ON THIS DAY MAY 12
1765 Lady Emma Hamilton, who became Admiral Lord Nelson’s famous mistress, is baptised. Hers was a rags-to-riches-to-rags story.
1789 MP William Wilberforce makes his first big speech on slavery in the House of Commons, in London, calling the slave trade reprehensible and an issue of natural justice. 1820 British nurse and public health activist Florence Nightingale is born, in Florence, Italy. ‘The Lady of the Lamp’ improved hospital sanitary conditions and greatly reduced the death rate for wounded soldiers. She received worldwide acclaim for her devotion to nursing and contributed to the development of modern nursing procedures, and emphasised the dignity of nursing as a profession. She was critical of British camps for prisoners in South Africa during the Anglo-boer War.
1875 Cape Governor Sir Henry Barkly lays the cornerstone of parliament in Cape Town.
1900 Lord Roberts enters Kroonstad, so Orange Free State President MT Steyn proclaims Heilbron to be his new capital.
1926 Norwegian Roald Amundsen’s airship, Norge, is the first to fly over the North Pole. 1935 Recovering alcoholic Bill Wilson cofounds Alcoholics Anonymous with Dr Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio.
1942 The tanker SS Virginia is torpedoed by a German submarine in the Mississippi River. 1949 The USSR lifts its blockade of Berlin. 1988 A bus going to Mount Frere, in the Eastern Cape, overturns near Cathcart, killing 31 people.
1991 Inkatha supporters rampage through a squatter camp on the West Rand, killing 22. 1997 Russia and Chechnya sign a peace deal after 400 years of conflict
2008 An earthquake in China kills 87 500 people. In spite of that seemingly high figure, it is only the 18th-deadliest earthquake of all time. The worst in the past 4 000 years was the 1556 earthquake in Shaanxi, China, which claimed about 832 000 lives.
2014 Voters in Eastern Ukraine vote for selfrule in referendum
2020 Militants storm a hospital and a funeral in Kabul, Afghanistan, shooting 40 people dead, including new mothers and their babies.