First Computer Shopper opens in Dubai
1992 - Hamad Abdul Rahman Al Madfa, UAE Minister of Education, opened the first Computer Shopper exhibition in Dubai. The first retail exhibition aimed at the general public, college and university students was launched this year as an addition to Gitex ‘92, the annual Gulf Information Technology exhibition. The Computer Shopper opened two days before the main Gitex to allow public visitors an opportunity to visit the show during the weekend. More than 35 companies are displaying the computer hardware, software and applications products on a 1,000-square metre exhibition space. “The event reasserts the importance of Dubai not only as a commercial centre, but also as a centre for culture, science and technology in the Middle East,” Al Madfa said.
November 12
1918 - Austria becomes a republic.
1927 - Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Communist Party in Russia and Josef Stalin becomes its undisputed ruler.
1933 - Nazis dominate German elections.
1937 - Japanese troops occupy Chinese city of Shanghai.
1944 - The Tirpitz, the last of the major German battleships, is sunk by British bombers.
1948 - Japan’s former prime minister Hideki Tojo and other Japanese Second World War leaders are sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal.
1956 - Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the fold of the United Nations.
1970 - The worst rainy season in Colombia in 40 years kills as many as 500 people.
1982 - Yuri V. Andropov is elected to succeed the late Leonid I. Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee.
1991 - Indonesian troops open fire on pro-independence protesters in East Timor and killing at least 250 people.
1994 - Chandrika Kumaratunga is sworn in as the President of Sri Lanka.
1996 - A Saudi Airlines jumbo jet collides shortly after takeoff from New Delhi with a Kazakh airliner making its landing approach, killing 349 people.
1997 - Ramzi Yousuf is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 bombing of New York’s World Trade Center.
1998 - Boeing’s first Middle East customer service centre is inaugurated at Dubai International Airport Free Zone.
1999 - An earthquake strikes in Duzce, western Turkey, killing 894 people
2001 - An American Airlines flight crashes into a residential area after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing 260 on board and five on the ground.
2011 - Arab League suspends Syria ties.
2012 - UAE issues a federal decree for combating cyber crimes.
2014 - The US and China strike a deal to reduce their greenhouse gas output.
2016 - At least 30 people are killed in a large explosion at a shrine in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
