ON THIS DAY

The Great fire of Bombay, India, starts in a pub.

The first Mardi Gras celebration takes place in New Orleans. Mardi Gras, meaning Fat Tuesday, refers to events of the Carnival celebration beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three Kings’ Day) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday (Shrove Tuesday). The name reflects the practice of the last night of eating rich, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of Lent.

Boer general Piet Cronjé surrenders to the British at Pardeberg.

Australian soldiers Harry “Breaker” Morant and Peter Handcock are executed in Pretoria after being convicted of war crimes.

An Allied strike force is decisively defeated by the Imperial Japanese Navy when it loses 13 warships in the Java Sea, in the Dutch East Indies.

Birth of Naas Botha, Springbok rugby player and sports broadcaster.

Italy asks for help to prevent the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling.

The formerly Spanish territory of Western Sahara, under the auspices of the Polisario Front, declares independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Black Tot Day takes place in the Royal New Zealand Navy with the ending of the traditional rum ration that the Royal Navy started in 1740. Other navies which abandoned the practice were the Royal Australian Navy in 1921, the Royal Navy in 1970, and the Royal Canadian Navy in 1972. The South African Navy ended the tradition during the 1950s.

US president George HW Bush announces that “Kuwait is liberated”, which ends the first Gulf War.

Shoko Asahara, leader of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, is sentenced to death for the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack that killed 13 people. He was eventually executed in 2018, aged 65.

The bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf, which leaves 116 people dead in the Philippines, is the country’s worst terrorist attack.

A powerful earthquake strikes central Chile and kills 525 people. The quake triggered a tsunami which struck Hawaii shortly after, caused significant damage in Japan and in San Diego and devastated South American coastal communities.

Emmy and Oscar-winning entertainer Barbra Streisand reveals she has cloned her dog – twice. | THE HISTORIAN