More than just dates and boring facts
1046 Inspired by a dream, the Persian writer Nasir Khusraw begins a seven-year, 19 000km Middle Eastern journey. The graphic description of this journey is contained in the Safarnama, which still possesses special value among books of travel, as it contains the most authentic account of the state of the Muslim world in the middle of the 11th century.
1836 Samuel Colt manufactures the first pistol – the .34-calibre ‘Texas’ model.
1872 George Westinghouse patents the triple air brake for trains.
1908 The first ascent of the highest peak in Antarctica, Mt Erebus, takes place.
1916 SA troops invade East Africa in their confrontation with German forces.
1921 The Durban Land Alienation Ordinance is passed, allowing the Durban City Council to exclude Indians from ownership or occupation of property in white areas.
1924 The first one-day flight between Cape Town and Pretoria takes place.
1940 Top politburo members sign an order for the execution of 25 700 Polish intelligentsia, leading to the Katyn massacre.
1953 Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, having collapsed four days earlier, dies.
1994 Nelspruit sets a record with the world’s largest milkshake using 7 400 litres of liquid chocolate.
1995 The graves of the last tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his family – executed by the Bolsheviks– are found in St Petersburg.
2019 Second-ever person ‘cured’ of HIV after stem cell transplant treatment in London, England results published in Nature.
2019 Bugatti announces the most expensive new car ever made: the La Voiture Noire, which costs €16.7 million. Only one will be made. Cristiano Ronaldo owns it.
2019 Only the second-ever person is “cured” of HIV after stem-cell transplant treatment in London, England, says a report published in Nature.
2019 Kylie Jenner is the world’s youngest-ever billionaire at 21, according to Forbes.
2022 A South African expedition finds polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, which sank in 1915, in the Weddell Sea, off Antarctica. The vessel is in excellent condition.
