ON THIS DAY, MARCH 2

1498 Vasco da Gama’s fleet visits the island of Mozambique.

1653 The first slave, Abraham, a stowaway from Batavia, arrives in Table Bay aboard the Malacca. He is made to work for the Dutch East India Company until sent back to Batavia three years later.

1653 The first return fleet from Batavia to receive fresh produce on its way to the Netherlands arrives in Table Bay and takes on cattle, sheep, cabbages, carrots and milk.

1657 A fire in Edo (Tokyo), Japan, causes more than 100 000 deaths.

1807 The US Congress bans the importation of new slaves into the country.

1859 The Great Slave Auction (Time of Weeping), begins in America.

1892 Sir John Coode (75), planner of a seaward defence for Table Bay, which was built by prisoners, dies in Brighton, England. 1943 In the Pacific, a Japanese convoy is attacked by 137 American bombers as the Battle of Bismarck Sea begins. The convoy includes eight destroyers and eight transports, carrying 7 000 Japanese soldiers, heading for New Guinea. Four destroyers and all eight transports were sunk, resulting in 3 500 Japanese drowning, ending Japanese efforts to send reinforcements to New Guinea.

1949 A USAF Superfortress lands in Texas after completing the first non-stop, trans-global flight. It took 94 hours and one minute.

1969 The first test flight of the supersonic Concorde passenger plane in Toulouse, France.

1970 Rhodesia declares itself a republic, breaking its last links with the British crown.

1972 Jean-Bédel Bokassa appoints himself President for life of Central African Republic.

1983 Compact discs and players are released. 1990 Nelson Mandela is elected deputy President of the African National Congress. 2002 ‘Baby Jake’ Matlala, 40, ends his 22-year career with a 7th-round TKO win over Columbia’s Juan Herrera to retain his WBU junior flyweight title in Johannesburg.

2016 US astronauts Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to earth after nearly a year (340 days), setting an ISS record. | THE HISTORIAN