March 4, 1938: Oil Is Discovered In Saudi Arabia

March 4, 1938: Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia. The world will never be the same.

The Saudis didn't know if there was any oil under the land of their recently-founded kingdom. But in 1908, another Middle Eastern monarchy, Iran, struck oil. In 1932, so did another Middle Eastern monarchy, the neighboring island nation of Bahrain. And, as the capital of the Islamic world, the Saudis wanted control of that world, which would depend on having oil. So they began drilling.

Their 1st 6 oil wells, labeled Dammam Numbers 1 through 6, had all failed to develop by November 1937. So King Ibn Saud ordered a halt to all drilling except at Damman Number 7, which was twice as deep as the level at which Bahrain discovered theirs. On March 4, 1938, Number 7 drilled even deeper, and struck: 1,585 barrels of oil that day. Within a week, it was putting out 3,810 barrels a day.

With the demand for oil reaching a new high in World War II, Saudi Arabia became one of the most important countries in the world. After the war, both America and Britain were, essentially, addicted to oil. And the House of Saud acted like drug dealers, and the King like a drug lord.

In 1960, Saudi Arabia was a founding member of OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. In 1973, led by the Saudis, OPEC cut back on oil production, in retaliation for the West's support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War. This threw America and much of the world into recession, causing massive lines at gas stations. In 1974, despite everything that happened in the Watergate scandal, it was King Faisal of Saudi Arabia that Time magazine chose as its Man of the Year. In 1979, OPEC retaliated against America again, for accepting the dying, exiled Shah of Iran into the country for medical treatment.

In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and thus controlled 10 percent of the world's oil. It was feared that Saudi Arabia would be next, which would have given Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein control of 20 percent of the world's oil. After decades of military aid, due to the Saudis siding with the West during the Cold War, they should have been able to defend themselves if Iraq invaded. Instead, they called on America to do their job for them, and the Persian Gulf War resulted in Iraq being kicked out of Kuwait.

But American troops remained in Saudi Arabia. This led to terrorist group al-Qaeda attacking America, including, in 1996, bombing the U.S. base at the Khobar Towers, within 2 miles of the still-producing Dammam Number 7 well. On September 11, 2001, 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi natives, as was their leader, Osama bin Laden. In 2002, President George W. Bush abandoned the search for bin Laden, and concentrated on kicking Saddam out of power in Iraq, so the U.S. could control their oil, and thus need Saudi oil less. This turned out to be a very stupid thing to do.

In the 21st Century, in spite of the move toward electric cars, America is still held hostage by the oil industry, mostly by Saudi Arabia.

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March 4, 1938 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL had no games scheduled. So there were no games on this historic day.