This Day in History (1956): Special Lifesaver Award to John Pokryska

From the Dec. 26, 1956, edition of the Sun and Flare

John Pokryska, camp supervisor, was presented with the Aramco Meritorious Service Award at the December management dinner in Abqaiq for reviving two fire-fighters, overcome by smoke fumes at the railroad station fire at Haradh Camp.

D.N. Ezzell, district manager, who made the presentation, outlined the details of the dual rescue. Upon arrival at the fire, Pokryska, found Saleh bin Abdul Aziz, railroad employee, unconscious due to his fire-fighting activities.

Applying artificial respiration, Pokryska revived the man only to find that a second victim of smoke fumes, Pietro Agosto, antoher employee of the railroad, needed his assistance.

Reviving him, Pokryska obtained ambulance service for the two from the 'Uthmaniyah Camp and then finished the night in an attempt to get the fire under control.

Caption for top photo: John Pokryska, right, is congratulated by Abqaiq's District Manager D.N. Ezzell on receiving on Aramco Meritorious Service Award.

Also on this date

2012 — China opens the world's longest high-speed rail route linking Beijing and Guangzhou

2004 — Indian Ocean earthquake shakes northern Sumatra, producing one of the largest observed tsunamis affecting coastal and partially mainland areas of Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, with a death toll of nearly 228,000

1980 — Unexplained lights are sighted near RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk, England, an incident that is called "Britain's Roswell

1978 — The inaugural Paris-Dakar Rally begins

1966 — The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach

1963 — The Beatles release I Want to Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There," marking the beginning of Beatlemania 

1948 — The last Soviet troops withdraw from North Korea

1941 — U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving

1919 — Babe Ruth of the Bost Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees

1893 — Mao Zedong, chairman of the Chinese Community Party, is born 

1862 — The largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, where 38 Native Americans died