This Day in History (1963): Oil Exhibition Opens at Tabuk

From the Jan. 30, 1963, edition of the Sun and Flare

HE Shaikh 'Abd al-'Aziz al-' Abd Allah as-Sudayri, deputy Amir of Tabuk, officially opened Armaco's Mobile Oil Exhibition here on Tuesday.

Tabuk is located inland from the Gulf of Aqaba near the Jordan border, some 840 miles west northwest of Dhahran and 500 miles north northwest of Jiddah.

J.H. Ellender, acting general manager of Government Relations, led a group of 26 Aramco employees to the opening and gave the welcoming speech. In his address, Ellender noted that "... residents of Tabuk are the heirs of a very ancient tradition of commerce and cultural relations with the rest of the Arabian Peninsula."

Ellender also commented, "In the days of the Jahaliyah, your city was one of the main stations on the trade route from the south to north. In the time of the Prophet (PBUH), Tabuk marked the northern frontier of Arabia against the Byzantine Empire."

Municipality officials and local dignitaries were honored guests. Ali Ganadiely, Public Relations representative in charge of the exhibit, introduced the speakers.

This is the farthest north the exhibit has ever been shown. Since it was started some five years ago, the exhibit has been visited by more than half a million people in Riyadh, Jiddah, Hofuf, Tayif, Buraidah, Jazan, Abha, and Yanbu'. Some 53,000 guests attended the previous exhibition in Yanbu'

The exhibit will close in Tabuk about Feb. 12 and move to its next site at Hayil.

Caption for top photo: Deputy Amir HE Shaikh 'Abd al-'Aziz al-' Abd Allah as-Sudayri, assisted by Ali Ganadiely (left) and J.H. Ellender (right) cuts the ribbon to open Aramco's Oil Exhibit in Tabuk.

Also on this date

2020 — The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 pandemic to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern

1989 — The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, is closed

1982 — Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner."

1972 — Pakistan leaves the Commonwealth of Nations in protest of breakaway Bangladesh

1969 — The Beatles' perform together for the last time in public on the roof of Apple Records in Lond. Shortly after, the concert is broken up by police

1962 — King Abdulla II of Jordan is born in Amman

1956 — The home of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery bus boycott

1948 — Mathatma Ghandi is assassinated in his home compound in India

1933 — Adolf Hitler takes office as the Chancellor of Germany

1920 — Japanese carmaker Mazda is founded as a cork-producing company

1889 — Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in Mayerling

1826 — The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge (connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the northwest coast of Wales) is opened

1649 — Charles I of England is executed in Whitehall, London