Harsh sentence for Cape man who insulted ladies; smallpox decimates the Cape; the first FA Cup final; Saddam Hussein gases his countrymen.
1244 As part of an ongoing campaign against the faith, about 210 Cathars are burned after the fall of Château de Montségur for their beliefs, which don’t fit in with the Catholic Church’s.
1561 The Jesuit, Gonçalo da Silveira, first missionary in Southern Africa, is martyred.
1657 Jan Wouters is found guilty in court in the Cape for ‘blasphemous libels on Cape ladies’ and is sentenced to beg their pardon on his knees, to have his tongue ‘bored through’, to forfeit his wages, and to be banished for three years. (One wonders what he said.)
1713 A quarter of the Cape’s white population dies of smallpox, but the Khoisan fare far worse.
1871 Dr Hans Merensky, discoverer of tin near Pretoria, platinum near Lydenburg, diamonds at Alexander Bay, chromium at Pietersburg and phosphate at Phalaborwa, is born at Botshabelo, in the eastern Transvaal.
1872 Wanderers FC win the first FA Cup – the oldest football competition in the world – beating Royal Engineers AFC 1–0.
1900 Sir Arthur Evans discovers Knossos in Crete, home of the legendary Minotaur.
1926 Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
1971 One of the most influential blues musicians, Muddy Waters wins his first Grammy Award. The Rolling Stones named themselves after his 1950 hit song, Rollin’ Stone. He won six grammys.
1978 Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped. (He is later murdered).
1988 The Kurdish town of Halabja in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5 000 people and injuring about 10 000. It is the largest chemical weapons attack.
2012 A Turkish Nato helicopter crashes into a house killing 10 people in the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan.
2012 Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar becomes first cricketer to score 100 international centuries.
2020 A Covid-19 study by London Imperial College shows a migration approach could lead to 250 000 deaths in UK, over 1 million in US, prompting strategy changes from both countries.
2021 Israeli researchers reveal re-discovery of 2,000 year-old Dead Sea Scrolls, 1st found in 60 years, left by Jews fleeing Romans in "Horror Cave", Israel. They are later found to be fake.