World-Changing Moments, Strange Facts and History’s Turning Points

Did you know?

A horse normally has more than one horsepower. A study in 1993 showed that the maximum power a horse can produce is 18 000W, around 24 horsepower.

On this day in history, January 29

1916 Paris is bombed by German air ships (giant balloons).

1940 Three trains in Osaka, Japan, collide and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station, killing 181 people.

1959 ‘The Great Smog’ hits London; many die of chest and lung-related illnesses.

1978 Sweden outlaws aerosol sprays due to their harmful effect on the ozone layer, becoming the first nation to enact such a ban.

1985 Oxford University refuses to award Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher an honorary degree – it’s believed the nay vote was influenced by a large turn-out of scientific and medical dons, who rarely took part in academic debates, but were roused to do so by government cuts on their research.

1991 ANC deputy president Nelson Mandela and IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi meet after 30 years. They issue a statement on a joint peace strategy, the Royal Hotel Minute.

2006 A US 39c stamp is released featuring Hattie McDaniel in the dress she wore in 1940 when she became the first African-American actress to accept an Academy Award, for her role as Mammy in Gone With The Wind.

1980 The Rubik’s Cube – the best selling toy of all time – makes its international debut.2006 Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan is the first to take a hat-trick in the first over of a Test.

2015 Malaysia officially declares the disappearance of flight MH370, which went missing on March 8, 2014, an accident.

2018 Toronto police arrest landscaper Bruce McArthur after the remains of at least five people are found in pot plants. He admits in court to the murder of eight gay men.

2021 Nigerian farmers win a landmark case against the giant oil company Shell in the Court of Appeal of the Hague. Shell is held accountable for oil spills that have heavily polluted the Niger Delta region for decades.

2024 Elon Musk tweets that his company Neuralink has implanted a ‘brain-reading’ device into a person for the first time.

2025 A US Army helicopter on a training flight, flies into a commercial jet, killing all 67 passengers and crew, including dozens of figure skaters, over the Potomac River while coming in to land in Washington DC.

DAILY NEWS