Oct 21 in History

1520 — Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese explorer and organiser of the Spanish expedition to the East Indies, reaches Cape Virgenes (Argentina-Chile) and discovers the most important natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He names the 570km passage “Estrecho (Canal) de Todos los Santos” (All Saints’ Channel), but Holy Roman Emperor Charles V renames it “Estrecho de Magallanes” (Strait of Magellan).

1600 — Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the rival Japanese clans in the Battle of Sekigahara, marking the start of the Tokugawa Shogunate which exists until 1868 as the last feudal Japanese military government.

1805 — A British fleet under Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, 47, defeats a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson is fatally wounded by a sniper on board his flagship, HMS Victory, and dies three hours later after receiving news that his biggest victory is imminent.

1824 — Joseph Aspdin, a bricklayer from Leeds, England, is granted the patent for Portland cement. 1895 — The Republic of Formosa (Taiwan Democratic State) on the island of Taiwan, proclaimed after its cession to the Empire of Japan by the Qing Dynasty of China in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, is extinguished when the capital Tainan is taken over by the Japanese.

1915 — The first transatlantic voice transmission by radiotelephone is achieved between Arlington, Virginia, US, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. 1949 — Morné du Plessis, SA rugby captain, is born in Vereeniging. His father, Felix, also captained the Springboks and his mother, Pat, the SA women’s hockey team. Du Plessis earns 22 Springbok caps between 1971 and 1985, 15 as captain..

1956 — Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is captured by the British Army, signalling the end of the Mau Mau Uprising (started in 1952) and the British military campaign.

1964 — The movie musical “My Fair Lady”, starring Audrey Hepburn (her singing voice dubbed by Marni Nixon) and Rex Harrison, is released. It is nominated for 12 Oscars, winning eight.

1978 — Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes in a Cessna 182 over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.

1980 — Kim Kardashian, US reality TV personality, entrepreneur and socialite, is born in Los Angeles. 1993 — Melchior Ndadaye, 40, Burundi’s first democratically elected and first Hutu president, is assassinated by Tutsi soldiers in a military coup. The ensuing civil war (until May 15 2005), leaves an estimated 300,000 people, mostly civilians, dead.