ON THIS DAY
1773
US founding father Ben Franklin writes, “There never was a good war or bad peace.”
French crown jewels stolen from a royal storehouse in Paris during the Reign of Terror.
A Russian-American company establishes Fortress Ross – first Russian settlement on the west coast of North America (modern California).
The first newspaper cartoon strip is published in the US.
Johannesburg is named after Johann Friedrich Bernhard Rissik and Christiaan Johannes Joubert.
Transvaal president Paul Kruger crosses border on way to Lourenço Marques (Maputo). 1900 Martial law is declared in the Transvaal. 1906 Mahatma Gandhi coins the term “Satyagraha” to characterise the non-violence movement.
Australia invades New Britain, in New Guinea, defeating a German contingent at the Battle of Bita Paka.
1919 US Marines invade Honduras.
1926 Spain leaves League of Nations because of Germany joining.
An eruption of the Stromboli volcano in Sicily hurls 2-ton rocks up to 2 miles high.
An RAF raid on Darmstadt, Germany, causes a firestorm that kills 11 500 people.
The Natal Indian Congress declines an invitation to enable Indian community members to see the Royal family on their visit to Durban.
1950 Comic strip Beetle Bailey makes debut. 1950 Former prime minister General Jan Christiaan Smuts, 80, dies on his farm Doornkloof, near Pretoria.
A shoot-out at Jean-Bertrand Aristides’ church in Haiti leaves 12 people dead.
9/11, or the September 11 attacks – a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks – kills 2 996 people by using two hijacked airliners to bring down the World Trade Centre in New York City; a third crashes into The Pentagon near Washington; and a fourth into a field in Pennsylvania after a fight-back by passengers.
Fires at clothing factories in Pakistan kill 315 people.
Olympian and Paralympian Oscar Pistorius is found not guilty of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp (but is later found guilty of culpable homicide).
A crane collapses on to a mosque in Saudi Arabia, killing 111 people and injuring 394.
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