From Curious Facts to World-Shaping Moments: History and Headlines on This Day

Did you know?

When you cut some worms in two, they regenerate, but it only if they are cut widthways. Earthworms can regrow their tails, and the planarian flatworm can regrow its whole body from a tiny sliver of tissue.

On this day in history, January 27

1820 Confirming myths and speculation about a Terra Australis (Southern Land), the last region on Earth to be discovered, the polar desert of Antarctica – the coldest, driest, and windiest continent and the one with the highest average elevation – is sighted by a Russian expedition. It is another 65 years before anyone sets foot on it.

1914 A petition is written and submitted by the black and coloured women of the Orange Free State against the carrying of passes.

1924 The Natal Indian Congress and the Natal Indian Association organise a mass meeting in Durban in opposition to the Class Areas Bill.

1944 The Siege of Leningrad, which lasted 880 days and caused 2 million Russian deaths is lifted.

1945 The Soviet 322nd Rifle Division liberates the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps.

1964 Eddie Barlow and Graeme Pollock complete a 341-run stand for South Africa at the Adelaide Oval, in Adelaide, Australia.

1973 The 20-year-long Vietnam War ends.

1984 South Africa’s most wanted criminal, André Stander, policeman and bank robber, flees to the US using a false passport. His accomplice, Allan Heyl flees to Greece.

2002 Munitions at an army base in Lagos, Nigeria, explode, forcing hundreds of people to flee. Up to 600 drown in a canal as they scramble to safety.

2013 Pyrotechnics used by a rock band in a nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil, cause the deaths of 240 clubbers.

2023 An urgent search is announced for a tiny radioactive capsule, measuring 6mm x 8mm, which fell off a truck somewhere along a 1 400km journey in Western Australia.

2024 The world’s largest cruise ship, Icon of the Seas – able to house 7 600 passengers and 365m long, or 55 times larger than the Titanic – leaves Miami on its maiden voyage.

2025 About 2 000 South African peacekeepers are trapped in Goma, in eastern the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the town of Sake, when M23 rebels overrun the area, displace 500 000 people and surround the SANDF bases. The fighting, which began on January 23, kills 14 South Africans, causing controversy back home about their equipment, and if they had enough.

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