Laughing to Death to Lost Treasure and World-Changing Moments: Today’s Wildest Facts From History

Did you know?

You can actually die laughing. And a number of people have, typically due to intense laughter causing a heart attack or suffocation. Comedy shows should come with a warning.

On this day in history, January 20

1694 The Dageraad, with salvaged treasure from the Gouden Buis – which had run ashore at St Helena Bay – is wrecked on the reefs off Robben Island. Nine of the Dageraad’s 17 salvaged chests of silver coins are recovered.

1835 During the sixth Cape Frontier War, Xhosa warriors overrun the Cape’s eastern frontier, although it can be equally said that they were defending the western frontier of their land against aggressive colonial expansion, which was pushing ever-further eastwards, as evidenced by constant meddling in Xhosa politics so as sow division among them.
Nine border wars were fought from 1779 to 1880, ending in the end of Xhosa independence.
For almost a century, the region was racked by successive outbursts of violence in what has been called Africa’s “Hundred Years’ War”.
The sixth border war was particularly significant because it was a catalyst for the Great Trek – a movement of Dutch-speaking colonists, or Voortrekkers, in search of land where they could establish a homeland, independent of British rule. The trek caused tremendous upheaval in the interior for at least half a century and the Voortrekkers used the ‘Empty Land’ myth to justify ownership of the land they settled on.
Despite evidence to the contrary, a number of political parties, particularly right-wing nationalists of European descent – to support their claims to land-ownership in South Africa – maintain that the theory is true.

1879 British troops under Lord Chelmsford pitch camp on the slopes of Isandlwana, where Zulu warriors attack them two days later.

1900 In the Battle of Tabanyama, on the Natal front of the Anglo-Boer War, a group of Indian stretcher bearers, among them the young Durban attorney Mohandas Gandhi, become intermingled with fighting troops. Six are killed and 12 wounded in the crossfire.

1982 Heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne bites a bat’s head off on stage in Des Moines, Iowa.

1986 Military coup in Lesotho.

2022 Zara Rutherford, 19, becomes the youngest woman to fly solo around the world.

2025 Chinese start up DeepSeek launches AI model RI, with capabilities similar to other AI models but at a fraction of the cost.

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