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Did You Know

According to the Franklin Institute, if all the veins, arteries, and capillaries in a child’s body were stretched out flat, they would span more than 96 560km. Our bodies house about 100 000km of blood vessels by the time we reach maturity. That is only one of the astounding facts that seem fabricated but it’s true.

On This Day in History

1720 The game is up for one of the Caribbean’s best known and most colourful of pirates, Calico Jack (aka Jack Rackham) when he is captured by the Royal Navy. He is remembered mostly for his associations with other pirates, including his lover, Anne Bonny, and the cross-dressing Mary Read. He also introduced the Jolly Roger pirate flag, synonymous with piracy. Similarly convicted, Bonny and Read receive stays of execution because of their pregnancies, which Read does not survive. Bonny’s last words to Rackham were: ‘I am sorry to see you here, but if you had fought like a man, you need not have hanged like a dog.’

1820 The Cape of Good Hope Royal Observatory is founded.

1911 Norwegian Roald Amundsen sets out on a race to the South Pole.

1935 The Long March, a retreat started by the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party a year before, ends.

1944 Liquid gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland, Ohio, and explodes, flattening 30 city blocks and killing 130 people.

1952 Kenya declares a state of emergency because of the Mau Mau Uprising.

1956 A record high of 15°C is measured at Esperanza Station in Antarctica.

1973 The iconic Sydney Opera House is opened by Queen Elizabeth II. South African Jack Zunz was the lead engineer.

1976 The ferry George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing the Mississippi River; 78 passengers and crew die.

2007 The Springboks lift their second Rugby World Cup after beating England 15-6 in Paris.

2011 Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi is killed in the Battle of Sirte. Found hiding in a culvert, he is sodomised with a knife while pleading for his life. He dies of his injuries.

2021 Confirmation that Vikings established settlements in the New World (America) in Newfoundland, in 1021 is provided by new dating technique.

2024 After making the ICC Women’s Cricket T20 World Cup final for the first time, the women’s Proteas team hope to emulate their men and the Springboks but fall short during the match in Dubai.