2001 - General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister, opened Microsoft’s new regional headquarters at Dubai Internet City. Shaikh Mohammad toured the facility in the company of senior government and Microsoft officials. He reiterated that the UAE has all the infrastructure needed to attract investors in the economic, commercial and tourist sectors. Shaikh Mohammad praised Microsoft for developing computer software and making it widely available throughout the region. The 55,000 square foot Microsoft base will be responsible for the Gulf, excluding Saudi Arabia and the Eastern Mediterranean territory. Contracts related to various e-government projects in the Middle East will soon hit the market.
Other important events
1888 - The Washington Monument opens in Washington DC.
1958 - Pope Pius XII dies, 19 years after he was elevated to the papacy.
1963 - Mutesa II, ruler of Buganda, becomes the first President of Uganda.
1967 - Latin American guerrilla leader Che Guevara is executed in Bolivia.
1971 - Army rebels in Argentina surrender after a 19-hour attempt to overthrow the government.
1975 - One person is killed as Irish Republican Army explodes a bomb near the Ritz Hotel, Piccadilly.
1979 - Former Afghanistan President Noor Mohammad Taraki dies at the age of 62.
1984 - Soviet Union and North Yemen sign a 20-year treaty of friendship and mutual cooperation.
1985 - The hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise ship surrender after the ship arrives in Port Saeed, Egypt.
1988 - A violent uprising against escalating prices and government-ordered austerity leaves at least 200 people dead across Algeria.
1990 - Forty-seven people are killed in India when a train coach is set afire by terrorists protesting an injunction against an affirmative-action plan.
1991 - The first phase of Dubai Marina project is completed.
1995 - An earthquake hits Jalisco and Colima states in western Mexico, killing 48 people and injuring more than 100.
1997 - Italy’s 17-month-old government led by Prime Minister Romano Prodi quits.
2006 - UN Security Council nominates South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as the next UN Secretary-General.
2011 - Sebastian Vettel becomes the youngest driver to win the Formula One World Championship twice.
2012 - Pakistani schoolgirl and education activist Malala Yousufzai is shot in the head in an assassination attempt on a school bus in Swat.
2013 - The Shweihat 2 power plant, with a daily capacity of 1,500 megawatts, is inaugurated at Al Ruwais, Abu Dhabi.
2014 - A Palestinian unity government of Hamas and Fatah holds its first meeting in the Gaza Strip.
