1998 General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister, inaugurated the Dh70 million Emirates Glass plant in the Al Quoz industrial area in Dubai. He toured the factory attended by several prominent guests. Emirates Glass, which began commercial production in September, is a subsidiary of Dubai Investments and operates one of the most modern glass processing facilities with an annual production capacity of over 1.5 million square metres of glass used in the construction sector. Emirates Glass is projecting an annual sales turnover of Dh65 million for 1998 and wishes to reach a figure of Dh110 million by the year 2000, said Anis Al Jallaf, chairman. “We introduced state-of-the-art glass processing to the region and thus the company [is] in an excellent position to supply a truly global product to local, regional and international markets,” said Al Jallaf.
Other important events
1822 Charles Graham of New York patents false teeth.
1846 Treaty of Lahore ends first Sikh War in India.
1860 Japan establishes diplomatic relations with the United States.
1916 Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attack Columbus, N.M., killing more than a dozen people.
1919 Britain deports Egyptian independence leader Sa’ad Zaghlul to Malta.
1935 Adolf Hitler announces the creation of a new air force.
1945 US B-29 bombers launch incendiary bomb attacks against Japan during the Second World War.
1946 33 people are crushed to death in a distater at Burnden Park football stadium in Bolton.
1953 Soviet leader Joseph Stalin is buried in Moscow.
1969 Lieutenant-General Moneim Riad, chief of staff of Egypt’s armed forces, is killed during an Israeli-Egyptian gun battle across the Suez Canal.
1976 A cable car plunges to the ground near the Italian city of Trento, killing 42 people.
1981 The Kuwait National Assembly opens.
1986 Mario Soares is sworn in as Portugal’s first civilian president in more than half a century.
1989 Eastern Airlines files for bankruptcy.
1991 Massive demonstrations are held against Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade.
1994 The Irish Republican Army launches the first in a series of mortar attacks on Heathrow Airport.
1996 German police end an 11-hour hijack drama involving a North Cyprus Turkish Airlines plane.
2003 Thai police say nearly 1,500 people are killed during a nationwide crackdown on methamphetamines.
2004 Pakistan successfully test-fires the Shaheen-II ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
2005 A morning snack of cassava kills 27 children and leaves another 100 children at an elementary school in the Philippines.
2006 Anibal Cavaco Silva becomes president of Portugal.
2007 Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf dismisses Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry over serious allegations.
2008 The UAE Government makes Arabic the official language in all federal departments.
2011 Space shuttle Discovery makes a final landing after 39 flights.
2013 Hundreds of football fans go on rampage in Cairo, Egypt, after a court acquitted 28 defendants that were charged in last year’s deadly rioting.
2014 A suicide bomber detonates an explosives-rigged minibus at a checkpoint in Hilla, Iraq, killing 45 people.
2015 Solar Impulse 2 takes off from Abu Dhabi, beginning its journey around the world.
2016 Beatles producer George Martin dies at the age of 90.
