ON THIS DAY OCTOBER 8
1769 Explorer Captain James Cook lands in New Zealand (Poverty Bay).
1818 Two English boxers are the first to use padded gloves.
1879 The Chilean Navy defeats the Peruvian Navy at the Battle of Angamos.
1856 The Second Opium War or second Anglo-Chinese War begins with the Arrow Incident on Pearl River.
1895 The last empress of Korea is assassinated and her corpse burnt by Japanese infiltrators inside Gyeongbok Palace.
1918 American soldier Alvin York singlehandedly attacks German gun nest, killing at least 25 and capturing 132 Germans in the Argonne Forest, in France, winning him the Medal of Honor.
1945 The much-used microwave oven is patented.
1967 Guerrilla leader Che Guevara and his men are captured in Bolivia.
1973 In the early stages of the Yom Kippur War, Gabi Amir’s armoured brigade unsuccessfully attacks Egyptian-occupied positions on the Israeli side of the Suez Canal, in hope of driving them away; more than 150 Israeli tanks are destroyed.
1978 Australia’s Ken Warby sets the current world water speed record of 317.60mph.
1993 Acting on the belief that there were 18 Apla operatives in the house, SADF Special Forces burst into a home in Umtata and kill five youths, including two 12-year-olds, as they lie sleeping in their beds.
1993 The UN lifts all mandatory sanctions against South Africa, paving the way for the country’s re-admission to the organisation.
1998 The US House of Representatives votes to begin impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton for lying about his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.
1999 The Khoi and San National Language Body is officially launched in Upington. Its aim is to promote and develop the Khoi and San languages.
2001 A twin-engined Cessna and a Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) jetliner collide in heavy fog during takeoff from Milan, Italy, killing 118 people.
2004 Kenyan Wangari Maathai is the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
2005 A strong earthquake in Kashmir kills 86 000 people and injures another 75 000. More than 2.8 million are left homeless.
2018 A UN report says planet will warm 1.5ºC by 2040 with dire results. | The Historian