ON THIS DAY

In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway marry.

The first report of giraffes in South Africa by a European is made by Jonas de la Guerre, whose expedition to Namaqualand finds them at Spoegrivier, 190km south of the Orange River.

The British under Sir Garnet Wolseley defeat Sekhukhune, Pedi paramount chief, and imprison him in Pretoria. When the Transvaal again became independent after the First AngloBoer War, he was freed.

The railway line from Cape Town to Kimberley is completed.

A British column is engaged by Boer forces during the Battle of Modder River. Although the Boers withdraw, the British suffer heavy casualties. Both generals De la Rey and Methuen are wounded; De la Rey’s son, Adriaan, is killed.

Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin as a political party, with the main aim of establishing a dual monarchy in Ireland.

In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub kills 492 people.

US President Franklin D Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran, Iran, to discuss strategy.

Michel Micombero proclaims Burundi a republic following the overthrow of King Ntare V.

Wasfi al-Tal, prime minister of Jordan, is assassinated by the Black September unit of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Air New Zealand Flight 901, a DC-10 sightseeing flight over Antarctica, crashes into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board.

Eddie Dunn, South Africa’s ambassador in El Salvador, is kidnapped and later murdered by a leftist terrorist group.

The SA Helderberg, SAA Flight 295, catches fire and crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on board. Conspiracy theories abound.

Suicide bombers blow up an Israeliowned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya; their colleagues fail in their attempt to bring down Arkia Israel Airlines Flight 582 with surface-to-air missiles. |