An ocean liner is bombed, milk goes in glass, Nazis butcher bombing-raid survivors, and a golden find in the desert It makes his day. Picture: Reuters
An ocean liner is bombed, milk goes in glass, Nazis butcher bombing-raid survivors, and a golden find in the desert
1783 Catherine II of Russia annexes Crimea from the Ottoman Empire.
1820 The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos. One of the star attractions, along with the Mona Lisa, of the Louvre Museum in Paris. The statue, most often held to be a depiction of Aphrodite – the ancient goddess of Love, is famous for its missing arms in addition to its beauty.
1879 Milk is sold in glass bottles for the first time.
1906 German woman Auguste Deter, the first person, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, dies.
1940 German battlecruisers sink the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious.
1943 Otto and Elise Hampel are guillotined in Berlin, Germany, for anti-Nazi activities. Their crime: They wrote postcards that denounced Hitler’s government, which they left in public places.
1941 After an air raid damages a trainload of 4 000 Nazi concentration camp inmates in Prussia, the Nazis massacre the survivors.
1954 A South African Airways passenger plane breaks up in mid air over Italy, killing 21 people.
1961 An anti-tank mine explodes on the British liner Dara in Persian Gulf, killing 238 people.
1986 Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel, California. It makes his day.
1991 About R1.3m is paid to 32 South African seamen who lost fingers from frostbite after being forced to work without adequate protective clothing on Taiwanese fishing trawlers.
1992 Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announces that he has Aids, acquired from blood transfusions during heart surgeries.
1998 The Trans-Kalahari main road, the first road south of the Sahara to connect the Atlantic and Indian oceans, is opened.
2000 Nineteen US Marines are killed when a V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashes near Marana, Arizona, in the US.
2006 The bodies of eight men, shot dead, are found near Shedden, Ontario, Canada. The murders are linked to the Bandidos Motorcycle Club.
2019 A study in the US says 600 million birds die each year after striking tall buildings.
2021 Egyptian archaeologists announce their most important find since Tutankhamun’s tomb – discovery of a lost ‘golden city’ the 3 000-year-old ancient city of Aten near Luxor