Drought strikes the Western Cape.
Image: Supplied
Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught and the last stream poisoned, will we realise we cannot eat money. | Native American proverb
Frogs don’t usually swallow water (they absorb most of the moisture they need through their skin),
334BC Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia. Alexander remains undefeated in battle until his death in 323BC, by which time he had built one of the largest empires in ancient history.
1176 The Hashshashin (from whom we get the word ‘assassins’) attempt to assassinate Saladin, the first sultan of Egypt and Syria.
1840 The transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
1859 Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes author, Boer War medic, and editor at Bloemfontein’s The Friend, is born.
1927 An earthquake near Xining, China, causes 200 000 deaths.
1939 Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel, a co-operation agreement.
1973 US President Richard Nixon confesses to his role in Watergate cover-up.
1977 The storied Orient Express makes its final, scheduled European run, after 94 years.
1987 The first Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand beating Italy in Auckland.
2010 Inter Milan becomes the only team to win the treble of Serie A, Coppa Italia, and Champions League.
2012 Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the world, at 634m.
2017 Twenty-two people are killed by an Islamist extremist suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.
2017 Researchers report on the birth of mice from frozen sperm stored on the International Space Station.
2017 The Western Cape declares a drought disaster – the worst for 113 years.
2020 Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 slams into a residential area in Karachi, killing 97 out of the 99 people on board.
2024 Ireland, Norway, and Spain announce they will formally recognise a Palestinian state on May 28, joining nine other European countries.
2025 Germany launches its first permanent foreign military deployment since World War II, stationing troops in Lithuania to strengthen Nato’s eastern flank amid tensions with Russia.
2025 The UK signed a £3.4 billion agreement transferring sovereignty of the Chagos Islands – home to the major and off-limits US military base on Diego Garcia. – to Mauritius.
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