ON THIS DAY SEPTEMBER 21
46BC Vercingetorix, the first national hero of France who united the Gauls and led the Celts in their most significant revolt against Roman power, is paraded in chains through Rome before being garroted. This despite him voluntarily surrendering to save his men.
1192 Returning from the Holy Land, England’s King Richard the Lion Heart is captured and held for ransom for £100 000 in silver. Liking the throne he’s been warming for his elder brother, John makes a counter-offer of £80 000 to keep Richard locked up. Eventually freed, Richard sends word to his little brother, saying: ‘Look to yourself, the devil is loose.’
1915 Cecil Chubb buys the English prehistoric monument Stonehenge on a whim at auction for £6 600 because he didn’t want to see it in foreign hands. As the last private owner, he donates it to the British government in 1918.
1921 An explosion at a fertiliser plant in Oppau, Germany, kills 500-600 people.
1937 Bloemfontein-born JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit is published.
1942 Terence Ronald is born in Durban.
1988 Anthony Nesty wins the 100m butterfly at the Seoul Olympics. He is the first black to win an Olympic swimming gold medal.
1999 An earthquake in Taiwan kills 2 400 folk. 2003 The Galileo spacecraft is destroyed by sending it into Jupiter’s crushing atmosphere. 2004 Work on the world’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai, aka the Burj Khalifa, begins.
2004 Catherine Labuschagne, 25, makes history when she becomes the first female fighter pilot to fly a Gripen, during the African Aerospace and Defence Air Show at the Waterkloof Air Force base, outside Pretoria. 2008 Recalled from office by the Jacob Zuma-led ANC, president Thabo Mbeki resigns, effective from September 25. He is replaced by his deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe.
2013 The extremist Islamic group al-Shabaab attacks an Israeli-owned shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. The four attackers are killed before special Kenyan security forces enter the mall. Kenya was celebrating the International Day of Peace when the incident took place. 2016 A Caltech study finds that Australian Aboriginals are the earth’s oldest civilisation.