1997 - The oldest police headquarters in Dubai, which cost Dh30 million to renovate, was officially opened by General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Minister of Defence. The Naif fort and tower, built in 1939 on the order of the late ruler of Dubai, Shaikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, has been used as the first police headquarters in Dubai since 1952. Shaikh Mohammad was delighted to see the renovated Naif fort and tower. “It has historical importance, which made us preserve its original appearance. Although the tower is small, it is now a museum, to tell the story of Naif and the area around it. We hope it will serve as an educational and cultural centre,” he said.
Other important events
1842 - Karl Marx becomes editor-in-chief of Rheinische Zeitung.
1915 - Britain declares war on Bulgaria during the First World War.
1917 - Mata Hari, a Dutch dancer who spied for the Germans, is executed by a firing squad outside Paris.
1928 - German dirigible Graf Zeppelin makes the first commercial flight across the Atlantic Ocean, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, US.
1945 - The former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, is executed.
1968 - Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia sign a treaty allowing Soviet troops to remain in Czechoslovakia.
1969 - Somalia’s President Abdul Rashid Ali Shermarke is assassinated.
1970 - Anwar Sadat is elected President of Egypt.
1982 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s closest aide, Ayatollah Ashrafi Esfahani, is assassinated in Iran.
1987 - Fiji’s governor general resigns, ending decades of allegiance by the South Pacific island to British crown.
1989 - South African government releases eight political prisoners including Walter Sisulu.
1990 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1999 - Pakistan’s army chief, General Pervez Musharraf, declares a state of emergency and names himself chief executive.
2003 - China launches its first manned spacecraft Shenzhou V, as astronaut Yang Liwei orbits the Earth 14 times.
2008 - Syria and Lebanon sign a joint document announcing the start of diplomatic relations in Damascus.
2009 - Thirty-nine people die as gunmen attack three police compounds in Lahore, Pakistan.
2010 - Swiss engineers drilling the world’s longest tunnel break through the last section of rock at Gotthard.
2012 - Former King Norodom Sihanouk, regarded as the father of modern Cambodia, dies at the age of 89.
2013 - A 7.1 magnitude earthquake kills 151 people in Philippines.
2016 - India and Russia sign lucrative defence and energy pacts.
