On this day and Did you know

Did you know?

Acacia trees in Africa communicate with each other. They emit gasses to alert other trees to produce the toxin tannin, which protects them from hungry animals.

On this day, October 23

1838 The Voortrekkers decide to call the first planned town in Natal Pietermaritzburg, in honour of Piet Retief and Gerrit Maritz.

1942 The second Battle of El Alamein (in the Western Desert), in which many South Africans are involved, begins with a massive artillery barrage. It is then that the highest decoration awarded to a Black South African soldier in World War II, the DCM (Distinguished Conduct Medal, second only to the Victoria Cross) is awarded to Lucas Majozi (1916-1969). Because he was black, Majozi was not allowed to bear arms, but volunteered to become a medic/stretcher bearer. At a parade afterward, the commander of the 1st South African Division, Major-General Dan Pienaar, said: ‘This soldier did most magnificent and brave things. With a number of bullets in his body he returned time after time into a hell of machine gun fire to pull out wounded men. He is a man South Africa can well be proud. He is a credit to his country.’

1944 The largest naval battle in history, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, off the Philippines, begins.

1983 A truck bomb in Beirut kills 241 US Marines. A French army barracks in Lebanon is also bombed, killing 58 troops.

2018 The world’s longest sea-crossing bridge, the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai Bridge at 55km, is opened by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

2018 The world’s oldest known intact shipwreck, an ancient Greek vessel 2 400 years old, is found at the bottom of the Black Sea by archaeologists.

2019 Google research lab claims it has achieved Quantum Supremacy, performing a calculation in 3 minutes that would take a supercomputer 10 000 years.

2019 An abandoned lorry, with 39 suffocated Vietnamese inside, is found in Essex, England.

2023 ‘Superfog’ conditions near New Orleans, in the southern US, cause a highway pile-up involving 158 vehicles and seven fatalities.

2024 French woman Gisèle Pelicot testifies against her husband in an Avignon court, where he stands trial accused of drugging her and getting other men to rape her. She says: ‘It’s not for us to have shame – it’s for them.’

2024 Tropical storm Trami / Kristine makes landfall in Divilacan, Philippines, creating severe flooding that kills at least 130 people.