ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7

Today is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 327 days until the end of the year

◆ 1497 Bonfire of the vanities: religious fanatics burn thousands of objects, such as cosmetics, art and books in Florence, Italy, on the Shrove Tuesday festival.

◆ 1848 Flooding along the Cape frontier near Peddie causes extensive damage.

◆ 1881 The Boers beat superior British forces at the Battle of Ingogo.

◆ 1886 George Walker discovers gold while laying foundations on the Witwatersrand.

◆ 1900 British troops fail in their third attempt to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.

◆ 1901 Bubonic plague strikes Cape Town. ◆ 1943 Japanese Navy forces evacuate troops from Guadalcanal, ending their attempts to retake the island from the US.

◆ 1943 Shoe rationing begins in US (may purchase up to 3 more pairs in 1942)

◆ 1959 A light plane lands in Las Vegas after 65 days in the air. It was a publicity stunt for a hotel. Two pilots lived in the plane, working four-hour shifts and winching supplies up – including fuel and Christmas lunch – from a speeding truck.

◆ 1962 A gas explosion in a German coal mine kills 298 miners.

◆ 1969 Nigerian planes bomb a village in Biafra, killing more than 200 people.

◆ 1984 David “bubble boy” Vetter, 12, touches his mother for the first time. Born with a disease that dramatically weakens the immune system, he died that year, having spent his life in a sterile “bubble”.

◆ 1997 NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.

◆ 2013 Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, and is the last US state to approve the abolition of slavery.

◆ 2018 The Los Angeles Times is bought by doctor Patrick Soon-Shiong for $500m.

◆ 2018 A study finds all citrus fruit can be traced to the foothills of the Himalayas.

| The Historian