ON THIS DAY FEBRUARY 5
1869 The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called ‘Welcome Stranger’, and weighing 97kg, is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.
1870 The first motion picture shown to a theatre audience in Philadelphia, a fast-moving series of still pictures of dancers.
1885 King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo (and all who live in it) as a personal colonial possession.
1900 British General Sir Redvers Buller conquers Vaalkrans at the Tugela river, but shelling from both sides continues and his forces are forced to evacuate their positions. 1915 General Louis Botha leaves for South West Africa to take control of Union troops who will conquer the territory from Germany.
1924 Alexander Matrosov, Hero of the Soviet Union, is born. During World War II, the 19-year-old sacrifices his life by blocking the fire of a German machine gun with his body to let comrades attack an enemy stronghold. 1939 Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the leader of Spain.
1958 A hydrogen bomb, known as the Tybee Bomb, is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered. 1970 Off-spinner John Traicos makes his Test debut for South Africa against Australia, in Durban. He was one of a few cricketers to have played at the highest level for more than one country; Zimbabwe was the other.
1982 Trade union leader Dr Neil Aggett dies under questionable circumstances in police custody.
1983 Former Gestapo official Klaus Barbie, aka ‘The Butcher of Lyon’, is brought to trial. 1992 Six ANC members are shot dead in Folweni, KwaZulu-Natal.
1992 The Goldstone Commission of Inquiry has its first hearing on the SADF’s involvement in promoting Black-on-Black violence.
2004 Twenty-three Chinese people drown when a group of 35 cockle-pickers is trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, England. 2016 Computer hackers try to steal $1 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York using Bangladesh banking codes. They manage to get $81 million before a typo alerts authorities. | THE HISTORIAN