Gulf News Report Published: December 10, 2007, 23:21
A daily pick of news events that happened in this day in history from the pages of Gulf News dated December 11, 1978.
One million jam Tehran
One million marchers, unchallenged by Iranian government forces, jammed central Tehran in a peaceful but formidable demonstration ending in a call for the overthrow of the Shah.
They paraded shoulder-to-shoulder in an orderly procession stretching for more than five miles. It was the biggest anti-Shah protests against the 59-year-old monarch who has ruled with near-absolute power for 37 years.
Two executed in Abu Dhabi
Two Iranians convicted of murder were shot by firing squad in Abu Dhabi in the first public execution since the United Arab Emirates formed.
The two men were named as Abdulla Ali Zada and Hamad Mohammed Nasser. Both were convicted of premeditated murder after pleading guilty, the first to deliberately running over his father-in-law, fellow Iranian Ali Gholani Bashad with a lorry in January and the second to shooting to death an Omani national, Murnd Bashir Mohammed Suleiman.
Justice is the essence of true peace: Sadat
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, in a speech of acceptance for the Nobel Peace Prize, stressed the importance of the Egyptian-Israeli peace negotiations for the Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who shares the 1978 peace prize with Mr Sadat, came to Oslo to accept the award, but the Egyptian leader decided to stay away because peace negotiations with Israel are not complete.
Nuclear accident test is a success
American scientists who deliberately triggered "an accident" at a nuclear power plant in Idaho reported that safety precautions were more than adequate.
"Some people thought we were going to have a catastrophe out there," said a spokesman for the Department of Energy. "But the test went off beautifully. All systems worked just as we thought they would."
