Antarctica is said to have been discovered in 1820, but was it? A grounded iceberg in the Antarctic. The southern continent was said to have been discovered as recently as 1820, but was it? Picture: Reuters
17 interesting and noteworthy events from South Africa and around the world that we can relate to.
1606 The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators, accused of trying to blow up England’s king and parliament, begins, ending with their execution on January 31.
1671 Pirate Henry Morgan lands at the gates of Panama City.
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, but it is another 65 years before anyone sets foot on it. There is, however, evidence that the coastline of the Antarctic was mapped when it was without ice and was, therefore, discovered much earlier, giving rise to the possibility that our perception and understanding of history is both slanted and incomplete.
1914 A petition is written and submitted by the Black and coloured women of the Orange Free State against the carrying of passes by non-white women.
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 is lifted after 880 days and the deaths of over 2 million Russians.
1945 The Soviet 322nd Rifle Division liberates the inmates of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
1964 Eddie Barlow and Graeme Pollock share a 341-run stand for South Africa in Adelaide.
1967 The USSR, US and UK sign the Outer Space Treaty, banning nuclear weapons in space.
1973 The Paris Peace Accords end the Vietnam War.
1980 Six American diplomats secretly escape hostilities in Iran during the Canadian Caper, as dramatised in the film, Argo.
1984 SA’s most wanted criminal, André Stander, a suave policeman, who robs banks for kicks, flees to the US using a false passport. Accomplice Allan Heyl flees to Greece.
2002 Munitions at an army base in Lagos, Nigeria, explode, forcing hundreds of people to flee. At least 580 of them drown in a canal.
2013 A fire in a Brazilian nightclub kills 240.
2013 Bombs in Kandahar kill 20 policemen.
2018 A bomb in an ambulance kills over 100 people in Kabul, Afghanistan.
2020 After strongly denying it for seven years, the former king of Belgium, Albert II admits fathering a love child after DNA tests confirm his paternity.