This Day in History
This Day in History (1963): Wind Whipped blaze Hits Thuqbah's suq
Fourteen dwellings and numerous shops were lost in the fire.
From the July 10, 1963, edition of the Sun and Flare
A large fire whipped by strong northerly winds destroyed a four-block area in the suq section of Thuqbah Sunday afternoon.
The blaze started in a wood frame house and quickly spread to three nearby dwellings. The immediate cause of the fire has not been determined.
Sparks and burning timber, carried across a wide street by the wind, spread the fire to the southeasterly edge of the community in a block-wide path of destruction.
Fire equipment from al-Khobar and Dhahran Airfield, assisted by pumpers and water tank trucks from Aramco, fought the blaze until after 6 p.m.
According to preliminary estimates, at least 14 dwellings were destroyed. An undetermined number of small shops were also lost.
No casualties were reported.
Caption from the top: Fire-fighting equipment from al-Khobar, the Dhahran Airfield, and Dhahran fight the fire that broke out Sunday afternoon in the Thuqbah suq area.
Also on this date
2019 — The last Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the line in Puebla, Mexico
2016 — Portugal defeats France in the UEFA Euro 2016 Final to win their first European title
2002 — Peter Paul Ruben's painting "The Massacre of the Innocents" is sold for $76.2 million to Lord Thomson
1997 — Scientists report finding DNA analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton that supports the "out of Africa" theory of human evolution, placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago
1991 — Boris Yeltsin takes office as the first elected President of Russia
1973 — The Bahamas gain full independence
1962 — Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit
1947 — Muhammad Ali Jinnah is recommended as the first Governor-General of Pakistan by British Prime Minister Clement Attlee
1938 — Howard Hughes begins a 91-hour airplane flight around the world that will set a new record
1925 — The Scopes Monkey Trial begins in which high school teacher John T. Scopes is accused of teaching evolution
1890 — Wyoming becomes the 44th U.S. state
1850 — Millard Fillmore is sworn in as U.S. president, a day after Zachary Taylor's death
1584 — William I of Orange is assassinated in his home in Delft, Holland
