ON THIS DAY

APRIL 8

1783 Catherine II of Russia annexes Crimea from the Ottoman Empire.

1820 The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos. One of the star attractions, along with the Mona Lisa, of the Louvre Museum in Paris. The statue, most often held to be a depiction of Aphrodite – the ancient goddess of Love, is famous for its missing arms in addition to its beauty.

1906 German woman Auguste Deter, the first person, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, dies. 1940 German battlecruisers sink the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious.

1943 Otto and Elise Hampel are guillotined in Berlin, Germany, for anti-Nazi activities. Their crime: writing anti-Nazi postcards which they left in public places.

1941 After an air raid damages a trainload of 4 000 Nazi concentration camp inmates in Prussia, the Nazis massacre the survivors. 1954 A South African Airways passenger plane breaks up in mid air over Italy, killing 21 people.

1961 An anti-tank mine explodes on the British liner Dara in Persian Gulf, killing 238 people.

1986 Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel, California. It makes his day.

1991 About R1.3m is paid to 32 South African seamen who lost fingers from frostbite after being forced to work without adequate protective clothing on Taiwanese trawlers. 1992 Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announces that he has Aids, acquired from blood transfusions during heart surgeries. 1998 The Trans-Kalahari main road, the first road south of the Sahara to connect the Atlantic and Indian oceans, is opened.