A selection of significant and interesting snippets of news, with a South African angle, on this day over the ages
1184 BC Troy is sacked and burned by the Greek army that has been besieging it for the past 10 years. The siege, punctuated by battles and skirmishes, including the storied deaths of the Trojan prince Hector and the nearly-invincible Achilles, but the attackers were unable to penetrate the city. That is until one the morning the Greek armies retreated from their camp, leaving a large wooden horse outside the gates of Troy’s magnificent fortifications. The Trojan horse contained Greek warriors, hiding inside the supposed wooden offering to the gods, and once inside the city, the hiding soldiers waited until night, then opened the gates to enable returning Greek marines to burn the city in an unexpected attack. All this came about because Spartan King Menelaus was left cuckolded after Paris of Troy had stolen his fabulously beautiful wife, Helen, with whom Paris would have three children. The upshot was that hers was the face that launched a thousand ships as Menelaus’s army pursued her. Angry and betrayed, Menelaus planned to kill the captured Helen but when he saw her again he was so overcome by her beauty that he forgave her. The reunited couple returned to Sparta, where they lived happily until their deaths. Or so the story goes...
173 The Roman army in Moravia is encircled by the Quad. In a violent thunderstorm emperor Marcus Aurelius defeats and subdues them in the ‘miracle of the rain’.
1509 King Henry VIII of England marries Catherine of Aragon, the first of his six wives.
1770 British explorer Captain James Cook discovers Australia’s Great Barrier Reef by running aground on it.
1837 The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston, fuelled by ethnic tension between Yankees and Irish citizens.
1937 Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union executes eight army leaders in the Great Purge.
1937 Engineer Reginald Mitchell, 42, dies of colon cancer. He was responsible for World War II’s most famous plane, the Spitfire – one of two fighters (the other being the Hurricane) that, during the Battle of Britain, stopped the Germans when they looked to be invincible. It was the only Allied aircraft in frontline service from the first to the last days of the war, and then for 15 years after. Its service was a testament to the soundness of the design and its potential for major modifications. It was used by more Allied nations in the war (nine) than any other, including 1 343 flown by the Soviets. It also saw service in 32 postwar countries, as well as in the South Africa Air Force.
1955 Eighty-three spectators are killed and 100 are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest accident in motorsport.
1963 US president John F Kennedy says segregation is morally wrong.
1963 Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức immolates himself in Saigon, creating one of the Vietnam War’s most iconic images.
1964 Queen Elizabeth orders the hugely popular band, the Beatles to her birthday party; they go.
2007 Mudslides in Bangladesh kill 130 people.
2009 A Texas mother is hit by lightning while in her kitchen. Witnesses say the lightning came through a light fixture, struck her chest and exited her foot. She survives.
2010 The first African Fifa World Cup kicks off with the hosts South Africa playing to a 1-1 draw against Mexico at Soccer City in Johannesburg.