Some of the more interesting things that happened on this day.
1735 Robert Walpole becomes the first British First Lord of the Treasury, or prime minister, to live at 10 Downing Street, London.
1828 Shaka, Zulu chief and founder of the Zulu empire, is murdered by his half-brothers, Dingaan and Mhlangana. The chiefs that preceded Shaka were Mageba (born in 1667, died in 1745), Ndaba (1697-1763), Jama (1721-1781) and Senzangakhona (1757-1816). After Shaka (1785-1828) came Dingaan (1788-1840), Mpande (1790-1872), Cetshwayo (1834-1884), Dinuzulu (1868-1913), Phumuzuzulu (1890-1933), Bhekuzulu (1924-1968), Goodwill Zwelithini (1948-2021) and Misuzulu (1974-).
1914 Louis Botha, premier of the Union of South Africa, assumes command of the armed forces after having dismissed General Christiaan Beyers because of his refusal to aid Britain in their war against Germany.
1937 The first International Hobbit Day and the birthdays of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.
1939 Joint victory parade of Wehrmacht and Red Army in Brest-Litovsk at the end of the invasion of Poland.
1941 The German SS murders 6 000 Jews in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. Those were the survivors of killings that took place a few days earlier, when about 24 000 Jews were executed.
1979 A bright, double flash resembling the detonation of a nuclear weapon is observed near Prince Edward Island by a satellite. Its cause is never determined, but is assumed to be from a South African nuclear test.
1980 Iraq invades Iran.
1985 French premier Laurent Fabius admits France sank Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior.
1997 Elton John releases “Candle in the Wind 1997”, a tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales.
2011 Cern scientists say they’ve discovered neutrinos breaking the speed of light.
2015 Palangkaraya in Indonesian Borneo records the highest air pollutant index value ever recorded due to haze caused by forest fires lit to clear land for palm oil plantations.
2015 Volkswagen admits 11 million cars were programmed to show false emissions data.
2021 The WHO warns urgent action is needed on air pollution, which is on a par with smoking and a poor diet, causing 7 million premature deaths a year.
2022 US news outlet CNN says voting on whether to join Russia is to begin soon in occupied parts of Ukraine. The country has been waging a low-intensity war against Russian-aligned separatists since 2014. Both Ukraine and its Western allies condemn the referendums as a sham.
2022 Catholics, at 45.7% of the population, outnumber Protestants, at 43.48%, in Northern Ireland for the first time according to the result of the 2021 census.