Sultan Bin Sulayem, Chairman and Managing Director, Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (Jafza), opened at the zone one of the most sophisticated auto service training centres in the Middle East operated by General Motors (GM). Capable of handling up to 36 technicians at a time in three fully equipped classrooms, the centre aims at providing training to around 80 per cent of the technicians working at GM distribution houses throughout the Middle East and to all of them by the year 1998 in the fields of electrical and electronics systems of GM automobiles. “It is indeed a great pleasure to inaugurate this facility which symbolises the dedication of General Motors to ensure properly trained staff for aftersales service operations,” said Sulayem after the inauguration. The GM training centre, one of the first vehicle service and maintenance training centres in the region, is part of the US auto giant’s commitment to the Middle East, its major export market.
1710 Turkey declares war on Russia.
1838 Mexico declares war on France after French occupation of Vera Cruz.
1918 Transylvania proclaims union with Romania.
1928 Don Bradman makes his debut in Test cricket.
1939 The Soviet Union invades Finland.
1949 Chinese Communists capture city of Chungking.
1964 Soviet Union launches spacecraft toward Mars in apparent race with US Mariner 4.
1962 U Thant of Burma is elected UN Secretary-General, succeeding the late Dag Hammarskjold.
1966 The former British colony of Barbados gains independence.
1967 South Yemen gains freedom from Britain.
1980 The Uruguayan military dictatorship loses a plebiscite to amend the constitution.
1981 US and Soviet Union open negotiations in Geneva aimed at reducing nuclear weapons.
1987 France and Iran ends six-month “embassy war” by exchanging a French diplomat in Tehran.
1988 Cyclone kills more than 3,000 in Bangladesh.
1989 Terrorists kill West German banker Alfred Herrhausen.
1992 At least five people are killed, when a crowded Dutch Intercity train is derailed on a busy commuter lines.
1993 US president Bill Clinton signs the Brady handgun-control bill into law.
1994 Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro is destroyed by a fire off Somalia.
2000 South and North Korean relatives, separated for half a century, are reunited in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
2004 A tropical storm in the Philippines kills at least 340 people.
2005 For the first time, two Saudi women are elected to the board of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
2007 An AtlasJet plane crashes on a rocky mountain at Yesilyurt, Turkey and killing 57 people.
2008 Space shuttle Endeavour returns to Earth after a nearly 16-day mission to repair and upgrade the international space station.
2009 Tennis superstar Serene Williams is fined $175000 and is on probation for two years for her foul mouthed outburst at the US Open.
2012 Mexican outgoing President Felipe Calderon hands power to Pena Nieto in a symbolic ceremony.
2013 Fast and Furious actor Paul Walker dies in a car crash in Los Angeles.
2014 Pope Francis appeals for unity between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
