12 interesting and noteworthy events from South Africa and around the world that we can relate to.
1500 Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to set foot on Brazil.
1531 Lisbon is hit by an earthquake, which leaves about 30 000 people dead.
1856 A sandbank at the entrance to Natal Bay, Durban, previously known as Lee bank, takes its name from the barque, Annabella, which ran aground. Later, North Pier was built over the bank.
1885 Mahdist forces take Khartoum in Sudan after a nine-month siege and slaughter most inhabitants and the British garrison.
1902 Boer General Ben Viljoen and seven men are ambushed and captured by the British. A pocket book in Viljoen’s breast pocket saves him from a bullet and almost certain death.
1926 The first demonstration of the television is made by John Logie Baird.
1972 A bomb destroys the plane stewardess Vesna Vulovic is in. She survives the 10 160m fall – the world’s highest without a parachute. She wakes up from a coma in hospital and immediately asks for a cigarette.
1991 Rebels overrun the Somalian capital of Mogadishu and overthrow the government.
1992 Boris Yeltsin says Russia will stop targeting US cities with nuclear weapons.
2007 Globally acclaimed author, historian and raconteur par excellence, David Rattray is murdered at his Fugitive’s Drift home, near the battlefield of Isandlwana. The editor of the Sunday Times, Mondli Makhanya, observed that Isandlwana was “a favourite fireside story” among Zulus, told to youngsters for more than 120 years. He added: ‘To listen to David Rattray narrate the story of Isandlwana was akin to watching the best-scripted, best-directed and best-produced movie Hollywood’s finest studios could put out. It was goose-bump stuff.’ Rattray, who championed post-apartheid reconciliation and enthralled tourists and locals with his tales of the Zulu war, was shot three times while protecting his wife. by intruders, who fled empty-handed
2014 21 people die when a tourist boat capsizes off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
2019 Five people are shot and killed in domestic deputes in Louisiana, in the US. A 21- year old gunman is arrested for the killings a day later.
2022 Swedish music and podcast streaming giant Spotify removes Neil Young’s music from its platform in line after the renowned singer-songwriter issued an ultimatum about controversial Covid-19 misinformation on The Joe Rogan Experience.