ON THIS DAY, MAY 4

1238 The Mongol hordes of Batu Khan decisively defeat the Russians at the Battle of the Sit River, near Yaroslavl in Russia, during the Mongol invasion of Rus.

1461 During the Wars of the Roses in England, Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his House of York cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV.

1493 Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship

Niña from his voyage to what are now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.

1519 Hernán Cortés arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilisation and its wealth.

1804 At the Battle of Vinegar Hill, in New South Wales, Australia, Irish convicts lead the colony’s only significant convict uprising.

1930 Floods devastate Languedoc and surrounds in south-west France, causing the deaths of more than 700 people. 1949 Known as ‘Old Stone Arse’ for the amount of time he spent behind his desk, renowned Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov is succeeded by Andrei Vishinsky. 1962 The US announces the first atomic power plant in Antarctica. Impractical to run, it was done away with after 10 years.

1966 In a newspaper interview that provokes outrage, John Lennon says, ‘We (The Beatles) are more popular than Jesus’. 1969 Ruthless London East End gang bosses, twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray are found guilty of murder. Both die in captivity.

1970 The French submarine Eurydice explodes underwater, with the loss of its 57-man crew.

1995 A blind teenage boy receives a ‘bionic eye’ at a Washington hospital.

2012 A series of explosions at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, kills at least 250 people.

2018 Former MI6 spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are poisoned in Salisbury, England, causing a diplomatic uproar that results in mass-expulsions of diplomats from all countries believed involved.

2018 The world’s worst listeria outbreak, suspected of killing 180 people, is tracked to a processed meat factory in Polokwane, Limpopo. | THE HISTORIAN