1998 The Fifth World Peace Games opened in Dubai along with the Dubai Shopping Festival, in the presence and under the patronage of General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Minister of Defence. The event will be held from March 20 to April 18.
The basic premise of the Peace Games is to foster the concept of peace among nations. The concept was first envisioned by Yves Angelos of France, in Ballegardesur Valserine, in 1983 with a view to supporting understanding and friendship among different cultures regardless of sex, language, religion and political beliefs, through sport. The event is being organised by the International Committee World Peace Games (ICWPG).
“The Fifth World Peace Games and the Dubai Shopping Festival which open here in Dubai will be a celebration of the victory of peace over war,” said Yves Angelos, the founder of the Peace Games at the opening ceremony. Following a seven year suspension, the Games were revived once again and awarded to the UAE.
Other important events
1861 Maori War in New Zealand ends.
1877 The Ottoman Parliament opens in Istanbul.
1918 The US Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.
1932 Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia officially opens.
1944 Nazi German soldiers occupy Hungary.
1945 Japanese kamikaze attacks the USS Franklin off Japan’s coast, killing 800 people.
1958 The London Planetarium is opened.
1965 Indonesia nationalises all foreign oil companies.
1970 Heads of government of West and East Germany meet for the first time in Erfurt.
1971 At least 160 people perish in landslides north of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
1977 Marien Ngouabi, President of the Republic of Congo, is assassinated.
1990 Latvia’s political opposition claims victory in the republic’s first free elections in 50 years.
1991 Begum Khaleda Zia is named Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
1993 Georgia shoots down a Russian warplane.
1994 Cambodian government seizes control of Pailin, the Khmer Rouge’s main stronghold.
1998 A Boeing 727 jet operated by Afghanistan’s national airline Ariana crashes near Kabul, killing all 22 people on board.
1999 A bomb blast in outdoor food market in southern Russia kills 56 people.
2000 A mob storms the Nationalist Party’s headquarters in Taiwan, forcing Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui to quit as party leader.
2003 Mahmoud Abbas is appointed Palestinian Prime Minister.
2004 Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian survives an assassination attempt while campaigning on the eve of a presidential election.
2007 New UAE regulation allows banks to finance and manage real estate projects.
2010 Bahraini minister Mansour Bin Rajab is arrested on charges of money laundering.
2011 Operation Odyssey Dawn begins to protect civilians with air strikes against forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
2012 Three children and a teacher are shot dead by a gunman at a Jewish school in France.
2013 37 dies and 14 were injured after a speeding bus careered off a bridge in Maharashtra, India.
2014 An Egyptian army brigadier-general and a colonel are killed in clash with militants in Nile Delta, Egypt.
2016 A flydubai jet from Dubai to southern Russia crashes on its second attempt to land at Rostov-on-Don airport, killing all 62 people aboard.
