1676 Two young lions are sent from Cape Town to Ceylon as a gift to the King of Kandy.
1766 A mutiny by 140 captive Malagasy begins on the slave ship Meermin, leading to the ship’s destruction at Cape Agulhas and the recapture of the instigators. Some 63 000 slaves were brought to the Cape by the Dutch, not just from Madagascar, but elsewhere. Many South Africans are their descendants.
1885 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published.
1900 Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday when 1 270 British troops are killed or injured on the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.
1911 The first airmail flight takes place from Allahabad, India, with the delivery of 6 500 letters to Naini, 10km away.
1920 Samuel Marks, Kimberley diamond buyer of Kimberley and senator in the parliament of the Union of South Africa, dies in Johannesburg, aged 77. Sammy Marks Square in Pretoria was named after him.
1941 Mega, the Italian headquarters in southern Abyssinia, falls to SA forces.
1973 A 54-kg octopus measuring 7m across is captured in Hood Canal, Washington.
1977 The Space Shuttle, welded above a Boeing 747, goes on its maiden flight.
1982 The frigate SAS President Kruger sinks off Cape Point after colliding with the supply vessel SAS Tafelberg, 18 sailors die.
2004 Up to 295 people, including 200 rescue workers, die near Nishapur, Iran, when a runaway train, carrying sulphur, petrol and fertiliser, catches fire.
2013 Armed robbers steal diamonds worth $50 million from Brussels Airport.
2014 Ukraine’s Maidan protests turn violent as clashes erupt in the capital, Kyiv, centred around the city’s Independence Square, or Maidan. The protests, brought about when President Viktor Yanukovych backs out of signing an agreement with the EU, is one of the factors leading to Russian support for Ukrainian separatists, the annexation of Crimea and the 2022 Russian invasion.
2021 Nasa’s Perseverance rover lands in Mars’ Jezero Crater on a mission to find microfossils.