An abrupt quiet descended on the UAE as all government and private sector establishments remained shuttered in observation of an Islamic worldwide call by Saudi Arabia’s King Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud for a general strike and blackout with the outside world in protest over the shooting at Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem. The call was made to all 43 member nations of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, of which King Khalid is the chairman. The UAE Presidential Court called for a suspension of the normal weekday routine as a sign of solidarity with the Palestinian people in the occupied territories. The strike and blackout in the UAE complemented similar actions across the rest of the Islamic world where some one billion Muslims displayed solidarity with the struggling Palestinian people against their Zionist occupiers. Government ministries and departments, banks, airports, mercantile offices, and even small shops and restaurants were closed, paralysing life in this commercially active Gulf country. All the eight daily newspapers were not published.
Other important events
1629 Peace of Susa ends war between England and France.
1775 The first American society for the abolition of slavery is organised by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.
1849 Hungarians proclaim independence from Habsburg empire.
1865 US President Abraham Lincoln is shot by actor John Wilkes Booth at Ford Theatre and dies the following day.
1910 US President William Howard Taft throws the first ball to start the major league baseball season.
1912 British liner Titanic collides with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and begins sinking.
1944 The freighter ‘SS Fort Stikine’ catch fire and explodes in Bombay (now Mumbai) harbour, killing more than 800 people.
1956 Ampex Corp demonstrates its first commercial videotape recorder.
1970 Apollo 13 spacecraft heads back to Earth after moon mission is aborted.
1980 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi escapes assassination by inches at the hands of a 37-year-old Indian.
1981 Columbia, America’s first operational space shuttle, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California after its first test flight.
1987 Syrian troops deploy on outskirts of Lebanese port city of Sidon.
1988 Soviet Union signs accord to end its intervention in Afghanistan.
1990 Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis says Lithuania will not revoke its declaration of independence.
1991 Zviad Gamsakhurdia is elected as first president of Georgia.
1994 Two American jets mistakenly shoot down two helicopters, killing 26 US and allied personnel in Iraq.
1995 The UN Security Council votes to ease sanctions on Iraq, giving it easier terms in trading oil for food.
1997 Hundreds of Iranian students clashes with government troops outside the German Embassy.
2006 Chad’s President Idriss Deby breaks off relations with neighbouring Sudan.
2008 Media billionaire Silvio Berlusconi wins Italy’s parliamentary election.
2009 Golden boy boxer Oscar dela Hoya announces his retirement in Los Angeles.
2010 A devastating earthquake hits a remote area of China, killing 589 people.
2013 Nicolas Maduro, former bus driver and protégé of the late Hugo Chavez, wins Venezuelan presidential elections.
2014 A morning rush hour bomb kills at least 71 people at a Nigerian bus station in Abuja.
2015 UN imposes an arms embargo on the Iran-allied Al Houthi militiamen in Yemen.
