On this day
Cleopatra’s lover, Mark Antony, achieves a minor victory over Octavian, but most of his army deserts, leading to his suicide.
On his third voyage to the western hemisphere, Christopher Columbus discovers the island of Trinidad.
Seven days after a Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships left Havana, Cuba, for Spain, 11 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida. A few centuries later, treasure is salvaged from these wrecks.
9 300mm rainfall in July in Cherrapunji, Assam: then world record.
The first cable connection between SA and Europe, via Aden, is inaugurated
Marthinus Lourens de Villiers, composer of
is born in Paarl, Cape. The Battle of Passchendaele begins near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium.
Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to “submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the Final Solution of the Jewish question”. .................. 031 308 2332 .............................. Yogas Nair .. Philani Mazibuko ...... Kamini Padayachee .......... Se-Anne Koopman ......................... Glenn Schouw
German SS gases 1 000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
Battle between Iranian pilgrims and Saudi-Arabian troops, 402 killed.
Thirty-two people are killed and 1 674 injured when a bridge at a ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.
Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal, killing all 113 people on board.
Dr Wouter Basson testifies before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he had to help keep Nelson Mandela alive in jail during the 1980s because it was suspected that certain ANC members were trying to poison him.
Fidel Castro hands over power to his brother, Raúl.
Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics.
Gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung kill at least 20 people and injure more than 270. ............... 031 308 2004 ................... 080 020 4711 .......................................... 031 308 2022 ................ mercnews@inl.co.za www.facebook.com/themercurysa www.twitter.com/themercurysa