Major Hubert Gough of the relieving force greets General Sir George White in Ladysmith, as portrayed in a painting by John Henry Frederick Bacon. Picture: Wikipedia
More than just dates and boring facts
1883 Stephanus Roos is shot while on patrol in the Middelburg district, months after Kommandant Senekal was killed in the same way. The town Roossenekal is named for them.
1900 To jubilation around the British Empire, the four-month-long Siege of Ladysmith ends.
1922 The Rand mine workers’ revolt intensifies when three mineworkers are shot and killed outside the prison in Boksburg.
1933 German President Paul von Hindenburg, on the advice of Chancellor Adolf Hitler, nullifies many of the civil liberties of German citizens, paving the way to a one-party state.
1935 Nylon is invented, ushers in a fashion revolution and transforms the chemical industry. Today nylon is used in just about everything, from toothbrushes, carpets, racket and guitar strings, surgical sutures, and car parts to hosiery.
1947 An anti-government uprising in Taiwan is suppressed by Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China government with 18 000-28 000 deaths. Marks the beginning of the White Terror.
1953 Scientists James Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have unravelled the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25.
1971 A British soldier dies in Derry, Ireland, after his vehicle was attacked with petrol bombs (he died not from the bomb but from inhaling from fire-extinguisher’s chemicals).
1986 Sweden’s Prime Minister Olof Palme is assassinated in Stockholm. Allegations that SA was involved remain unproven.
1993 US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid David Koresh’s Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas. Four agents and six Davidians die, starting a 51-day standoff that ends in a fire that leads to the deaths of 76 Branch Davidians.
2000 Hundreds of white-owned farms are seized in Zimbabwe to reclaim land that the invaders say was stolen by colonial settlers.
2018 700 illegal churches are closed in Rwanda for being too noisy and for lacking building permits.
2022 The UN Landmark climate change report warns that climate change is outpacing human efforts to adapt and that 14% of the world’s species face a ‘very high risk of extinction’.
2023 FBI Director Christopher Wray finally confirms that the bureau believes Covid-19 pandemic likely originated from a lab accident in Wuhan, China.