ON THIS DAY MARCH 22

1349 The folk of Fulda, Germany, massacre Jews, blaming them for the Black Death.

1858 After discussions fail between President Boshof of the Republic of the Orange Free State and Chief Moshesh, the Free State starts the first Basuto war.

1896 Charilaos Vasilakos wins the first modern marathon at the Panhellenic Games. 1907 The new Boer government of the Transvaal passes an Asiatic Registration Bill, restricting Indian immigration.

1914 The St Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line becomes the world’s first scheduled airline. 1920 Azeri and Turkish soldiers, with the participation of Kurdish gangs, attack the Armenian inhabitants of the city Shushi, in the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region.

1992 With South Africa needing 22 runs off 13 balls, rain forces players from the field in the World Cup cricket semi-final against England in Durban. When they return, the target has been revised to an 22 runs off 1 ball, all but robbing South Africa of victory and gifting England a path to the final, where they lose to Pakistan.

1995 Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns to earth after a record 438 days in space.

2017 A terrorist attack on London’s Westminster Bridge and Houses of Parliament kills 4 people and injures 40.

2018 The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” between Hawaii and California is estimated to have 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and is increasing rapidly according to new research. It covers the enormous area of about 1.8 million square kilometres, bigger than South Africa (1.6 million square kilometres).