On this day in history, July 7

Significant and interesting snippets of news, with a South African angle, from this day in history

1456 In an example of justice delayed is justice denied, a retrial acquits Joan of Arc of heresy, 25 years after her execution.

1550 Date that chocolate is thought to have been introduced to Europe from central America (most Mesoamericans, including the Maya and Aztecs, made chocolate beverages).

1801 Former slave and acclaimed general and military tactician, Toussaint Louverture declares Haitian independence.

1865 Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt are hanged for their part in US president Abraham Lincoln’s murder. The assassin, a fanatical proslavery advocate named John Wilkes Booth, sought to avenge the Confederacy’s defeat in the American Civil War.

1928 Sliced bread is sold for the first time.

1937 Japanese and Chinese troops clash at the Marco Polo Bridge, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War.

1941 Nazis execute 5 000 Jews in Kovono, Lithuania

1941 US forces land in Iceland to stopy any Nazi invasion.

1943 German ace Erich Hartmann shoots down 7 Russian aircraft over Kursk.

1974 New Zealand imposes a ban on sports teams from South Africa because of apartheid.

1985 Boris Becker beats South Africa’s Kevin Curren 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4. He is the youngest man (17) to win a Wimbledon singles title.

1988 Five prominent anti-apartheid activists, Trevor Manuel, Ebrahim Rasool, Mountrain Qumbela, Hilda Ndude, and Mzonke Jacobs are released in Cape Town after being held for up to two years under the Internal Security Act.

1992 South Africa beats Cameroon 1-0 in Durban in the host’s first Fifa match after nearly 20 years isolation because of apartheid.

1996 Nelson Mandela steps down as the country’s president.

2005 Co-ordinated terrorist bombs strike London’s public transport system during rush hour, killing 52 people and injuring 700.

2012 Floods in the Krasnodar region of Russia kill 140 people.

2017 The UN nuclear weapons ban treaty is adopted in New York, but without the participation of nuclear countries.

2020 Violent protests break out in Belgrade, Serbia, over a government plan for a weekend lockdown due to Covid-19.

2021 The world’s biggest sandcastle 21.16m high is completed in Blokhus, Denmark. Five thousand tons of sand are used.

2022 British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces his resignation at Downing Street after pressure from, and mass resignations of his ministers.

2022 US scientists begin the search for dark matter, which makes up most of the universe, with a device in a former gold mine in Lead, South Dakota.