This Day in History (1991): 'Udhailiyah renovates, reopens family housing

From the September 1991 edition of The Arabian Sun

Emery and Mary Lynn Patten were officially recognized July 28 as the first family to move into the newly renovated residential area in 'Udhailiyah, the "Flower Community."

Attractive flower arrangements of roses, carnations, and chrysanthemums flanked the front door to the Patten home. Saudi Aramco officials presented individual bouquets to all women present as part of a ribbon-cutting ceremony welcoming the return of families to 'Udhailiyah after an absence of almost five years.

New arrivals were welcomed as they disembarked from a chartered company bus from Abqaiq. Officials shook hands with each new arrival, and then held a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony officiated by Abdulla M. al-Sabti, vice president of Southern Area Producing, and Makki F. al-Ghannim, manager of the Southern Area Community Services Department.

"We hope that you will be happy here, both in the community and in your Saudi Aramco careers," al-Sabti told the new arrivals. "It will be up to families such as yourselves and those families who have yet to arrive to create a friendly and caring community. We wish you all the best of luck."

Caption for top photo: The new 'Udhailiyah swimming pool includes a large shaded area for families, a sauna, and a pool.

Also on this date (Sept. 10)

2022 — Queen Elizabeth II dies, and King Charles III is formally proclaimed as monarch at a meeting of the Accession Council in St. James's Palace

2017 — Hurricane Irma makes landfall, resulting in 134 deaths and $64.7 billion in damage

2008 — The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in history, is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland

1991 — John Herbert Crawford, the amateur Australian tennis player who narrowly missed the Grand Slam of tennis in 1933, dies in Sydney, Australia, at age 83

1987 — Japanese pop singer Nana Tanimura is born in Sapporo

1977 — Convicted murderer Hamida Djandoubi becomes the last person to be executed by guillotine in France

1967 — The people of Gibraltar vote to remain a British dependency rather than becoming part of Spain

1960 — Abebe Bikila becomes the first sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal, taking first place in the marathon in bare feet at the Rome Olympics

1943 — German troops begin their occupation of Rome

1932 — The New York City Subway's third competing subway system, the municipally owned IND, is opened

1922 — Film producer Hal Roach introduced the first of 220 short films in the Our Gang series with the 20-minute silent feature "One Terrible Day"

1912 — Royal Flying Corps officers Claude Bettington and Edward Hotchkiss are killed when the Bristol monoplane they were flying over Wolvercote, England, crashes after one of the bracing wires detaches. The crash results in all monoplanes being grounded for five months

1902 — John Malarkey of the Boston Beaneaters becomes the first and only baseball pitcher to earn a win not by holding the opposing team to a lesser score, but by hitting a game-winning home run over the St. Louis Cardinals.

1846 — Elisa Howe is granted a patent for the sewing machine

1608 — John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, Virginia

1573 — German pirate Klein Henszlein and 33 of his crew are beheaded in Hamburg

1419 — John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, is assassinated by adherents of the Dauphin, the future Charles VII of France