Some of the more interesting things that happened on this day.
1752 An expedition of August Beutler, who left the Castle in Cape Town in February, reaches the Keiskamma in the Eastern Cape. 1873 The name of De Beer’s New Rush is changed to Kimberley. 1873 Under pressure from Britain, Sultan Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar closes the island’s great slave market. 1883 The first regularly scheduled run of the fabled Orient Express train leaves Paris.
Shock waves in Europe at Prince Imperial’s death, the prolific and influential Bard dies, the EPL’s fastest goal, Channel tunnel idea nixed, New Coke backfires
Deadly mistake for amaXhosa in the Battle of Grahamstown, first use of poison gas in warfare, Wild West land rush, record Covid numbers
Dawn of the Mughal and Roman empires, luck runs out for the Red Baron, prostitutes off the hook and doomed submarine crew’s farewell video
A tyrant is born, the Red Baron bags his last kills, a deadly attack becomes a byword for school mass shootings, Swaziland gets a name change, and George Floyd’s killer convicted
A cruel mother, Cook first sights Australia, a psychedelic trip home on a bicycle, and the Waco siege ends
The Cape and South Africa’s first school, San Francisco devastated, the audacious Doolittle raiders bomb Japan and South Africa’s first Test match against a non-white team
A racy mediaeval story influences modern English, peace overtures, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Game of Thrones premières and John Coltrane honoured
The first recorded battle, famous gunfighter’s last duel, Great Train Robbers locked up, rapper wins literary prize
Peace talks begin, Mickey Mouse pops up, a record trip to South Africa, ‘Baby Jake’ makes us proud, and International Day of Families
A king at 4, the English Premier League’s oldest player, FW de Kerk tells the TRC about apartheid, Covid infections reach record numbers
The Union Jack flies over Church Square in Pretoria, the first Space Shuttle mission blasts off, Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit Earth, and Captain Phillips is freed
The Boers lose two of their heroes, trial of the ‘banality of evil’ begins, nuking the Chinese a step too far, Proteas fire their captain for match fixing, and Julian Assange’s bad behaviour gets him booted out of his hidey hole
Work starts on Cape Town’s fort, the first 1820 settlers arrive, the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic sets sail, South African aces rack up kills in the air, and remains of 3ft-tall people discovered.
Apartheid mastermind escapes death, looting follows Baghdad’s occupation, the wolves return, and masses line the streets for a funeral
An ocean liner is bombed, milk goes in glass, Nazis butcher bombing-raid survivors, and a golden find in the desert
The metre is accepted, Mussolini shrugs off attempt on his life and Hansie Cronje charged with match-fixing.
Cape Town’s beginning, the first modern Olympics, Gandhi ‘shakes’ the British Empire’s foundations, and what caused the Rwandan genocide.
St Patrick returns to the ‘Emerald Isle’, the first of the Ibrox soccer stadium disasters, the legend of Pocahotas begins, Mount Tambora blows its top, the longest siege in modern history and President Nelson Mandela garners international praise
Nato created, the Beatles set a record or five, Microsoft is founded, the Angolan civil war finally ends, US troops booted out of France and the Elon Musk takeover of Twitter begins
How the colonisation of SA began, the first cellphone call, a ‘royal bastard’ dies, and a famous guitarist says he didn’t smoke his father’s ashes.
The Zulu nation loses the Anglo-Zulu War, the Falkland islands are invaded and a notorious gangster is sentenced
Origins of April Fool’s Day, the South African police is founded, as is the navy, don’t get within 2 feet of nude dancers and Wimbledon is cancelled – and that’s no joke!
Church reaffirms condemnation of abortion and euthanasia, a globally significant royal dies, US president shot, and farewell to one of the greatest cricketers
