The World’s Oldest Cat, Mzilikazi's Warriors driven away, Cetshwayo's impis Ordered to Defend the Zulu Kingdom and World-Shaking Scandals: The Day That Changed History in So Many Ways

Did you know?

The world’s oldest cat, called Creme Puff, lived to 38 years and three days old.

On this day in history, January 17

1377 Pope Gregory XI moves the papacy back to Rome from Avignon, ending the 67-year ‘Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy’.

1775 Nine women are burnt as witches in Kalisk, Poland, because of bad harvests, which was supposedly their work.

1811 Six thousand Spaniards defeat 100 000 Mexicans at the Battle of Calderón Bridge, in Mexico.

1837 At Mosega, the Voortrekkers defeat Mzilikazi’s rampaging Ndebele warriors, who flee across the Limpopo to what is now called Zimbabwe.

1852 Britain signs the Sand River Convention, renouncing all claims beyond the Vaal River and laying the foundation for the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek.

1873 A group of Modoc warriors defeats the US Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold.

1879 Zulu King Cetshwayo tells 20 000 of his warriors at the military kraal of Nodwengu: I am sending you out against the whites, who have invaded Zululand and driven away our cattle. You are to drive them back into Natal.

1912 Captain Robert Scott’s expedition arrives at the South Pole, only to find that Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian team beat them being the first people there.

1944 Allied forces launch the first of four costly assaults on the fortified and strategic Monte Casino monastery, on their path to capturing Rome.

1945 Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews from the Nazis, is arrested by secret police in Hungary. He is never seen again.

1961 Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba is murdered in suspicious circumstances, suggesting there was Belgian and US involvement.

1991 The world holds it breath, unsure about the fallout, as the Gulf War’s Operation Desert Storm begins with allied aircraft strikes across Iraq. In turn, Iraq fires Scud missiles into archenemy Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israel and bring it into the war. The war was the first to be broadcast live and continuously, changing how warfare was consumed by the public and perceived globally. It marked the "birth of the CNN effect," where instant, continuous coverage directly influenced foreign policy and military strategy. 

1998 The story of the affair between US President Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky breaks. It defines his presidency.

2017 The Nigerian military mistakenly bombs a refugee camp, killing more than 70 people in Borno state.

2024 Britain’s Buckingham Palace announces that Catherine, Princess of Wales has been hospitalised for abdominal surgery and King Charles III is receiving prostate treatment. Finally it’s revealed she has had cancer.

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