ON THIS DAY

Henry III, son of the iniquitous King John and fourth Plantagenet king of England, dies.

Ninety dissident Roman Catholic priests are executed by drowning at Nantes during the French Revolution.

Carl August Pacalt, missionary of the London Missionary Society, dies at his mission station, Hoogekraal, George. After his death the settlement was renamed Pacaltsdorp.

Explorer Dr David Livingstone reaches the Victoria Falls and names it after his queen.

Pretoria is chosen as the capital of the ZAR, but the seat of government remains in Potchefstroom until 1860.

Turks massacre 6 000 Armenians in Kurdistan.

The Battle of Sprinkaansnek is fought, with General Philip Botha forcing a passage through the pass.

In response to the levelling of Coventry by the Luftwaffe two days earlier, the RAF bombs Hamburg.

Unesco is founded. Operation Magic Carpet begins as the first planeload of Jews is flown from Yemento, Israel.

After the bodies of 13 Italian UN soldiers are “sold” in a Congo market, UN secretary-general U Thant orders UN forces to punish those responsible.

The first interstellar radio message is sent from the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. Aimed at the current location of the globular star cluster M15, 25 000 light years away, it will reach empty space by the time it arrives since the cluster will not be there.

Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto’s PPP wins the first free Pakistani elections in 11 years.

President FW de Klerk announces that beaches are open to all races.

Pop group Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award because the duo did not sing at all on the Girl You Know It’s True album. Session musicians provided all the vocals.

Lionel Messi makes his official debut for FC Barcelona in a friendly against Porto.

Largest diamond discovered in more than a century, a 1 111 carat stone, found at the Karowe mine, Botswana.

| The Historian