The British invasion of Zululand runs into trouble, a lethal mix of exploding whisky and rum, ANC wants a stayaway in protest at the Sharpeville massacre, and 19 die at Shell House
193 Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction.
845 Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving. (It didn’t stop them returning for more of the same.)
1879 Nearly 100 officers and men of Brevet Colonel Henry Evelyn Wood’s column are killed in a desperate fight against a Zulu impi on Hlobane Mountain during the Anglo-Zulu War. Piet Uys, commander of the Burgher Force consisting of Utrecht Boers and forming part of Wood’s column, is also killed. In this fight, Colonel (later General Sir Redvers) Buller saves a number of lives and wins the Victorian Cross.
1933 The Imperial Airways biplane, City of Liverpool is the first airliner lost to sabotage when a passenger makes a fire on board.
1942 A British combined force permanently disables the Louis Joubert Lock in Saint-Nazaire to keep the German battleship Tirpitz away from the mid-ocean convoy lanes.
1960 An explosion at a warehouse storing a million gallons of whisky and 30 000 gallons of rum kills 20 firemen in Glasgow, Scotland.
1960 The ANC calls for a nation-wide, stay-at-home in protest at the Sharpeville massacre. Passbooks are burned in countless bonfires.
1979 A major nuclear accident occurs at 3 Mile Island, Middletown, Pennsylvania (no deaths) occurs with the core overheating and a partial meltdown of the reactor.
1982 Armscor announces that South Africa has produced a world-beating 155mm artillery system, the G5.
1994 Nineteen Zulus are killed during a march at Shell House, the ANC’s head office in Johannesburg.
2005 The death toll after an outbreak of a deadly Ebola-like disease in Angola climbs to 122. The country turns to civilians and the military, saying it did not have enough doctors to fight the Marburg virus.
2017 The world’s largest dinosaur footprint at 1.7 metres, is found in Kimberley, Western Australia.
2022 Actor Will Smith issues an apology on Instagram to Oscars host Chris Rock for slapping him live on stage during the ceremony.