This Day in Kuwait History
Kuwait City, Aug 19 (KUNA) -- August 19, 1961: Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah issues a decree establishing a department within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Sheikh Sabah Al-Salim Al-Sabah is appointed as the first head of this department.
1995: First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah inaugurates Aquapark, a water theme park located on the Corniche near the Kuwait Towers in the Shuwaikh area. The park was developed by a private sector company in collaboration with the Tourism Projects Company, and it is the first of its kind in the Gulf region.
1996: Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah issues a law establishing companies for wireless telecommunications services, stipulating that the government must establish one or more joint-stock companies headquartered in Kuwait, with the objective of providing mobile phone services, paging systems, and other wireless services.
1998: Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah issues a decree appointing Mohammed Ahmed Al-Ajiri as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Managing Director of the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), with the rank of Undersecretary of State.
2003: Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah issues a decree forming a committee to exercise the functions of the Municipal Council.
2006: Sheikh Ali Al-Latif Al-Jassar passes away at the age of 84. He was one of Kuwait’s prominent scholars and among the first to join the media movement via Kuwait Television.
2009: The Ministry of Health announces the first death of a Kuwaiti national due to swine flu. The victim was in his thirties.
2013: Kuwait celebrates World Humanitarian Day by hosting the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the country under the theme “The World Needs More Humanity.”
2014: Boubyan Bank launches the first service of its kind in the Middle East, enabling cash withdrawals using the smart civil ID card, in collaboration with the Public Authority for Civil Information.
2020: The National Assembly approves four draft laws: the first amends certain provisions of the Private Sector Labor Law; the second concerns protection from domestic violence; the third relates to publications and publishing; and the fourth pertains to the Future Generations Reserve Fund Law.
2021: Kuwait donates six advanced fire-fighting vehicles and equipment to Turkey to combat various types of fires, as part of the efforts of the Kuwaiti Fire and Rescue Team, which participated on the ground in extinguishing forest fires there.
2024: The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research announces the selection of Dr. Fathoun Al-Rumaih, a scientific researcher, by the American Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as one of the world’s elite senior energy scientists and engineers. She is the first Arab woman to hold this position. (End) M.B.R. / N.S.N.
