ON THIS DAY

Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (for the 1st time)

Several hundred Jews are burnt alive while the remainder are hounded from Strasbourg.

Richard II of England dies after being starved by his usurper, Henry Bolingbroke.

Explorer Captain James Cook is killed by locals on the Island of Hawaii.

Dingane, stripped of his kingship after he and his Zulu warriors are vanquished at the battle of Magongo at the Umkuzi River, flees to Swaziland where he is murdered.

Natal is proclaimed a Voortrekker Republic with the borders being the Umzimvubu in the south, the Black Mfolozi (including St Lucia Bay) in the north, the sea to the east. No mention is made of the western border.

Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray. The US Supreme Court eventually rules Bell to be the rightful inventor.

British forces begin a fourth attempt to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.

Seven people, six of whom are rivals of Al Capone’s gang, are murdered in the St Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago.

The original Dracula film starring Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire, is released.

The German 5th Light Division, Rommel’s Afrika Corps, arrives in Tripoli to give backbone to the Italian-led Axis forces in North Africa.

Prague is mistaken for Dresden and bombed.

Iran’s Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa against Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.

The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth.

King Goodwill Zwelithini tells President FW de Klerk that he rejects South Africa’s new interim constitution and is prepared to set up a Zulu Kingdom.

YouTube is launched by a group of college students.

As a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising begins with a “Day of Rage”.

Olympian and paralympian Oscar Pistorius kills his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Jacob Zuma resigns as president of South Africa.