This Day in History (1988): Boy Scout Camporee

From the Dec. 14, 1988, edition of The Arabian Sun

They came. They saw. They conquered.

And while they were at it, the 200 Boy Scouts who participated in a camporee on Qurayyah Beach learned self-confidence and teamwork as they caught the scouting spirit.

This year's camporee was different from past years, returning to competitive events with a few new activities to test the boys and their adult leaders.

After a campfire Wednesday night, reveille was sounded bright and early the next day ahead of the competition, which began at 8 a.m. Eight troops from the Eastern Province and elsewhere in the Kingdom competed in nine events designed to test their scouting skills, including fire building, compass reading, first aid, Morse code, and knot tying.

For the fifth year in a row, the scouts from Ras Tanura Troop 464 captured the Best Overall award. Since the feat is a milestone in the troop's history, each Scout in Troop 464 will be given a miniature replica of the dallah (coffee pot) trophy the troop was awarded.

The prestigious District Award of Merit was awarded to Dhahran Scout leader Al Chisholm for his outstanding service to the Arabian District Boy Scouts of America through the years.

Caption for the top photo: Tying three ropes together and getting the end to the victim takes teamwork.

Also on this date

2017 — The Walt Disney Company announces it will acquire 21st Century Fox, including the 20th Century Fox movie studio, for $52.4 billion

2004 — The tallest bridge in the world, the Millau Viaduct, is inaugurated in France

1985 — Wilma Mankiller becomes the first woman elected to service as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation

1960 — Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO is adopted

1948 — Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann are granted a patent for their cathode-ray tube amusement device, the earliest known interactive electronic game

1939 — The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for its invasion of Finland

1918 — Women are permitted to vote for the first time in the U.K. general election

1911 — Roald Amundsen and his team become the first to reach the South Pole

1903 — The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

1900 — Max Planck presents his theoretical derivation of the black-body radiation law (quantum theory) at the Phsyic Society in Berlin

557 — Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake, which cracks the dome of Hagia Sophia