What went down on this day, back in the day.
Image: ChatGPT
The most dangerous phrase in language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ | Grace Hopper
Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it! | Yuri Gagarin
On average, a person will spend 25 years asleep.
A 1-minute kiss burns 26 calories
141 BCE Liu Che becomes Emperor Wu of China. One of its greatest emperors, he grew the Han Dynasty’s influence and promoted Confucianism.
1562 Kissing in public – a death offence – is banned in Naples. It doesn’t stop the plague.
1816 Five of the Slachter’s Nek rebels are hanged at Van Aardtspos. Four of the nooses break and despite cries for mercy, the sentence is carried out using one rope. It is regarded as the beginning of the Afrikaner struggle against British colonial rule.
1831 The French Foreign Legion is founded.
1839 Prussia limits child labour to 51 hours per week.
1922 Martial law is declared in the Transvaal.
1935 Adolf Hitler announces the creation of the German Air Force, in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, as Germany rearms.
1945 US forces capture Iwo Jima’s last Japanese stronghold. The island battle was one of the bloodiest of World War II.
1945 The first night bombing raid on Tokyo inflicts damage comparable to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
1961 The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 9, carrying a dog named Chernushka, mice, a guinea pig, and a mannequin named Ivan Ivanovich. Sputnik orbits Earth once before returning with its passengers alive. This was part of preparations for sending Yuri Gagarin into space, confirming the safety of re-entry for living beings.
1953 A rusty 1.4 kg shell from 1901, found on a koppie by pupils, explodes in a Joburg playground, injuring 30 children and a teacher.
1959 The iconic Barbie doll makes its debut.
1965 £100,000 worth of gold that went missing from the Cape Town Castle is found near the ship’s engine room in Durban.
1974 Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda surrenders after continuing fighting from the jungle and mountains in the Philippines for another 29 years after the end of World War II.
1998 Mozambican police arrest Robert McBride on charges of gunrunning.
2024 At the Razzie Awards, Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey is named the worst movie of the past year. Jon Voight picks the worst actor Raspberry award; Megan Fox wins worst actress.
DAILY NEWS