From dealing with the terrifying prospect of nuclear war to the birth of the aeroplane age and that of Es’kia (Ezekiel) Mphahlele, South Africa’s Nobel nomineee, these are just some of the events from December 17.
1398 Mongol warlord Timur (Tamerlane) captures and sacks Delhi, defeating Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud’s armies by setting fire to hay-laden camels and charging them at the Sultans’ armoured elephants.
1652 Johan Anthoniszoon ‘Jan’ van Riebeeck, reports the first comet discovered from South Africa. Similarly to many other charted comets, it has not returned to earth’s view.
1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first powered, controlled airplane flights.
1919 Es’kia (Ezekiel) Mphahlele, doyen of African letters, is born in Marabastad, Pretoria. Nominated in 1968 for a Nobel literature prize, he wrote a series of stories published in Drum. The Lesane Stories helped consolidate the short-story tradition in South African literature that stands among the best in the world.
1935 First flight of the Douglas DC-3 Dakota, which would for decades be workhorse in many air forces, including South Africa’s, for whom is still flies today.
1938 Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of the heavy element uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear energy.
1939 Having been sold a dummy by British propaganda, the captain the Admiral Graf Spee scuttles the German battleship and raider off Montevideo, Uruguay.
1959 On The Beach – a terrifying tale of nuclear holocaust – is the first film to première on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
1961 The Niteroi Circus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, catches alight after a disgruntled employee sets fire to the big top. About 320 people die.
2010 Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire, sparking the Arab Spring.
2014 103-year-old Gus Andreone records the 8th ace of his career on the 113-yard, 14th hole of the Lakes Course in Florida. He is the oldest golfer to record a hole-in-one.
2017 French sailor François Gabart sets a round-the-world record for fastest solo navigation of the globe: He took 42 days and 16 hours.
2018 A US poacher, convicted of killing hundreds of deer in Missouri, is sentenced to watch the film Bambi repeatedly during his jail term of one year.
2019 China’s first home-built aircraft carrier, the Shandong, enters naval service. | THE HISTORIAN
