ON THIS DAY

The Dutch garrison on Formosa

(Taiwan) surrenders to Chinese pirates

David Hume, 66, explorer and big-game hunter, dies in Grahamstown. He came to the Cape with Benjamin Moodie’s Scotch settlers in 1817 and was probably the first European to meet Mzilikazi, headman of the Matabele (later called the Ndebele). He was also the first to enter the country of the Bamangwato (Botswana) in 1833.

The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-ant, is published.

Fountains Valley, Pretoria, Africa’s oldest nature reserve, is proclaimed by President Paul Kruger.

Bubonic plague breaks out in Cape Town.

The South African Air Force is established, the first of the Commonwealth air forces, under Lieutenant-colonel Pierre van Ryneveld.

Land at Broadway & Wall Street, New York is sold for a record $7 per square inch.

SAA is inaugurated and takes over the passenger and goods air services run by Union Airways.

Norway’s Trygve Lie becomes the first secretary general of the UN.

In one of cricket’s biggest controversies, Australian captain Greg Chappell instructs younger brother Trevor to bowl underarm, with New Zealand needing six from the final ball to tie the third World Series Cup ODI in Melbourne; Australia win by six runs.

President FW de Klerk opens Parliament with a speech promising to repeal all apartheid laws: the Land Act, the Group Areas Act and the Registration of Population Act.

Zimbabwe batsmen Andy and Grant Flower set a world-record brotherly stand of 269 to help Zimbabwe to its first Test cricket victory, against Pakistan in Harare.

Space shuttle Columbia burns up re-entering the atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts.

In a stampede during the Hajjin Saudi Arabia, 251 people are trampled to death.

The first cabinet of Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was formed in Iceland, making her the country’s first female prime minister and the world’s first openly gay head of government.

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, surpasses Apple as the world’s most valuable.

India announces plans to give 500 million people free health care. | THE HISTORIAN