December 1 in history: African leaders, inventions, and major world events

Did you know that . . . 

Mzilikazi is the only warrior whose forces defeated Shaka’s in battle. Many consider him the greatest Southern African military leader after Shaka, who trusted deputy he was before breaking away in 1823 to form his own nation.

On this day in history, December 1

1420 Henry V of England, heir apparent to the French throne, enters Paris.

1822 Dom Pedro is crowned Emperor of Brazil.

1834 Slavery is abolished in the Cape, but instead slaves are apprenticed for four years to their former owners.

1872 The first Cape cabinet is formed, with John Molteno as premier.

1875 Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi, Xhosa poet and prose writer, and a member of the Xhosa Bible revision board, is born in Gqumahashe (Victoria East). Among his poems, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika.

1880 The railway line between Durban and Pietermaritzburg is completed.

1913 Ford introduces moving assembly line.

1914 Rebel leader General Christiaan de Wet is captured near Vryburg while on his way to German South West Africa (Namibia).

1934 Using the assassination of Leningrad’s mayor as an excuse, Stalin begins the Great Purge of 1934-38 (the Great Terror). 1.2 million people die, many in mobile gas vans.

1984 US boxer Greg Page knocks out the favourite and world champion Gerrie Coetzee (the ‘Boksburg Bomber’) in the 8th round in Sun City to win the WBA heavyweight title.

1990 England is connected to mainland Europe for the first time since the Ice Age as engineers digging a tunnel under the English Channel from England and France meet in the middle.

2016 The UN admits its peacekeepers caused the disastrous 2010 Haiti cholera epidemic.

2018 Violent demonstrations break out in Paris, France, by the yellow-vest movement.

2018 Egyptian actress Rania Youssef is charged for ‘inciting debauchery’ after wearing a see-through dress to the Cairo Film Festival.

2019 A newly developed apple that can last a year goes on sale in Washington State, US.

2021 Tel Aviv is the world’s most expensive city for the first time ahead of Singapore and Paris, with Damascus the cheapest.

2024 US President Joe Biden pardons his son, Hunter Biden – convicted on federal gun charges, he had also pleaded guilty to nine tax-related charges – saving his youngest son from the possibility of spending up to 25 years behind bars.

DAILY NEWS