ON THIS DAY APRIL 18

1658 The first school is founded six years after Jan van Riebeeck’s arrival at the Cape.

1775 Paul Revere and others ride to warn the colonists of advancing British troops during the American Revolution.

1874 David Livingstone, the explorer and missionary who died of malaria on the shore of Lake Bangweulu (“where the water meets the sky”), Zambia, is buried in Westminster Abbey.

1905 Death of Enoch Sontonga, author of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika.

1906 An earthquake and fire kills nearly 4 000 people and destroys 75% of San Francisco, US.

1912 The Cunard liner Carpathia lands survivors from the Titanic in New York.

1924 The first crossword puzzle book is published by Simon & Schuster.

1930 The BBC announces that “there is no news” and plays music instead.

1942 In response to the raid on Pearl Harbour, the audacious Doolittle Raid sees five Japanese cities attacked by bombers brought close enough by an aircraft carrier.

1943 Primed with the knowledge of his whereabouts, US P-38 fighters shoot down Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s plane, in Operation Vengeance, over Bougainville Island.

1946 The International Court of Justice holds its inaugural meeting in The Hague.

1954 Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power in Egypt. 1980 The Republic of Zimbabwe comes into being, with Canaan Banana its first president.

1982 Zimbabwe renames its capital, Salisbury, Harare.

1983 A suicide bomber in Lebanon destroys the US embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people.

1988 The US launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.

1992 South Africa’s plays its first Test cricket match since 1970 (versus the West Indies).

1994 Ken Oosterbroek, chief photographer for The Star, is killed when he and several other journalists are caught in crossfire between peacekeepers and hostel dwellers in Thokoza.

2007 A series of bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kills 198 people, injuring 251.

2014 Twelve Nepalese climbers are killed by an avalanche on Mt Everest.