IN HISTORY

Charlemagne and his brother Carloman I are crowned Kings of The Franks.

Leif Ericson discovers “Vinland” (possibly L’Anse aux Meadows, Canada), reputedly becoming the first European to reach North America.

The last of 16 000 English Jews expelled by King Edward I leave.

Dutch governor-general Adriaen Valckenier allows the murder of 8 000 Chinese inhabitants of Batavia.

1st 2-way telephone conversation, 1st over outdoor wires.

First group of British troops reach Durban.

US President Franklin D Roosevelt approves an atomic programme – the beginning of the Manhattan project.

First electric blanket manufactured; sold for $39.50.

Tanganyika (Tanzania) becomes independent within British Commonwealth.

Uganda becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

Vajont Dam disaster, landslide creates 50 million cubic metre wave, killing 2 000 in Piave Valley, northern Italy.

premieres in London, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and starring Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman.

A 13kg meteorite lands in the driveway of the Knapp residence, Peekskill, New York, destroying the family’s 1980 Chevrolet Malibu.

The last flight of the US aircraft Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird”, a spy plane that was the fastest.

Women’s rights and education activist Malala Yousafzai is shot three times by a Taliban gunman as she tried to board her school bus in the Swat district of northwest Pakistan.