This day in SA History: Zulu kings, historic battles and world events on November 28

Did you know . . .

There have been eight Zulu kings since the establishment of the kingdom in 1816, beginning with Shaka. The eight kings are: Shaka, Dingane, Mpande, Cetshwayo, Dinuzulu, Solomon, Cyprian, and Goodwill Zwelithini, with the most recent king being Misuzulu Sinqobile kaZwelithini, who began his reign in 2022.

On this day in history: December 28

1240 Batu Khan’s Mongol army lays siege to Kyiv and assaults its city walls with catapults. The city falls eight days later.

1520 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan passes through the straits that bear his name (at the southern tip of South America), crossing from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific.

1663 The first report of giraffes in Southern Africa is made by Jonas de la Guerre, whose expedition to Namaqualand finds them at Spoegrivier, 190km south of the Orange River.

1717 Notorious irate Blackbeard captures a French slave ship, which he renames, Queen Anne’s Revenge, and uses her as his flagship.

1720 Buccaneers Anne Bonny and Mary Read are tried on charges of piracy, found guilty, and sentenced to death in Spanish Town, Jamaica, although their pregnancies win them stays of execution.

1879 The British defeat Pedi paramount chief Sekhukhune and imprison him in Pretoria.

1885 The railway line from Cape Town to commercially important Kimberley is completed.

1899 A British column is engaged by Boer forces at the Battle of Modder River and suffers heavy casualties. Both generals – De la Rey and Methuen – are wounded, and the former’s son, Adriaan, is fatally injured.

1942 Fire erupts in Boston’s Coconut Grove nightclub, killing 500 people.

1979 An Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes on Antarctica’s Mount Erebus, killing 257 people.

1979 Eddie Dunn, SA’s ambassador to El Salvador, is kidnapped and murdered.

1987 The SA Helderberg, SAA Flight 295, crashes in the Indian Ocean under mysterious circumstances, killing all 159 people on board.

1994 Convicted serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer is clubbed to death in jail.

2016 A plane carrying the Brazilian football Chapecoense team crashes near Medellin, Colombia, killing 71 players and journalists.

2022 Qatar football world cup boss Hassan Al-Thawadi says 5 000 migrants died during the building of stadia for the

2022 Fifa World Cup.2023 41 construction workers are rescued after being trapped inside a collapsed tunnel, in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, for 41 days.

2024 Australia is the first country to ban children younger than 16 from social media.

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