On This Day

13 September: What Happened on This Day

Kuwait's Amir in the Oval Office in 2013, and an air bridge to eastern Libya in 2023.

In Kuwait

2013 — Kuwait’s Amir in the Oval Office

President Barack Obama received the Amir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, in the Oval Office. Obama called Kuwait one of his country’s most important partners in the region, pointed to the bilateral defence agreement, thanked Kuwaitis for their humanitarian support for Syrian refugees, and praised the Amir’s part in improving relations between Kuwait and Iraq. The full text of the remarks sits in the White House archive.

2019 — Jahra becomes the first Kuwaiti reserve on the Green List

The Environment Public Authority announced that the Jahra Nature Reserve had been entered on the Green List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the first global standard for measuring how well protected areas are managed. The authority said Kuwait would seek to list its remaining reserves in the years that followed.

2022 — The death of Amer Al-Sahloul

The Kuwaiti broadcaster and poet Amer Al-Sahloul died at about eighty. He was one of the founders of the Nabati Poets’ Diwaniya. The Ministry of Information mourned him through its spokeswoman Anwar Murad, conveying the condolences of the minister of information and culture, Abdulrahman Al-Mutairi. His best-known radio programmes were the Nabati Poets’ Diwaniya and Min Adab Al-Badiya.

2023 — Forty tonnes to eastern Libya

The first aircraft of the air bridge set up by the Kuwait Air Force took off to relieve those hit by Storm Daniel in the cities of eastern Libya, carrying forty tonnes of food and relief supplies. The bridge was ordered by the Amir, Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad, and coordinated between the army, the foreign ministry and the Kuwait Red Crescent.

2023 — The first government centre for the elderly

The Public Institution for Social Security announced, on the Amir’s instructions, that it would open a treatment and rehabilitation centre for Kuwaiti retirees, the first in the country dedicated to older people with government backing. It is being built in Mubarak Al-Abdullah on three thousand square metres over three floors, with clinics, gyms, swimming pools, physiotherapy rooms, a restaurant and a café.

2025 — Five stars for Kuwait Airways

Kuwait Airways announced that it had won a five-star award for 2026 for onboard passenger services, in the global airline rating issued by APEX. The assessment drew on passengers’ views across more than a million flights on some six hundred airlines. The award was collected by the acting chief executive, Captain Abdulwahab Al-Shatti, at a ceremony in California.

In the world

1882 — Tel el-Kebir, and the start of the British occupation of Egypt

The British general Garnet Wolseley attacked the Egyptian army camp under Ahmed Orabi at Tel el-Kebir, east of the Delta, at dawn, and the position fell within hours. Some two thousand Egyptian soldiers were killed against fifty-seven on the British side, and British forces entered Cairo the next day. The date and the figures are confirmed by two independent sources.

1922 — Azizia records 58 degrees, and loses the record ninety years later

A station in Azizia, southwest of Tripoli, recorded 58 degrees Celsius, and the figure stood for ninety years as the highest temperature ever measured on Earth. In September 2012 the World Meteorological Organization struck it out, having found that an inexperienced observer had used an unsuitable replacement instrument and read the scale wrongly, by an estimated five to seven degrees. The record passed to Death Valley in California at 56.7 degrees, set in 1913.

1993 — The Declaration of Principles is signed in Washington

The Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, known as the Oslo Accord, was signed in Washington between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. It set out a framework for a five-year interim Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, provided for the transfer of powers from the Israeli military administration to the Palestinian side, and for final-status negotiations on the basis of Security Council resolutions 242 and 338. The text is deposited with the United Nations peace agreements database.

Kuwait One, once a week.

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