ON THIS DAY SEPTEMBER 6

1522 The Victoria returns to Spain. It is the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan’s round-the-world expedition and the first to circumnavigate the world. While his fleet’s expedition was successful in finding a westerly route to the spice islands and proved once and for al that the earth was round, and that ships wouldn’t fall of the edge if they sailed too far out to sea. Magellan himself was killed by a poisoned arrow in the Philippines and never made it home.

1651 King Charles II of England spends a day hiding in an oak tree after losing the decisive Battle of Worcester to Roundhead Oliver Cromwell. Before the battle, Charles contracted the Worcester Clothiers Company to clothe his army, but was unable to pay the £453.3s bill. Prince Charles settled the 357-year-old debt in 2008.

1916 The first true supermarket, the Piggly Wiggly, opens in Memphis, Tennessee.

1939 Britain suffers its first fighter pilot casualty of World War II at the Battle of Barking Creek as a result of friendly fire. South African ace Adolph ‘Sailor’ Malan commanded one of the scrambled squadrons, but was unable to call off the attack, which exposed the inadequacies of early RAF radar.

1966 The chief apartheid architect, prime minister HF Verwoerd is assassinated in parliament by messenger Dimitri Tsafendas. 1986 In Istanbul, two terrorists from Abu Nidal’s organisation kill 22 and wound six congregants in the Neve Shalom Synagogue. 1994 Actor Jackson Pinckney is awarded $487 000 after being partially blinded by JeanClaude Van Damme during filming of Cyborg. 1997 The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place in London watch by a global TV audience of 2.5 billion people.

2007 Israel executes the air strike Operation Orchard to destroy a nuclear reactor in Syria. 2015 German police confirm that more than 13 000 refugees have arrived in Southern Germany in last 2 days fleeing conflict in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. | THE HISTORIAN