ON THIS DAY

JANUARY 2

366 The Alamanni cross frozen Rhine River in numbers, invading the Roman Empire.

533 Mercurius becomes Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy.

1602 Spanish force in Ireland surrenders to the English army at Kinsdale.

1666 The corner stones of the castle (Kasteel de Goede Hoop) at the Cape are laid by Zacharias Wagenaer, Johan van Arckel, Gabbema and Lacus.

1837 Voortrekker leaders Andries Hendrik Potgieter and Gerrit (Gert) Maritz, each with his own men, leave for Western Transvaal to punish Mzilikazi for the Ndebele attack on the Voortrekkers at Vechtkop (Vegkop).

1896 Sir Leander Starr Jameson and about 500 Rhodesian police surrender to Boers at Doornkop, near Krugersdorp, after the failure of the Jameson Raid.

1903 US President Theodore Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola, Mississippi, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black.

1906 The air conditioner is patented. 1944 First use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol).

1947 Mahatma Gandhi begins his march for peace.

1959 Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union.

1960 John Reynolds sets age of solar system at 4 950 000 000 years.

1966 The first Jewish child is born in Spain since the 1492 expulsion.

1968 Second heart transplant in South Africa is performed by Dr Chris Barnard on Dr Philip Blaiberg. He lived one year and seven months with the new heart.

1981 West Indian cricketer Sylvester Clarke knocks out a spectator with a brick during a Test match against Pakistan.

1984 Darryl Cullinan, 16, scores his 1st firstclass cricket century.

1988 Right-wing guerrillas ambush a train near Mozambique’s western border, killing at least 22 people.

1995 Most distant galaxy yet discovered found by scientists using Keck telescope in Hawaii (est 15 billion light years away).

2014 Thirty people die when a bus plunges 400ft off a cliff in Malshej Ghat, India.

2018 A bus crash in Pasamayo, Peru, kills 51 on notorious “Devil’s Curve” road.

2018 WHO reveals it will classify gaming addiction as mental health condition in its next Classification of Diseases.