ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

461 Saint Patrick, Christian missionary, bishop and apostle of Ireland, dies at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland.

1820 The first British Settlers arrive in South Africa.

1861 Italy is unified into a single kingdom under Victor Emmanuel II following the campaigns led by Giuseppe Garibaldi.

1905 Albert Einstein finishes his scientific paper on his Quantum Theory of Light, one of the foundations of modern physics.

1917 Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicates his throne.

1919 Singer Nat King Cole born. He was the first African-american to host a television show, The Nat King Cole Show, and was noted for his soft, baritone voice.

1935 Hitler orders a German rearmament, violating the Versailles Treaty.

1939 Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese breaks out (Sino-japanese War 1937-1945).

1950 Suppression of Communism Act 44 of 1950 limits what the media could report. 1965 Andrew Charles Hudson, South African cricketer, is born.

1968 The Bee Gees make their US TV debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, singing To Love Somebody and Words. 1982 South African footballer Steven Pienaar is born in Johannesburg.

1984 Mozambique and South Africa sign a pact banning support for one another’s internal foes.

1988 The “Sharpeville Six” win a one-day stay of execution in the Pretoria Supreme Court.

1992 White voters in a referendum overwhelmingly support reforms towards ending apartheid in South Africa.

1993 Police in Assiut, Egypt, storm two buildings where bomb-throwing extremists are holed up. At least 11

people are killed.

1996 Mugabe is re-elected as president in Zimbabwe with 92.7% of the vote. 1999 Allan Boesak found guilty on charges of fraud.

2000 About 500 members of a doomsday cult die in a church fire in south-western Uganda. Mass graves containing 400 more corpses are found around cult leaders’ homes.

2000 Start of the first lottery in South Africa. |