On this day in history: September 5

1661 Nicolas Fouquet, King Louis XIV’s Superintendent of Finances, is arrested by D’Artagnan, captain of the king’s musketeers.

1666 The Great Fire of London ends, leaving 13 200 houses destroyed and 8 people dead.

1698 Russia’s Tsar Peter the Great imposes a tax on beards. It was a hugely unpopular policy and eventually he allowed men to keep their facial hair, but they had to pay a tax to do so.

1851 Allen Francis Gardiner, a missionary in Port Natal during Dingaan’s reign, and later in Chile, New Guinea and Patagonia, dies of starvation, together with six companions in Tierra del Fuego, South America. When he arrived in Port Natal, he was appalled at the lack of order at the settlement. He took it upon himself to get some civic activity going and initiate some organisation. He started the first mission in KZN at the site of the original St Thomas’ Church in Durban, in 1835. He named the mission Berea, after a town mentioned in the biblical book of Acts.

1972 Eleven members of the Israeli Olympic Team are killed by the Palestinian Liberation Army’s Black September faction.

1997 Mother Teresa, 87, dies in Calcutta, India, after a life spent helping the sick and poor.

2010 A powerful earthquake in New Zealand causes $40 billion in damages. South African insurance experts fly out to help with the many claims.

2019 South African women march to Parliament in protest against GBV after a month in which 30 women were killed by their spouses.

2022 The UK’s ruling Conservative party appoints Liz Truss as their next leader and prime minister, replacing the scandal-ridden Boris Johnson. She goes to see Queen Elizabeth II the next day and is appointed, but resigns less than two months later. At 49 days in office, she is the shortest-serving British prime minister. Talk show host Piers Morgan is quick to point out that a head of lettuce has a longer shelf life.

2023 England’s Birmingham City Council, the largest local authority in Europe, effectively declares itself bankrupt after stopping all non-essential spending.

2024 President Xi Jinping speaks at the opening ceremony of a China-Africa summit focusing on developing green energy.

DAILY NEWS