ON THIS DAY FEBRUARY 6
1795 The ‘Vryburgers’ proclaim the Republic of Graaff-Reinet.
1819 British Statesman Stamford Raffles founds Singapore as a British trading port.
1820 The first 86 African-American immigrants leave New York to start a settlement in present-day Liberia.
1838 Zulu king Dingane signs the treaty drafted by Piet Retief on February 4, in which he declares his approval to grant an extensive area between the Tugela and Umzimvubu rivers to the Voortrekkers. At the farewell function Retief’s 70 men and 30 mounted servants are killed on Dingane’s orders. The Trekkers are bound and taken from the enclosure to a spot where they are spiked and clubbed to death.
1895 Legendary baseball player George Herman ‘Babe’ Ruth is born in Baltimore, Maryland. Ruth held or shared 60 Major League records, including pitching 29 consecutive scoreless innings and hitting 714 home runs.
1910 Belgian aviator Albert Kimmerling gives a successful flying display in Johannesburg, an event marking the start of serious aviation in South Africa.
1911 Ronald Reagan, the 40th US President, is born in Tampico, Illinois. He spent 30 years as an entertainer in radio, film, and television before becoming governor of California. Elected to the White House in 1980, he survived an assassination attempt and became the most popular president since Franklin Roosevelt.
1935 Monopoly, the board game goes on sale. 1952 Britain’s King George VI dies and is succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II. 1958 Eight Manchester United players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster. 1959 Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit. 1970 South African cricketing great Graeme Pollock hits 274 against Australia in Durban. 1994 Twelve people, nine women and three children, are killed in a pre-dawn attack in Masunkazane, Richmond, Natal. 2017 Qatar Airways achieves the longest commercial flight in service when its Boeing 777 lands in Auckland after a 16-hour, 23 minute flight from Doha. 2018 Elon Musk’s SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful rocket 2019 Honeybees are able to add and subtract and understand concept of zero according to research from RMIT University in Australia. | THE HISTORIAN