Today in History
July 12
Dubai’s first revolving restaurant opens
1980 — The revolving restaurant Al Dawaar, on top of the Hyatt Regency, opened to public. Perched on the 24th floor of Galadari Galleria, the restaurant, first of its kind in Dubai, offers an all-encompassing view of the city. The restaurant makes a revolution every hour, but can make a turn in just about 20 minutes. Sitting at one of the tables is like facing a slowly changing picture window with one scene dissolving into another. The restaurant, with its magnificent view of the creek and Dubai, is surrounded in glass from floor to ceiling. It is on two levels and seats 225 people. The floor of the restaurant revolves at an almost imperceptible two metres per minute. Ritz-style high teas will be available in the afternoons and in the evenings.
1856 American adventurer William Walker declares himself president of Nicaragua.
1869 Parliamentary system is adopted by Napoleon III of France.
1920 The Soviet-Lithuanian Peace Treaty is signed.
1941 British-Soviet mutual aid pact of the Second World War II signed.
1944 Britain’s Royal Air Force becomes the first air force to use jet aircraft.
1957 Prince Karim, 20-year-old student at Harvard University, becomes Aga Khan and leader of Ismaili Muslims.
1960 France agrees to independence of Dahomey, Niger, Upper Volta, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central Africa and the Congo.
1962 The Rolling Stones give their first public performance at Marquee Club in London.
1967 Chinese Communist mobs in Hong Kong wreck government building and attack police in most violent of four days of anti-British rioting.
1971 The Australian Aboriginal flag is flown for the first time.
1977 The US space shuttle Enterprise completes its first free flight test.
1979 Kiribati becomes independent from Britain.
1983 Britain and China begin negotiations on the return of Hong Kong to China.
1990 Boris Yeltsin resigns from the Soviet Union’s Communist Party.
1993 Hokkaido earthquake and tsunami strike Japan, killing at least 230 people.
1998 France wins the football World Cup for the first time.
2000 The long-delayed International Space Station’s service module is lifted into orbit.
2001 Bulgaria’s former king, Simeon II, is named Prime Minister.
2003 Salamat Hashim, the leader of the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front, dies.
2005 Prince Albert II of Monaco accedes to the throne of a 700-year-old dynasty.
2006 Hezbollah captures two Israeli soldiers and kills eight others in a cross-border raid.
2007 Dubai unveils Emirates NBD, a merger of Emirates Bank and National Bank of Dubai with an approximate market capitalisation of Dh41.3 billion.
2008 Syria and Lebanon agree to set up diplomatic ties.
2009 After 28 years of waiting, Mark Webber wins the Formula One German Grand Prix for Australians.
2012 At least 95 people kill in oil tanker fire near Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
2013 The candidates for public office are allowed to use the Internet and social media for election campaigning for the first time in Japan’s history.
