ON THIS DAY

SEPTEMBER 25

303 While preaching the gospel, St Fermin of Pamplona is beheaded in Amiens, France. 1066 Battle of Stamford Bridge: The English army under King Harold II defeat the invading Norwegians, led by King Harald Hardrada, and Harold’s brother Tostig, who are both killed. 1237 The Treaty of York is signed between kings Henry III of England and Alexander II of Scotland, establishing a boundary between the two countries (which has remained mostly unchanged in modern times). 1492 A crewman on one of Christopher Columbus’s ships, the Pinta, sights ‘land’ a few weeks earlier than expected. 1780 American general, Benedict Arnold, whose name is synonymous with treachery, switches sides to join the British during the American Revolutionary War. 1844 Canada defeats the US by 23 runs in the first cricket international match at St George’s Cricket Club in Manhattan, New York city. 1875 Wild West criminal Billy the Kid escapes jail in Silver City, New Mexico, by climbing out of a chimney and becomes a fugitive. 1878 British physician Dr Charles Drysdale warns against the use of tobacco in a letter to The Times newspaper in one of the earliest public health announcements. 1900 Some 1 004 persons (849 burghers and boys, 152 women and girls, two coloureds and one black man) cross the border into Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique), fleeing the British invasion of the Transvaal. They are interned until the end of the Anglo-boer War. 1901 British troops are attacked in Fort Itala, with the British force retreating after fierce fighting and with heavy losses on both sides. 1906 Leonardo Torres Quevedo demonstrates the Telekino at Bilbao, Spain, before a great crowd, guiding a boat from the shore. This is considered the birth of the remote control. 1915 The Battle of Loos beings on the Western Front and lasts until October 14. Chlorine gas deployed by the British is blown back into their own trenches with disastrous consequences: The British casualties are almost double the Germans’ (59 000 as opposed to 26 000). 1917 Sir Ernest Oppenheimer establishes the Anglo American Corporation of SA. 1926 Industrialist Henry Ford begins an 8-hour, 5-day work week. It quickly spreads. 1941 Richard ‘Rick’ Turner is born on a farm near Stellenbosch. Around 36 years later the political philosopher was shot dead in his Durban home by unknown attackers just as he was coming to the end of a five-year banning order imposed on him for his anti-apartheid political activities. The fact that he was shot with a 9mm bullet identical to those used by the police, and that Minister of Police, Jimmy Kruger, once called Turner ‘the most dangerous man in South Africa’, suggests why he was killed. A street in Durban honours him. 1974 Scientists say aerosols are destroying the Earth’s protective ozone layer. 1976 Bono, David Evans, his brother Dik and Adam Clayton respond to an advertisement posted by fellow student Larry Mullen to form a rock band, which becomes U2. 2012 50 Taiwanese ships clash with the Japanese Coast Guard off the Senkaku Islands a bitter territorial dispute. 2020 Singapore says it will be the first to use facial verification in its national identity scheme. 2020 18 people in a government convoy are killed by Islamist militants in Borno State, Nigeria. 2020 Magawa, an African Giant Pouched Rat, is the first rat to be awarded a prestigious PDSA hero award, for sniffing out land-mines in Cambodia. | THE HISTORIAN