Saudi Arabia struck oil only on its seventh try. Six wells at Dammam yielded nothing commercial; on 3 March 1938 the seventh gushed from about 1,440 m down, and it kept pumping until 1982.

1938

◍ Show on the globe

The event

• Kingdom of Saudi Arabia proclaimed1932 · Riyadh. In 1902 Abdulaziz ibn Saud retook Riyadh with a small band of fighters, then conquered Najd, Ha'il and, in 1925, the Hejaz with Mecca and Medina. On 23 September 1932 his lands were united as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Six years later commercial oil was found at Dammam, transforming the poor desert state beyond recognition.

20th century

More amazing facts

• 1936 The thylacine was granted protection on 10 July 1936; the last known animal died at Hobart Zoo on 7 September — just 59 days later.
• 1937 Chkalov flew over the North Pole to Vancouver — not the Canadian city, but its namesake in Washington State, USA. The nonstop flight from Moscow in June 1937 took 63 hours.
• 1938 Three months after the Munich Agreement, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Berlin discovered the fission of uranium.
• 1938 Teflon was found by sawing open an 'empty' cylinder.
• 1938 The coelacanth is more closely related to you than to a tuna.
• 1938 · 1943 The ballpoint pen was invented by a Hungarian and launched in Argentina.

All amazing facts (1058) →