ON THIS DAY

Thespis of Icaria becomes the first recorded actor to portray a character onstage.

Saladin enters Damascus, and adds it to his domain.

Major-General Smith-Dorrien, leaving only the church standing, razes Dullstroom to the ground during the Anglo-Boer War.

Pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck is hanged for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London.

The families who survived the Thirstland Trek and made it to Angola, are naturalised as Portuguese subjects.

US President Warren G Harding signs Willis-Campbell Act (anti-beer bill) forbidding doctors prescribing beer or liquor for medicinal purposes.

The British armed merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi is sunk by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Japan bombs Port Darwin, Australia. The French cruiser Suffren shells the Vietnamese city of Haiphong, killing 6 000.

Apneist Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100m undersea without breathing equipment.

Rhodesia attacks guerrilla bases in Mozambique, killing more than a thousand people.

A series of earthquakes devastate southern Italy, killing 4 000 people.

The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes off the Comoros, killing 125.

Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu, delivering the second annual Nelson Mandela Lecture in Johannesburg, issues a stern warning that black economic empowerment is benefiting only a small elite while South Africa is “sitting on a powder keg” of poverty.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes president of Liberia – the first woman to lead an African country.

Bombings in Sadr City, Iraq, kill at least 215 people and injure 257.

Brazilian footballer Robinho sentenced to nine years in prison for rape in Italy. |