Perilous and daring rescue sees eight stranded people rescued from cable car dangling 270m in the air

565 St Columba reports seeing a monster in the Scottish lake, Loch Ness, thus beginning an enduring myth.

1849 The first air raid happens as Austria launches pilotless balloons against Venice.

1851 The yacht America wins the Royal Yacht Squadron Cup, now the America’s Cup.

1864 The Geneva Convention is adopted in Geneva ‘for the amelioration of the condition of the wounded in armies in the field’.

1894 Mahatma Gandhi forms the Natal Indian Congress to fight discrimination against Indian traders.

1896 Theo Samuels scores South Africa’s first ever Test try and the first points for the country in a rugby match – a 17-8 loss against Great Britain. He scored two tries in the 17–8 loss at the Wanderers. Samuels died by drowning after getting cramp while swimming in cold seas at Cape Town. He was 23.

1901 The Duke of Cornwall – the future King George V – lays the cornerstone of the St George Cathedral in Cape Town.

1965 Four-time world surfing champion, Wendy Botha is born in East London. She won her first title as a South African citizen in 1987, then she became an Australian and won three more titles, in 1989, 1991, and 1992.

1975 Prime Minister John Vorster opens the Orange-Fish River Tunnel, then the world’s longest continuous tunnel (80km).

2007 The Storm botnet, created by the Storm Worm sends out 57 million emails in one day.

2023 Eight people, including 6 pupils, are dramatically rescued from a cable car after being trapped for 14 hours, 270m above ground in north-west Pakistan. They are pulled to safety in a complex operation involving helicopters and a team of zip wire experts. Many of those trapped did not think they would survive. The military, which oversaw the rescue said it was ‘an operation of unprecedented difficulty’.

2024 The largest diamond in more than a century, at 2 492 carats, is found in a mine in Botswana and is displayed by the country’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi. The world’s largest – the Cullinan Diamond (3 106 carats), was found at the Cullinan diamond mine, near Mamelodi, in 1905.

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