This Day in History
This Day in History (1963): Wind Whipped blaze Hits Thuqbah's suq
Global July 10, 2023
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
