ON THIS DAY OCTOBER 12

1216 King John of England loses his crown jewels in The Wash as the flood tide swamps his wagons.

1285 For refusing baptism in Munich, Germany, 180 Jews are set on fire.

1492 After a 33- day voyage, Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the New World in the Bahamas. He named the first land sighted as El Salvador, claiming it in the name of the Spanish Crown. Columbus was seeking a western sea route from Europe to Asia and believed he had found an island of the Indies. He thus called the first island natives he met, ‘ Indians0’.

1823 Scot Charles Macintosh sells his first raincoat.

1860 Former Cape governor, Sir Harry Smith dies in London. A veteran of the Battle of Waterloo, he is remembered for his role in the 1846 Battle of Aliwal, in India, and as the husband of Lady Smith – Juana Maria de Los Dolores de León, whom he married on campaign in Spain. The towns of Ladysmith, Ladismith, Harrismith, Aliwal North and Smithfield all owe their names to the Smiths. 1899 The first shots of the Anglo- Boer War are fired at Kraaipan, south of Mafeking. 1960 Japan Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma is stabbed to death live on TV. 1964 The world’s first crewed spaceflight is made by three Soviet cosmonauts.

1984 The IRA bombs the Grand Hotel in Brighton, where British prime minister Margaret Thatcher is staying; 5 die.

2000 The destroyer USS Cole is badly damaged in Aden, Yemen, by suicide bombers; 17 crewmen die.

2002 Terrorists bombs in Bali’s nightclub district kill 202 people and injure 209.

2012 The UN orders that an African- led force oust Islamist militants in northern Mali. 2013 50 people are killed when a truck veers of a cliff in La Convencion Province, Peru.

2017 A plague outbreak in Madagascar kills 57 people.

2018 The Banksy work Girl With Balloon automatically shreds moments after being sold for £ 1 million in London, re- named Love

| THE HISTORIAN