ON THIS DAY
1556 The 13 Stratford Martyrs are burned at the stake near London for their Protestant beliefs.
1791 Josephus Suasso de Lima, editor and publisher of the first Dutch newspaper in SA, De Verzamelaar, is born in Amsterdam.
1830 The British ship, Luna runs on the rocks near Brenton after leaving Knysna.
1865 A party of Transvaal transport riders – Pieter Pretorius, younger brother of Andries Pretorius, and his three sons, Jan, Albertus and Jacobus – are murdered on the road from Durban to Pretoria by a group of Basotho. Jan’s wife and her two children are abducted and reach Harrismith on foot after they were left behind when their wagon broke down. 1894 American Annie Londonderry sets out to become the first woman to cycle the globe. 1898 The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum in a small yacht.
1941 Romanian authorities launch one of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history, murdering 13 266 Jews in the city of Iasi.
1951 David Kramer, singer, songwriter, playwright and known for his trademark red vellies, is born. He is well-known for musicals about Coloured communities and the ways he fought apartheid through the arts.
1967 London gets the world’s first ATM.
1976 A hijacked Air France Airbus with 248 passengers arrives at Entebbe, Uganda.
1986 Anne White shocks Wimbledon by wearing only a body stocking.
1988 Mike Tyson – the ‘Baddest man on the planet’ – KOs Michael Spink in 91 seconds and earns a cool $67m for a minute-and-a-half’s work.
1998 The Springbok beat Wales 96-3. Fullback Percy Montgomery’s 31 points is the highest by a Springbok – until Morne Steyn comes along. 2009 The Tower of Hercules in northern Spain – the only preserved Roman lighthouse still in use – is declared a World Heritage Site.
2015 An explosion from flammable powder during a colour run in Taiwan injures 510. 2017 Tennis star Serena Williams poses pregnant and nude for the cover of Vanity Fair. 2017 Colombia’s rebel group FARC ends its armed existence after 52 years.
2018 The French government says it will bring back national service for 16-year-olds.