ON THIS DAY
Reconquista: After a siege of four months, crusader knights reconquer Lisbon.
The French suffer a catastrophic defeat during the Hundred Years War when Henry V of England and his heavily-outnumbered and lightly armoured infantry and archers humiliate the French cavalry at Agincourt, on Saint Crispin’s Day; in the process, a good deal of France’s nobility is wiped out.
Colonel Robert Gordon, explorer of the interior of South Africa, commits suicide because of his inability to prevent the British occupation of the Cape.
The infamous Charge of the Light Brigade – an act of supreme folly, and bravery, in the face all insurmountable odds. It happened when the British light cavalry charged by mistake into the heart of the Russian Imperial army at Balaclava in the Crimean War; leading to the death of 110 soldiers during the charge, 161 injured and 475 horses killed. British Poet Laureate Alfred Tennyson would go on to immortalise the event in his poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade. The debacle had long-term consequences for the British army.
The siege of Makapan’s Cave takes place, after warriors of Ndebele chief Makapan had killed 23 white men, women and children who had been on a hunting expedition. The siege lasted 25 days, and hunger, thirst and bullets nearly wipe out the tribe. Paul Kruger slipped into the cave under the cover of darkness and urged them to leave the cave, assuring them only Makapan was wanted, but to no avail.
The lands of the amaXesibe, centred at Mount Ayliff in East Griqualand, are annexed to the Cape Colony.
Britain annexes the gold fields of Transvaal.
End of the Civil War in Russia – the Bolsheviks win due to popular support.
Italy’s Benito Mussolini promises to remain dictator for 30 years – he managed less than half that.
Cosa Nostra crime boss Albert Anastasia is murdered in a New York barber’s chair.
1973 The Yom Kippur War ends in a ceasefire.
1983 The US and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada following a coup d’état on the island.
JM Coetzee wins England’s Booker prize for fiction, for the second time, for his dark novel, Disgrace
Bombings in Baghdad kill 155 people and wound at least 721.
Flash floods near the Red Sea in Jordan kill 17 as a school bus is washed away | THE HISTORIAN