Death before dishonour, Madiba’s plea for peace, a religious extremists mows down 29 Palestinians, and China gets rid of extreme poverty – these are some of the things that happened back in the day on February 25 Nelson Mandela calls for an end to factional violence in KwaZulu-Natal. Picture: Reuters
Death before dishonour, Madiba’s plea for peace, a religious extremists mows down 29 Palestinians, and China gets rid of extreme poverty – these are some of the things that happened back in the day on February 25
1336 Four thousand defenders of Pilėnai – a hill fort in Lithuiania – commit suicide rather than be taken captive by Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades.
1797 Disgruntled Irishman Colonel William Tate and his force of 1 000–1 500 soldiers surrender after the last invasion of Britain.
1814 George Cato, Natal pioneer and first mayor of Durban, and from a Huguenot family named Caton, is born in London.
1836 Samuel Colt patents first multi-shot handgun, enabling a firearm to be fired more than once before having to reload.
1927 The great diamond rush to Grootfontein, near Lichtenburg, in the Transvaal, starts.
1964 Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) TKOs Sonny Liston in round 7 for his first world heavyweight championship title.
1965 Archbishop Owen McCann of Cape Town becomes South Africa’s first cardinal.
1984 A ruptured oil pipeline explodes and the 1 800ºC blaze, which roars through the southern Brazilian swampland shantytown of Cubatao, is so fierce that it incinerates bone and enamel, making a final toll almost impossible to verify. At least 500 people died.
1990 More than 100 000 people attend a rally in Durban addressed by Nelson Mandela, who urges an end to the factional warfare that has killed more than 2 500 people in Natal.
1991 The US barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, is hit by an Iraqi scud missile, killing 28 servicemen.
1991 Mosque of Abraham massacre: In the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, religious extremist Baruch Goldstein opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers and injuring 125 more before being beaten to death.
2014 Hundreds of pro-Russian protesters surround the Crimean parliament and demand a referendum on Crimea’s independence.
2015 At least 310 people are killed in avalanches in north-eastern Afghanistan.
2021 More than 200 prisoners escape and 25 people are killed at Croix-des-Bouquets prison near Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
2021 Chinese President Xi Jinping says China has eradicated extreme poverty.