Significant and interesting snippets of news, with a South African angle, from this day in history
1500 Family squabbles come to a gory climax at the wedding of Astorre Baglioni and Lavinia Colonna in Peruglia, Italy. The ‘Blood wedding’ leaves 200 wedding guests, including the groom, dead. His chest was ripped open, his heart torn out and a bite taken out of it.
1799 The Rosetta Stone, crucial to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics, is found in the village of Rosetta during French Emperor Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign.
1856 Natal formed as a British colony, separate from the Cape Colony.
1869 The original version of margarine, made with animal fats and invented by Hippolyte Mege-Mouries, is developed for France’s Navy.
1916 The Battle of Delville Wood starts. It goes down in the history of World War I as an example of supreme sacrifice and heroism and is the most costly action the South African Brigade fights on the Western Front.
1932 CJ Langenhoven, author and writer of the words of Die Stem van Suid-Afrika (The Call of South Africa), dies in Oudtshoorn. Die Stem, and its translation The Call, was the only official national anthem from May 2, 1957 to April 20, 1994, when Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika was also recognised as the national anthem. Since October 10, 1997, a shortened, combined version of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika and The Call of South Africa is the national anthem.
1974 US TV news anchor Christine Chubbuck, 29, tells her audience: ‘In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts in living colour, you are going to see another first – attempted suicide.’ She draws a .38 revolver from beneath her desk and fatally injures herself. She is the first person to commit suicide in a live broadcast.
1994 The 100-day Rwandan Genocide, the bloodiest single event of the 20th century, ends when thousands of Hutus flee to Zaire (now the DRC).
2018 Former captain Didier Deschamps becomes only the third man to win the Fifa World Cup final as a player and coach as France beats Croatia 4-2 in Moscow.
2021 Devastating floods linked to climate change sweep through towns in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, killing at least 188 people.