Forte Hotels secures fifth UAE contract
1997 - Forte Hotels secured its fifth management contract in the UAE when the company signed a contract with Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC) for the five star Le Meridien Hotel, currently under construction at the club premises in Jumeirah. The contract was signed by Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates, DIMC, Forte Grand Jumeirah and owner of the Forte Grand Deira, and Forte Hotels’ representative Alfonso Giannuzzi, managing director of international hotels for Forte. The hotel, due for completion in 1998, will be called Le Meridien Mina Seyahi Resort and will be the third property in Dubai to be managed by the Forte Group. Ownership of the hotel will remain with DIMC.
July 21
1820 - Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted announces his discovery that an electrical current creates a magnetic field.
1831 - Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg is crowned the first king of newly independent Belgium.
1836 - The first Canadian railroad opens, running between Laprairie and St John, Quebec.
1873 - Jesse James and his gang pull off the first train robbery in America taking $3,000 (Dh11,034) from the Rock Island Express in Adair, Iowa.
1904 - The Trans-Siberian railway is finally completed.
1940 - Soviet Union annexes Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
1960 - Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka becomes the world’s first woman prime minister.
1962 - Indian and Chinese troops clash in two disputed areas of Kashmir.
1969 - Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin Jr blast off from Moon and head back to Earth after first lunar landing.
1970 - After 11 years, the Aswan High Dam across the Nile River in Egypt is completed.
1973 - France explodes nuclear device over South Pacific island despite worldwide protests.
1974 - US announces ceasefire agreement between Greece and Turkey in war on Cyprus.
1975 - Soviet Soyuz spacecraft lands safely in Soviet Central Asia after its rendezvous in space with the American Apollo craft.
1980 - Salah Al Deen Al Bitar, former premier of the United Arab Republic, is assassinated in Paris.
1986 - A car bomb blows up outside the world headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris.
1987 - Bernard Hinault becomes the third man to win five Tours de France.
2002 - WorldCom, the second-largest US telecommunications company, files for the largest US bankruptcy ever.
2005 - China revalues its currency after US pressure.
2008 - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is arrested for war crimes after a 12-year manhunt.
2009 - Infamous Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso dissolves the parliament.
