ON THIS DAY

Baghdad falls to the Mongols as the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed.

Jews are expelled from Burgsdorf, Switzerland.

Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife, is executed for adultery.

Smallpox breaks out at the Cape and wreaks irreparable havoc among the indigenous and colonist populations. Hardest hit are the Khoisan.

An edict in the Cape forbids any white settling beyond the Gamtoos River.

A 463-ton British ship, Childe Herold, carrying more than 1 300 pieces of ivory, is wrecked off Dassen Island.

Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari is arrested in Paris for being a German spy.

The 13th Dalai Lama proclaims Tibetan independence following a period of domination by the Manchu Qing dynasty.

Prince Valiant comic strip appears; known for historical detail.

The 12th African Division, led by the 1st SA Infantry Brigade, captures Kismayu, Somaliland.

Allied planes bomb Dresden, Germany; a firestorm kills 22 000.

USSR captures Budapest after a 49day battle with Germany; 159 000 die.

An allegedly 500 000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug.

Former DRC prime minister Patrice Lumumba is shot escaping from prison.

A series of sewer explosions destroys more than 3km of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.

15 000 people attend Neil Aggett’s funeral in Joburg.

Bank robber André Stander is killed in a shootout with police in the US.

Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as leader of the USSR.

The last original Peanuts comic strip appears, one day after creator Charles M Schulz dies.

Australian prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations. |