ON THIS DAY

IN HISTORY

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6

Today is the 37th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 328 days until the end of the year

◆ 1869 The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the “Welcome Stranger” and weighing 97.14kg, is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.

◆ 1870 The first motion picture is shown to a theatre audience in Philadelphia, US.

◆ 1885 King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo (and all who live in it) as a personal colonial possession.

◆ 1900 British General Sir Redvers Buller conquers Vaalkrans at the Tugela River, but shelling from both sides continues and his forces have to evacuate their positions two days later.

◆ 1915 General Louis Botha leaves for South West Africa to lead the conquest of the area from Germany.

◆ 1939 Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the leader of Spain, following the Spanish Civil War.

◆ 1958 Gamal Abdel Nasser is nominated the first president of the United Arab Republic (Egypt).

◆ 1958 A hydrogen bomb – the Tybee Bomb – is lost by the US Air Force off Savannah, Georgia, US, never to be recovered.

◆ 1973 The comic strip “Hagar The Horrible”, by Dik Browne, makes its debut.

◆ 1983 Former Nazi Klaus Barbie, aka “The Butcher of Lyon”, is brought to trial. ◆ 1992 Six ANC members are gunned down by a group of men in Folweni, Natal. ◆ 2016 Computer hackers try to steal $1 billion from Federal Reserve Bank of New York using Bangladesh banking codes. They get $81 million before a typo alerts authorities. | The Historian