ON THIS DAY
241 BC At the Battle of the Aegates, the Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet bringing the First Punic War to an end.
French Huguenot Jean Calas, who had been wrongly convicted of killing his son (who committed suicide), dies after being tortured by authorities; the event inspired Voltaire to begin a campaign for religious tolerance and legal reform.
Inventor Alexander Graham Bell makes the world’s first telephone call and says to his assistant: “Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you.”
The Salvation Army is founded in the US. The social service organisation was first launched in England and operates in 90 countries, including South Africa.
After Bob Fitzsimmons KOs the much larger Jim Corbett to win the world heavyweight championship, in Carson City, Nevada, he laconically mutters the memorable line first coined by fellow boxer Joe Walcott the year before: “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
A coal-dust explosion in northern France kills 1 099 miners.
The British under Lord Roberts beat the Boers in the battle of Driefontein.
1910 The Republic of China abolishes slavery. 1922 Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years in prison, only to be released after nearly two years for an appendicitis operation.
Angry striking white workers storm and occupy police stations, railway installations and mines on the Rand. Within four days the revolt is crushed, but at the cost of 153 lives; 534 people are injured.
In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray admits to having assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King jr.
With a team packed with the likes of Mike Proctor, Barry Richards, Eddie Barlow, the Pollock brothers, Graham and Peter, John Traicos, and Lee Irvine, South Africa give the visiting Australia cricket team a 4-0 series drubbing.
Percy Qoboza, editor of the banned newspaper, The World, is released from detention, with nine other black leaders who were seized in October 1976.
Carlos Slim becomes the first Mexican and person from an emerging economy to top the Forbes Richest Person list, with a net worth of $53.5 billion. The richest erson today Wikipedia founder Jeff Bezos ($131bn).
Sixteen people die after being struck by lightening at a church in Nyaruguru District, Rwanda. | The Historian