On this day, October 27
Struggle hero and anti-apartheid activist, Ahmed Timol, did he jump or was he pushed?
Image: File
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Russia is the most forested country in the world, with 815 million hectares.
On this day, October 27
312 Roman Emperor Constantine the Great receives his famous Vision of the Cross, leading to his acceptance of Christianity.
710 The Saracens invade Sardinia.
939 England’s first king, Æthelstan dies and is succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund I.
1682 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is founded by Englishman William Penn.
1728 James Cook, British explorer, the first European to explore much of Australia, the Pacific Islands and New Zealand, is born in Yorkshire, England. He dies while on an expedition in 1779, killed by locals in Hawaii.
1808 Cape slave Louis van Mauritius leads a small force in revolt, quickly freeing about 300 other slaves. A mere 36 hours after the insurrection begins, it is quelled by infantry and cavalry at Salt River. He is hanged.
1896 Edith Haisman, the oldest survivor of the doomed liner Titanic, is born in Cape Town.
1907 Fifteen people are killed in Hungary when a gunman opens fire on a crowd gathered at a church consecration.
1917 Oliver Tambo, lawyer, revolutionary and ANC president, is born in Nkantolo, Bizana, in the Eastern Cape.
1922 Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) rejects joining the Union of South Africa.
1936 Wallis Simpson obtains her divorce, allowing her to marry King Edward VIII of the UK, forcing his abdication from the throne.
1962 An American spy plane is shot down over Cuba and the US navy drops warning depth charges on Soviet submarines during a crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
1971 Anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol dies in police custody after being tortured. The official line at the time was that he jumped from a 10th floor window from John Vorster Square police station. An inquest in 2017 found it more likely that he was pushed. His guard, Joao Rodrigues takes his secrets to the grave in 2021 before he can be tried.
2018 A gunman shoots and kills 11 people and injures another six at the Tree of Life synagogue during an anti-Semitic attack in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
2024 A long-lost waltz by Frédéric Chopin is rediscovered after 200 years at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan.