Significant and interesting snippets of news with a South African angle, from this day in history
48BC Julius Caesar defeats Pompey, who flees to Egypt, at Pharsalus.
1173 Construction begins on the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa); it will take two centuries to complete.
1483 Opening of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
1815 Napoleon sets sail for exile on St Helena on-board British ship, the Northumberland.
1877 Explorer Henry Morton Stanley’s party reaches Boma, Congo, after 999 days, losing half of their 228 members.
1896 Glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal dies in a flying accident.
1898 Rudolf Diesel of Germany patents the diesel internal combustion engine.
1910 Patent of the electric washing machine.
1936 At the Berlin Olympic Games, black American athlete Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games, much to the disgust of German leader Adolf Hitler.
1942 Allied naval forces, protecting their amphibious forces during the initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal, are surprised and defeated by an Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser force at the Battle of Savo Island.
1945 The second Atomic bombing of Japan occurs as a US B-29 bomber heads for the city of Kokura, but because of poor visibility chooses the secondary target, Nagasaki. At about noon, the bomb is dropped, killing 70 000 people and destroying half the city.
1956 In one of the largest demonstrations in this country’s history, women march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to present a petition against the pass laws.
1965 Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the only country to gain independence unwillingly.
1969 Followers of Charles Manson murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of movie director Roman Polanski) and four others.
1974 US Vice-President Gerald Ford replaces Richard Nixon, who resigns over Watergate.
2012 Usain Bolt becomes the first person to win the 100m and 200m sprints in back-to-back Olympics.
2018 The Saudi-led air coalition strikes a school bus in Sada Province, Yemen, killing 43 people, many of them children.
2021 A herd of 14 elephants returning home from a 500km trek across China leads authorities to evacuate 150 000 people from their path.