ON THIS DAY HISTORY
Dutch privateer Piet Heyn attacks and conquers 22 Portuguese ships in the Bay of Salvador, Brazil.
The two-day Great Slave Auction, the largest in US history, concludes.
Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (Frederik), is appointed principal of the South
African School of Mines and Technology in Johannesburg, which became the University of the Witwatersrand.
Eight white people are killed in battles between government forces and revolutionaries during the Rand Rebellion.
Miriam Makeba, singer, songwriter, actress and civil rights activist, is born in Johannesburg.
US gangster John Dillinger breaks out of jail using a wooden pistol.
Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia. Mohandas Gandhi begins a hunger strike over autocratic rule in
British India.
The RAF accidentally bombs The Hague, Netherlands, killing 511 people.
The SABC lifts its ban on the Beatles’ music.
Los Angeles police beat motorist Rodney King; the beating is captured on amateur video and sparks riots when police are acquitted of the crime.
Gas explodes in a coal mine at Zonguldak, Turkey; 263 die.
US President George HW Bush apologises for raising taxes after pledging not to.
Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an aircraft around the world solo without any stops or refuelling. The journey of 40 234km took 67 hours and two minutes.
A 2-year-old US girl becomes the first child born with HIV to be cured. |
1938 1939