Gala opening of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
1995 - Rock ‘n’ roll celebrated its new shrine in Cleveland with a seven-hour concert that brought together the royalty of rock’s golden age. Chuck Berry and Bruce Springsteen, opening the concert with Berry’s classic Johnny B. Goode, had a crowd of 57,000 on their feet at Cleveland Stadium. Millions watched live on cable television. The marathon show marked the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Performers included Aretha Franklin, Sheryl Crow, the Kinks, James Brown, Little Richard, Bob Dylan, Chrissie Hynde, John Fogerty, Robbie Robertson, the Allman Brothers Band, Jerry Lee Lewis and Slash. During the concert, a girl dodged security guards, scrambled up on stage and clamped Springsteen in a bear hug.
September 2
1666 - The Great Fire of London breaks out.
1773 - Warren Hastings, first British Governor General of India, forms alliance with state of Oudh for campaign against the Marathas.
1789 - The US Treasury Department is established.
1870 - Emperor Napoleon III surrenders at Sedan to encircling German troops.
1930 - French aviators complete the first nonstop flight from Europe to the United States.
1945 - Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to the Second World War.
1969 - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese Communist leader and father of the nation’s independence movement, dies of a heart attack in Hanoi.
1987 - The ‘Tanker War’ in the Gulf escalates, with Iraq claiming its jets hit three ships while Iran raids five others.
1993 - The US and Russia agree to combine efforts in outer space by sharing Mir while jointly designing and building a new international space station.
1996 - Philippine government and Moro National Liberation Front sign an historic peace agreement to end 28 years of civil war.
1998 - A Swissair jetliner crashes off Nova Scotia, killing all 220 aboard.
2001 - Dr Christiaan Barnard, the South African surgeon who performed the world’s first human heart transplant, dies at the age of 78.
2008 - A massive fire breaks out in the lobby of The Atlantis hotel in Dubai.
2012 - The Dubai Sports Council appoints Diego Maradona as the emirate’s Honorary Sports Ambassador.
2014 - The UAE becomes the 12th most competitive nation globally for 2014-15.
