Blacks and whites clash for the first time in Mzansi – 550 years ago

Did You Know?

0.5% of the male population are descended from Genghis Khan. (Scientists did a study in 2003 showing that about 16 million dudes share a Y chromosome with the famous Emperor.)

On This Day in History

1497 After sailing for almost four months down the Atlantic without sight of land, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and his men reach a bay on Africa’s Cape West coast that he names Bahai da Santa Elena (St Helena Bay), after the religious Mother of Constantine the Great. Close to the mouth of the Berg River, they come ashore to make repairs and look for water. It was here that they have their first encounter with the Khoikhoi. Fearing attack, the Khoikhoi throw spears, wounding Da Gama in the thigh. It is the first recorded conflict between blacks and whites in South Africa.

1847 Scot Dr James Simpson discovers the anaesthetic effects of chloroform.

1862 Richard Gatling patents his first rapid-fire machine-gun which uses revolving barrels rotating around a central mechanism to load, fire, and extract cartridges.

1879 James Ritty patents the first cash register, to combat pilfering by bartenders in his Dayton, Ohio, saloon.

1922 In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The child-king became pharaoh at the age of nine and died around 1352BC, aged 19. The intact tomb contained many priceless items.

1979 Iranian students seize the US Embassy in Tehran, taking 90 hostages for 444 days.

1995 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, co-recipient with Shimon Peres and Yasir Arafat of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1994, is assassinated by a Jewish extremist while attending a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

2014 The body of the last victim of the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia, Indian waiter Russel Rebello – he remained onboard to help frightened passengers – is found, almost three years after the tragedy.

2015 A plane crashes after take-off from Juba, South Sudan, killing 37 people, but a 1-year-old survives, cradled in dead father’s arms.

2017 Glasgow-based, Scottish champions Celtic set a new British record (63) for matches undefeated in all domestic football competitions by beating St Johnstone, 4-0 in Perth, Scotland.

2021 Activist Overstone Kondowe is sworn in as Malawi’s first MP with albinism.

DAILY NEWS