In 1966, Singapore celebrated its 9 August National Day for the first time. It was a week-long string of festivities that included a big parade, fireworks displays, cultural shows, and dinner parties. It was actually Singapore’s second National Day. The very first ...
At 4 am on 31 December 1999, four members of the Antarctica 2000 expedition team arrived at the South Pole after an arduous 1,125-kilometre trek, becoming the first Singapore team to do so. Upon reaching the South Pole, they unfurled the Singapore national flag. ...
Iranian twin sisters, Laleh and Ladan Bijani, were the world’s first adult Siamese twins to undergo surgical separation. The 52-hour marathon operation began on 6 July 2003 at Raffles Hospital in Singapore. However, 29-year-old twins, who were born conjoined at ...
Michael and Sonya Fong were Singapore's first couple to set out on a world motorcycle trip, which they called "Baby Quek's Big Adventure", on 17 September 1995. They travelled for nearly two years, returning on 14 May 1997. Riding their 1,000 cc BMW motorcycle, ...
On 2 April 1992, the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) launched the first subscription television channel in Singapore through its subsidiary, Singapore CableVision. Named NewsVision, the subscription channel was a 24-hour news service. It showed mainly ...
Nicoll Highway stretches westward from Mountbatten Road across the mouth of Kallang River over Merdeka Bridge down to the city centre, where it joins Connaught Drive and Stamford Road. It was built in the 1950s to alleviate frequent traffic jams on the often congested ...
Singapore hosted the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) from 14 to 26 August 2010. During the event, an estimated 3,600 athletes from 205 countries, aged between 14 and 18 years, competed in 26 various sports events. The Games involved some 20,000 local and international ...
The first television station in Singapore, Television Singapura, was launched on 15 February 1963. It merged with Radio Singapura to form Radio and Television Singapore (RTS) following Singapore’s independence on 9 August 1965. On 1 February 1980, RTS was corporatised ...
The finalised version of the national pledge was largely drafted by then Minister for Foreign Affairs S. Rajaratnam in February 1966 as a way to promote national loyalty and consciousness among citizens following Singapore's separation from Malaysia on 9 August ...
Singapore became the 117th member state of the United Nations (UN) on 21 September 1965. This was an important milestone for the country as membership in the UN conferred international recognition of Singapore as a sovereign and independent state. On the occasion, ...
The National Library Building at 100 Victoria Street is the headquarters of the National Library Board (NLB). Opened in 2005, the Victoria Street premises replaced the old National Library Building on Stamford Road. The 16-storey complex houses mainly the collections ...
The National Library Building, located at 91 Stamford Road, officially opened on 12 November 1960. Between 1887 and 1960, the National Library had previously occupied the western wing of the Raffles Museum (now the National Museum of Singapore) at Stamford Road. ...
Cathay Building, located at the foot of Mount Sophia in the Dhoby Ghaut area, was once the tallest building in Singapore. It used to house the Cathay cinema, Cathay Hotel and Cathay Restaurant. The cinema was opened in 1939 in the front building, while the main ...
Tan Teck Guan Building, located at 16A College Road, was built in 1911 to add to the existing facilities of the Straits and Federated Malay States Government Medical School (later known as King Edward VII College of Medicine). The building underwent renovations ...
The former Empress Place Building is one of the architectural treasures in the Empress Place civic area overlooking the Singapore River. It was completed in 1867 and had originally been planned to be used as a courthouse but instead functioned as government offices ...
The National Reference Library (NRL) was located on the third floor of the National Library building at Stamford Road. It was formed on 16 January 1998, concurrently with the re-opening of the National Library that was closed for nine months of upgrading works. ...
The National Library Courtyard was an open-air area of 300 sq m located at the former Stamford Road premises of the National Library. It was opened to the public on 19 January 1998. In helping to build a gracious nation the courtyard is an avenue for cultural and ...
The former Asia Insurance Building is located at 2 Finlayson Green. With 18 storeys rising above a double-volume ground floor, it was once the tallest building in Southeast Asia at a height of 270 ft (82 m). Designed by one of Singapore’s pioneer architects, Ng ...
The former Supreme Court building was the seat of Singapore’s highest court from 1939 to 2005. It was located at St Andrew’s Road in an area spanning 5,110 sq m. Conceptualised by Frank Dorrington Ward, it was the last classical building constructed in Singapore ...
Between 1980 and 1995, the National Library embarked on the computerisation of its library operations and services. To keep abreast with the information technology (IT) revolution, new audiovisual, multimedia and online services were also launched. Decentralisation ...