Significant and interesting snippets of news, with a South African angle, from this day in history
1903 The first Tour de France race starts.
1907 The Orange River Colony, known as the Orange Free State, is granted self-government by the British. Today it’s just Free State.
1908 SOS is adopted as the international distress signal.
1910 The Union of South Africa becomes a dominion (with a degree of self governance).
1916 On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 19 000 British soldiers are killed.
1933 Nazi Germany declares that married women should not work.
1938 The SA Press Association (Sapa) – forerunner of the African News Agency (ANA) – is established to facilitate the sharing of news.
1944 At least 2 500 people are killed in London and south-east England by flying bombs (V1 rockets, or ‘doodlebugs’).
1947 The passenger ship Willem Ruys, which would be renamed the Achille Lauro – familiar with many South Africans – is launched.
1962 Burundi & Rwanda gain independence from Belgium.
1963 Britain admits their diplomat Kim Philby was a Soviet agent against his homeland.
1970 British Home Secretary Reginald Maudling visits Northern Ireland and is reported as saying: “For God’s sake bring me a large Scotch. What a bloody awful country!”
1979 Sony introduces the Walkman, the first portable cassette player, which revolutionises how we listen to music.
1997 The Nevada Athletic Commission suspends Mike Tyson indefinitely and withholds his $20m purse because he bit off part of Evander Holyfield’s ear during their heavyweight title fight five days previously.
2002 The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
2017 Mexican police kill 19 gunmen in a drug-related shoot-out in Sinaloa state.
2018 French gangster Redoine Faid escapes the Sud-Francilien prison in Réau, France, by helicopter
2019 Japan resumes commercial whaling.
2020 A world-record drug haul of 14 tons of amphetamines is seized by Italian police in Salerno.
2020 Russian President Vladimir Putin wins a national referendum allowing for a longer presidential term of office.
2020 A world record drug-haul of 14 tons of amphetamines is seized by Italian police in Salerno. It is worth $1.1 billion and thought to have been made in Syria by Islamic State as a way of financing their operations.
2021 Britain's feuding princes, William and Harry, briefly put aside their differences to unveil a statue of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, on what would have been her 60th birthday, at Kensington Palace, London.
2022 Germany and Nigeria sign an agreement to return more than 1 000 Benin Bronzes, looted during colonial times, to Nigeria.