This Day in History
This Day in History (1976): Rowing gently down Third Street
Global November 17, 2022
Downpour drenches Dhahran, damages homes and covers streets.
From the Nov. 17, 1976 edition of The Arabian Sun
Moviegoers, TV viewers, dog walkers, and anyone who had a window to peer from will surely put down the evening of Nov. 8 as a night to remember.
At about 7:30 p.m., the skies over Dhahran suddenly opened to dump 1.15 inches fo rain in less than an hour, a downpour that quickly inundated patios, streets, and more than a few houses.
Even more traumatic were the lightning flashes that lit up the sky at the same time as they blacked-out large sections of al-Khobar, Dammam, Dhahran North, and Dhahran proper.
The biggest casualty was the Aramco 66,000 volt transformer at Depco, which burned out beyond repair when lightning hit an associated power line at about 8:20 p.m. The blow out tripped the Depco switch, cutting off power to Dhahran, Dammam, al-Khobar, the University of Petroleum and Minerals campus, and points in between.
Caption for top photo: Dhahran's Nov. 8 rainfall proved something of a windfall for youngsters who soon found the newly formed Third Street "lake" a perfect place to practice their boating skills. The 1.15-inch downpour brought Dhahran's annual rainfall to 9.95 inches, more than three times the annual average of 2.81 inches.
Other notable Nov. 17 events from year's past:
2019 — The first-known case of COVID-19 is traced to a man in Wuhan, China, who had visited a market there
2000 — A massive landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills seven and destroys large swaths of property
1986 — The flight crew on Japan Airlines 1628 report seeing a UFO while flying over Alaska
1973 — Amid the Watergate scandal, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon utters his infamous line, "I am not a crook."
1970 — U.S. Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai Massacare in Vietnam
1953 — The remaining inhabitants of the Blasket Islands in Kerry, Ireland, are evacuated to the mainland
1942 — American director and actor Martin Scorsese is born
1903 — The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups: The Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
1810 — Sweden declares war on its ally the United Kingdom to begin the Anglo-Swedish War, although no fighting ever takes place.
1558 — Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England, launching the Elizabethan era
