BACK IN THE DAY

MAY 16

1770 Austrian Marie Antoinette, 14, marries Louis Auguste, 15, who becomes the last king of France. Both lose their heads to the guillotine during the French Revolution. Generally disliked by the public hostile to a foreign-born queen, she was known as Madame Déficit as she was the biggest obstacle to major reforms in the country. The phrase “Let them eat cake” is often attributed to her, but there is no evidence she said it. 1811 Cape governor Sir John Cradock orders a court to investigate the murder of Hottentots (Khoi-Khoi) by whites.

1843 The first major wagon train, with 1 000 pioneers, sets out for the Pacific Northwest. 1849 After a large protest meeting, the Anti-Convict Association is formed in Cape Town and almost 5 000 people sign a petition against establishing a penal colony in the Cape. (Ignoring the protests, Britain pushes ahead with plans to settle convicts in the Cape, and sends the Neptune from Bermuda with 282 prisoners on board to form the Cape’s first penal colony. However, due to opposition in the Cape, they were forced to endure a torrid five-month stay moored offshore, before the Neptune sailed for Australia, where she disgorged her load.

1929 The Academy Awards first takes place. 1988 A US report says nicotine is as addictive as heroin and cocaine.

1997 Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled Zaire for about 30 years, looting billions of dollars, flees rebels. Laurent Kabila becomes head of state. 2004 Day of Mourning at the Bykivnia forest, just outside Kyiv, Ukraine where during the

1930s and early 1940s, communist bolsheviks executed more than 100 000 Ukrainian civilians. | The Historian