Nov 8 in History
1887 — The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is founded by Benjamin Wollan during the first South African gold rush. Johannesburg Chambers and Company (Wollan’s company) is the first to list.
1887 — Emile Berliner, a German immigrant working in Washington D.C., patents his gramophone, a successful system of sound recording. He is the first to record on flat disks or records instead of cylinders. 1892 — Former US President Grover Cleveland beats incumbent Benjamin Harrison and becomes the first (and, to date, only) president to win non-consecutive terms in the White House: 1885-89 and 1893-97. 1895 — Dr Ernst Gideon (Ernie) Malherbe, SA educationist, is born in Luckhoff, Orange Free State, three years after the town was founded on the farm Koffiekuil. He earns a doctorate on the history of education in the field of South Africa at the University of Columbia, NYC, and honorary doctorates from 10 other universities: Sydney, Cambridge, Queens, Melbourne, McGill, Cape Town, Natal, Rhodes, Wits and St Andrews.
1900 — Margaret Mitchell, American writer, is born in Atlanta, Georgia. She finds success with her only novel, “Gone with the Wind”. She is struck by a speeding car while crossing a street in Atlanta with her husband, John Marsh, on their way to see the movie “A Canterbury Tale” on the evening of August 11 1949. She dies on August 16 at age 48 at Grady Hospital without fully regaining consciousness.
1922 — Dr Chris (Christiaan Neethling) Barnard, cardiac surgeon who performs the first human-tohuman heart transplant on December 3 1967, is born in Beaufort West.
1946 — Guus Hiddink, Dutch footballer and manager, is born in Varsseveld.
1950 — In the first all-jet air-to-air battle, First Lt Russell J Brown of the US 16th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, flying a Lockheed F-80C Shooting Star, downs a North Korean MiG-15 during an attack on the Sinuiju bridges near the mouth of the Yalu River. 1974 — Penny Heyns, SA’s first Olympic gold medallist after re-admission in 1992, is born in Springs. She wins the 100m (in world-record time) and 200m (Olympic record) breaststroke at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. In 1999, she sets 11 world records in three months on three continents. She becomes the simultaneous holder of five out of the six breaststroke world records, a first in swimming history. She sets 14 world records in her career.
1976 — Brett Lee, Australian cricketer (1999-2012: 76 Tests, 310 wickets, average 30.81; 221 ODIs, 380 wickets, average 23.36; 25 T20Is, 28 wickets, average 25.50), is born in Wollongong, NSW.