This Day in History (1968): Foundations in for Technical Institute

From the June 26, 1968, edition of the Sun and Flare

Amid the sounds of jackhammers and blasting at Aramco's eastern perimeter in Dhahran, construction of the buildings for the new complex of the College of Petroleum Minerals is well underway.

September 1969 will find the three Technical Institute buildings populated by an anticipate d267 students.

This is the first phase in the construction of an 11-building addition that by 1985 will accommodate 2,800 students. The current work includes leveling and excavating for all buildings -- which will extend east over the rim of the jebels toward the present college.

A 26-unit faculty housing section is now complete and foundations and walls are being built for the first and largest of the classrooms in the Technical Institute. Utility tunnels are in construction, and the water tower is rising rapidly, visible now from the al-Khobar road.

Caption for top photo: THE ARCHITECTS' MODEL of the College of Petroleum and Minerals upon completion as it would be seen from a helicopter over the Dhahran-al-Khobar road. The three buildings at right are under construction and the water tower, center is goi9ng up. Faculty living quarters, not shown beyond the top of the page, are now completed. All buildings shown above will be erected and in use by 1985.

Also on this date

2012 — The Waldo Canyon fire descends into the Mountain Shadows neighborhood in Colorado Springs burning 347 homes in a matter of hours and killing two people

2006 — Mari Alkatiri, the first Prime Minister of East Timor, resigns after weeks of political unrest

2000 — The Human Genome Project announces the completion of a “rough draft” sequence

1997 — J.K. Rowling publishes the first of her “Harry Potter” novel series, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” in the U.K.

1977 — Elvis Presley held his final concert in Indianapolis, Indiana, at Market Square Arena

1975 — Two FBI agents and a member of the American Indian Movement are killed in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; Leonard Peltier is later convicted of murdering the two agents

1974 — The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum in Troy, Ohio

1960 — Madagascar gains its independence from France

1948 — Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” is published in “The New Yorker”

1924 — The American occupation of the Dominican Republic ends after eight years

1906 — The first Grand Prix race is held in LeMans

1886 — Elemental Fluorine is isolated for the first time

1723 — After a siege and bombardment by cannon, Baku surrenders to the Russians

1483 — Richard III becomes King of England