This Day in History (1975): Just Like the Old Shell Game

From the July 9, 1975 edition of The Arabian Sun

Sound as a drum but doomed for the scrap heap because it stood in the path of construction of a new Seawater Flash Evaporator, Tank 139 at the Ras Tanura Refinery last month got a new lease on life.

The 18,000-barrel diesel tank was just a stone's throw from Tank 118, a 15,000-barrel neighbor recently found to be beyond repair and scheduled for tear-down and rebuilding.

A major portion of the cost was saved by relocating Tank 139 in its place. The Refinery and Terminal Maintenance Department was assigned responsibility for the relocation; two cranes, a Lorian 9115, and a Manitowoc 400, were used to load and offload the 60-ton tank.

Land Transportation provided the Kenworth tractor and Lowboy used for the short haul.

Also on this date

2019 — American actor Rip Torn dies in Lakeville, Connecticut, at age 88

2011 — South Sudan gains independence and secedes from Sudan

2002 — The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa, serving as its first chairman

1990 — Rafael da Silva, Brazilian football star, is born Petropolis outside Rio de Janieiro

1962 — Starfish Prime tests the effects of a nuclear test at orbital altitudes

1955 — The Russell-Einstein Manifesto calls for a reduction of the risk of nuclear warfare

1937 — The silent film archives of Fox Film corporation are destroyed by fire

1922 — Johnny Weissmuller swims the 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds, breaking the world swimming record and the "minute barrier"

1900 — The Federation of Australia is given royal assent

1893 — Daniel Hale Williams, American heart surgeon, performs the first successful open-heart surgery in the U.S. without anesthesia

1877 — The inaugural Wimbledon Championships begins

1850 — U.S. president Zachary Taylor dies shortly after taking office because of food poisoning; he is succeeded in office by Vice President Millard Fillmore

1816 — Argentina declares independence from Spain

1810 — Napoleon annexes Holland as part of the first French Empire

1795 — Financier James Swan pays off the more than $2 million U.S. national debt that had been accrued during the American Revolution

1762 — Catherine the Great becomes Empress of Russia after the coup against her husband, Peter III

1540 — King Henry VII of England annuls his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves