Two oil tankers collide at sea near Stilbaai, in the Cape

What happened on this day in history, August 21

1680 Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from the Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt.

1770 English explorer James Cook claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.

1845 Sir Peregrine Maitland, Governor of the Cape, declares British rule over all emigrant Boers and defines the boundaries of Natal.

1911 Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic Mona Lisa is stolen by a museum worker from the Louvre.

1918 The Second Battle of the Somme begins.

1939 The Soviet Union and Germany sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, a 10-year non-aggression treaty, with a secret addendum, to partition Poland. This treaty proved to be the fuse that ignited World War II, and Germany would break it in less than five years.

1942 Walt Disney’s animated movie Bambi, based on Felix Salten’s book, is released.

1942 The flag of Nazi Germany is planted on Mount Elbrus, Europe’s highest peak.

1959 Hawaii becomes the 50th US state.

1967 A liquid gas tanker explodes in Martelange, Belgium, killing 22 people.

1972 Two oil tankers collide at sea near Stilbaai, in the Cape. The Texanita explodes and sinks, while the Oswego Guardian is severely damaged.

1976 ‘Operation Paul Bunyan’ begins in retaliation for the ‘Korean axe murder incident’ 3 days before. Some 110 troops, 27 helicopters, 3 B-52 bombers are sent to the Korean Demilitarised Zone to cut down a poplar tree blocking the view of UN observers.

1986 A volcanic eruption beneath Lake Nyos in Cameroon releases a poisonous and invisible cloud of carbon dioxide, which kills 1 746 people and 3 500 livestock.

2000 Tiger Woods becomes the first golfer since 1953 to win 3 majors in a year.

2015 The oldest message in a bottle is found more than 108 years after it was placed in the sea. It was found on a German beach.

2017 A US warship hits an oil tanker near Singapore leaving 10 sailors missing and 5 injured.

2022 Masai Graham wins funniest joke at Edinburgh Fringe with ‘I tried to steal spaghetti from the shop, but the female guard saw me and I couldn’t get pasta.’

DAILY NEWS