On this day in history, October 10

732 Charles Martel, king of the Franks, a founding figure of the Middle Ages and grandfather of Charlemagne, earns the name ‘Charles the Hammer’ for his defence that breaks the Moorish onslaught at the battle of Tours, effectively ending their invasion.

1582 Because of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

1827 Queen mother Nandi dies of dysentery. She is deeply mourned by Shaka.

1893 Prime minister John Robinson, founder of this media group’s oldest newspaper, The Mercury, forms Natal’s first ministry.

1899 The ultimatum of the ZAR to Britain expires and war becomes inevitable.

1951 Pretoria-born virologist Max Theiler accepts the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for a vaccine against yellow fever, becoming the first African laureate.

1960 ANC president Albert Luthuli becomes the first black African to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, for his role in the non-violent struggle against apartheid. There have been 11 South African Nobel laureates. Apart from Theiler and Luthuli, they are: Allan Cormack (Physiology or Medicine, 1979); Aaron Klug (Chemistry, 1982); Desmond Tutu (Peace, 1984); Nadine Gordimer (Literature, 1991); Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk (Peace, 1993); Sydney Brenner (Physiology or Medicine, 2002, for helping map the fabric of human DNA); JM Coetzee (Literature, 2003); and Michael Levitt (Chemistry, 2013).

1961 The British frigate HMS Leopard is sent from Cape Town to evacuate the population of Tristan da Cunha because of a volcano.

1971 Sold, dismantled and moved to the US, London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City.

2017 A storm lashes KZN, with Durban hard hit. The strength of the wind was such that ships broke their moorings, with one, the MSC Ines, blocking the harbour mouth. At least eight people died in the storm.

2019 Some 3 500 women are the first to be allowed to attend a football match in Iran since the Islamic revolution. They watch a World Cup qualifier in Tehran.

2024 About 120 people are massacred by an armed gang in the Haitian town of Pont-Sondé.

Did you know?

Egypt is the oldest country in the world, dating back to 3100 BC.