ON THIS DAY FEBRUARY 6

1795 The “Vryburgers” proclaim the Republic of Graaff-Reinet.

1819 British Statesman Stamford Raffles founds Singapore as a British trading port.

1820 The first 86 African American immigrants leave New York to start a settlement in present-day Liberia.

1838 Zulu king Dingane signs the treaty drafted by Retief on February 4 in which he declares his approval to grant an extensive area between the Tugela and Umzimvubu rivers to the Voortrekkers. At the farewell function Retief’s 70 men and 30 mounted servants are killed on Dingane’s orders of Zulu King Dingane. The Trekkers are bound and taken from the enclosure to a spot where they are spiked and clubbed to death.

1901 The battle of Chrissiesmeer (Lake Chrissie) takes place.

1910 Belgian aviator Albert Kimmerling gives a successful flying display in Johannesburg, an event marking the start of serious aviation in South Africa.

1933 Highest recorded sea wave (that is not a tsunami), is recorded at 34m during a in North Pacific hurricane by the USS Ramapo.

1935 Monopoly, the board gamen goes on sale for the first time.

1952 Britain’s King George VI dies and is succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II.

1958 Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster.

1959Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.

1994 Twelve people, nine women and three children, are killed in a pre-dawn attack by a group of unknown people in Masunkazane, Richmond, Natal.

2000 Russia captures Chechnya’s capital, Grozny, during the Second Checen War, forcing the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government into exile.

2017 Qatar Airways achieves the longest-ever commercial flight in service when its Boeing 777 lands in Auckland after a 16-hour-23 minute flight from Doha. |