ON THIS DAY

Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan passes through the straits that now bear his name and located at the southern tip of South America, thus crossing from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific.

In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway marry.

British cleric John Bunyan is born in Elstow, Bedfordshire. He wrote A Pilgrim’s Progress, a religious allegory of the human

The first report of giraffes in South Africa by a European is made by Jonas de la Guerre, whose expedition to Namaqualand finds them at Spoegrivier, 190km south of the Orange River.

British artist and poet William Blake is born in London. He’s best known for Songs of Innocence, examining life through the eyes of children, and Songs of Experience, exploring adult viewpoints of the world.

German socialist Friedrich Engels is born in Barmen, Wuppertal, Germany. He was an associate of Karl Marx and edited the second and third volumes of Marx’s Das Kapital.

Panama declares itself independent from Spain and joins Gran Colombia.

The British under Sir Garnet Wolseley defeats Pedi paramount chief Sekhukhune and imprison him in Pretoria.

The railway line from Cape Town is completed up to Kimberley.

A British column is engaged by Boer forces at the Battle of Modder River; although the Boers withdraw, the British suffer heavy casualties. Both generals De la Rey and Methuen are wounded; the former’s son, Adriaan, fatally.

Fire erupts in Boston’s Coconut Grove nightclub, killing nearly 500 people trapped inside.

The Teheran Conference begins, attended by US President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin. Among the major topics: a second front in Western Europe, resulting in D-Day.

Air New Zealand Flight 901, a DC-10 on a sightseeing trip, crashes on Antarctica’s Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board.

Eddie Dunn, SA’s ambassador in El Salvador, is kidnapped and murdered.

The SA Helderberg, SAA Flight 295, catches fire and crashes in the Indian Ocean, killing all on board. Conspiracy theories abound.

A plane carrying a Brazilian football team crashes near Medellin, Colombia, killing 71 players and journalists | THE HISTORIAN