ON THIS DAY SEPTEMBER 14

1652 Jan van Riebeeck visits Robben Island for the first time. Separated from the mainland by frigid waters and strong currents, it is a natural location to isolate undesirables. The first ‘political prisoner’ there was Autshumato, who was exiled there in 1658 after trying to take back cattle confiscated by European settlers. 1812 The Great Fire of Moscow begins as Napoleon and his troops enter the city, which the retreating Russians set on fire. Napoleon found it was impossible to stay through the winter in the ruined city. He then began a retreat from Moscow which became one of the great disasters of military history. Fewer than 20 000 of the original 500 000 men with him survived the Russian campaign.

1814 The poem, Defence of Fort McHenry, is written by Francis Key during the Battle of Baltimore. Francis watched the British attack overnight and at dawn saw the American flag still flying over the fort, inspiring him to write the verses, which were later coupled with the tune of a popular drinking song, and, in 1931 becomes the US national anthem.

1886 The typewriter ribbon is patented.

1918 The first cases of a severe strain of influenza – Spanish Flu – is diagnosed in Durban. Of the country’s 6 million South Africans, nearly half get the disease; close to 140 000 die. Globally, 25-40 million die.

1927 In Nice, France, famed ballet dancer Isadora Duncan, 50 – “the mother of modern dance”– is killed in a freak accident when her scarf becomes caught in a wheel of the car she was in, breaking her neck.

1982 Former Hollywood actress Grace Kelly, 52, who became Princess Grace of Monaco, has a stroke while driving with her daughter, Stephanie, and dies when her car plunges down a mountainside. Her death takes place a few kilometres from where Isodore Duncan died 55 years before.

1984 Joe Kittinger becomes the first to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

| The Historian