ON THIS DAY

1806 The Cape becomes a British territory for the second time, when conditions of surrender at Blaauberg (11 days previously) are confirmed.

1900 Boer General JP Snyman sends a starving group of black women, who have been encouraged by the British to attempt a breakout during the Siege of Mafeking, back to the besieged town under a white flag. However, Colonel Robert Badenpowell objects and threatens to shoot if they advance.

1915 German Zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King’s

Lynn in England, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.

1945 Soviet forces liberate the World

War II Litzmannstadt Ghetto (Łódź Ghetto) established by Nazi German authorities for Polish Jews and Roma. Of its 200 000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 survive. 1977 Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time snowfall has occurred there. It also fell in the Bahamas.

1981 US and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages held for 14 months.

1983 Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is finally arrested in Bolivia.

1984 The notorious Stander gang robs three banks in less than an hour in Johannesburg.

1990 Police baton-charge and tear-gas a crowd protesting the arrival of Mike Gatting’s England rebel cricket team, at Jan Smuts Airport in Johannesburg.

1999 A storm in Mount Ayliff, Eastern Cape, leaves at least 22 people dead and 4 000 homeless.

2013 Lance Armstrong finally admits to doping in all seven of his Tour de France victories. | The Historian