellion.
1932 - Italian radio pioneer Gugleilmo Marconi completes work on the first short-wave radio.
1945 - Soviet Union signs treaty with Nationalist China, recognising independence of Outer Mongolia.
1947 - Pakistan, including what is now Bangladesh, gains independence from Britain
1973 - US bombing in Cambodia ends, marking official halt to 12 years of combat in Indochina.
1974 - Greece withdraws troops from Nato after breakdown of Geneva peace talks and new fighting on Cyprus.
1989 - South African President P.W. Botha resigns, three weeks before general election.
1997 - The United States grants a visa to Gerry Adams, head of the Sinn Fein party in Northern Ireland.
1998 - Congolese President Laurent Kabila flees the capital, Kinshasa, as rebels advance through Congo.
1999 - Sweden and Denmark inaugurate a bridge and tunnel connecting the two Scandinavian neighbours for the first time in 7,000 years
2003 - A massive power failure hits eight states in the north-eastern and mid-western US and eastern Canada. More than 50 million people are affected.
2004 - Attackers with machetes and automatic weapons raid a UN refugee camp in western Burundi, killing 180 people.
2005 - Israel withdraws from 21 Gaza colonies.
2006 - Second largest blackout to hit modern Japan disrupts train services and snaps power to nearly 1.4 million households.
2008 - US President George W. Bush signs consumer-safety legislation that bans lead from children’s toys, imposing the toughest standard in the world.
2011 - Bollywood actor Shammi Kapoor dies. He was 79.
2013 - More than 500 people are killed in clashes at Rabaa Adawiya square in Cairo.
