On this day in history, August 23

Significant and interesting moments in time with a South African angle, from this day in history

AD79 Mount Vesuvius, the world’s most famous volcano and Europe’s most dangerous because so many people live in the shadow of the fertile mountain, begins stirring on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. It leads to a cataclysmic eruption that wipes out the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Before the eruption, there was no word to describe a volcano, which got its name from Vulcan.

1305 Renowned Scottish rebel William Wallace is found guilty of treason and given an excruciating death as an example to others. At his show trial he says: ‘I could not be a traitor to (King) Edward, for I was never his subject.’

1954 The first flight of the C-130 Hercules takes place in California. South Africa and the US, among others, still use the aircraft, although more modern versions.

1973 The Norrmalmstorg bank robbery. It gives rise to the term Stockholm syndrome, in which hostages sympathise with their captors.

1987 A 15-year-old runaway hijacks a Royal Dutch Airlines flight, demands $1 billion. Police capture him in Rome and free his hostages.

1992 Apartheid architect Hendrik Verwoerd’s grandson, Wilhelm Verwoerd, joins the ANC.

1993 The Motsuenyane Commission finds the ANC guilty of torture in its paramilitary camps in neighbouring countries during apartheid.

1997 Zambian police shoot and wound former president Kenneth Kaunda at a rally in Kabwe.

2015 Destruction by Islamic State of the 1st-century temple of Baalshamin in the ruins of Palmyra is confirmed by Syrian officials.

2015 Oops. A boy trips at a Taiwan exhibition and rips Flowers, a $1.5 million 17th-century painting.

2017 The world’s driest place, the Atacama Desert in Chile, blooms after unexpected rainfall. Scientists say some of the Atacama’s river beds have been dry for 120 000 years.

2017 The US Navy fires Vice-Admiral Joseph Aucoin as commander of the Seventh Fleet after a series of embarrassing collisions.

2019 Russia launches a floating nuclear power station from the port of Murmansk.

2021 Video evidence is revealed of a Seychelles giant tortoise hunting and eating a bird (how slow was the bird?). Tortoises were previously thought to be herbivores.

2022 Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak begins a 12-year prison sentence for money laundering, after the High Court rejects his final appeal.