July 21 in History
356BC — The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is destroyed when arsonist Herostratus sets fire to the wooden roof beams. He is captured and tortured on the rack. He confesses to arson and is executed. Herostratus becomes one of history’s most infamous arsonists, his sole, confessed ambition in committing the crime (hence the term “herostratic fame”).
1645 — Qing dynasty regent Dorgon issues an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their foreheads and braid the rest of their hair into a queue identical to those of the Manchus.
1904 — Frenchman Louis Rigolly becomes the first man to break the 100mph (160.934km/h) barrier on land, reaching 103.561mph (166.665km/h) in a 13.5liter Gobron-Brillié on a beach at Ostend, Belgium. 1925 — Englishman Malcolm Campbell becomes the first man to exceed 150mph (241.402km/h) on land. He records 150.76mph (242.635km/h) in a Sunbeam 350HP (named Blue Bird) at Pendine Sands near Carmathen Bay in south Wales.
1945 — Barry Anderson Richards, SA cricketer, is born in Durban. He is considered one of the best batsmen of the 20th century, but his international career is restricted to four Test (against Australia in 1969/70, 508 runs) due to boycotts against SA. 1967 — Chief Albert Luthuli (born c. 1898), Nobel Peace Prize winner, former ANC president and lay preacher, is killed after being hit by a train on a narrow railway bridge near his home in Groutville, Natal.
1970 — The Aswan (High) Dam on the Nile River is completed. Construction started on January 9 1960. The reservoir reaches capacity in 1976.
1983 — The coldest ground temperature ever measured on Earth, -89.2ºC, is recorded at the
Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica.
1999 — Sergio Motsoeneng, who finished ninth in the Comrades Marathon on June 16, winning a gold medal and just under R6,000, admits his twin brother Fika ran part of the race. He ran the first 45 minutes, then ducked into a porta-potty and handed Fika his shirt, bib, hat and shoes. They may have made the switch more than once. They were exposed in photos showing Sergio had “switched” his watch from his left to his right wrist and “grown” a scar on his left shin. They are banned from the Comrades for 10 years. 1999 — Navy divers find the bodies of John F Kennedy jnr, his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette in the wreckage of his plane in the Atlantic Ocean off Martha’s Vineyard. They crashed on the evening of the 16th.