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Did You Know?

King Sobhuza II of Swaziland reigned for 82 years and 254 days – the longest verifiable reign of any monarch in recorded history

On this day in history

1217 The Charter of the Forest is sealed by England’s King Henry III, which re-establishes for free men the rights of access to the royal forest that had been eroded by William the Conqueror and his heirs.

1528 Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca is the first European to set foot in what would become Texas.

1778 While exploring, Cape governor Baron Joachim Ammena van Plettenberg reaches a bay near Melkhoutkraal, which he names Plettenberg Bay, and erects a stone pillar.

1861 James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, is born in Ontario, Canada.

1869 Diamonds are first found at what was to become Kimberley, leading to the creation of the world’s largest open mine, the Big Hole.

1913 Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of miners in South Africa.

1917 After three months of fighting, Canadian forces take Passchendaele in Belgium. Their 8km advance cost 240 000 lives.

1941 During the Battle of Moscow, Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet people for only the second time since taking office in 1922.

1956 Building starts on the Kariba Dam between Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Rhodesia (Zimababwe). The damning of the Kariba Gorge will create the world’s largest man-made lake, four times as large as China’s Three Gorges Dam, and the enormous mass of water is so heavy that creates more than 20 earthquakes of greater than 5 magnitude on the Richter scale.

1962 Saudi Arabia abolishes slavery.

1979 The Ayatollah Khomeini takes over after the collapse of the Shah of Iran’s regime.

1997 Rodney Petersen (12) of Clanwilliam, dies after being hit by a ball during a cricket match.

2017 Emmerson Mnangagwa is fired as vice-president by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe’s wife, Grace, is touted as his successor with Mnangagwa as her rival, but the politically shrewd ‘Ngwena’ (crocodile) has the last laugh.

2019 7 people die in attack by Islamic State militants on Tajik-Uzbek border.

2022 The US Powerball jackpot rises to a world record of $1.9 billion (R33bn) after there having been no winners for more than three months.

DAILY NEWS