ON THIS DAY

44BC Casca and Cassius decide, on the eve of the assassination of Julius Caesar, to spare the life of Mark Antony, Caesar’s co-consul.

1879 Albert Einstein is born in Ulm, Germany. His theory of relativity leads to new ways of thinking about time, space, matter and energy. He receives a Nobel Prize in 1921 and emigrates to the US in 1933, where he was an outspoken critic of Nazi Germany. Believing the Nazis might develop an atomic bomb, he told President Franklin Roosevelt and urged the development of the US atomic bomb.

1898 Barney Barnato’s nephew Woolf Joel is shot and killed because he won’t help kidnap Transvaal President Paul Kruger.

1926 A train plunges off a bridge over the Río Virilla, in Costa Rica, killing 248 people.

1939 After nine days of play spread over 12 days, England abandons the Timeless Test (the longest cricket Test match in history) with South Africa in Durban because they were about to miss the boat home. Set a winning target of 696, the visitors left the field at 654 for 5 (the highest first-class, fourth innings score). The match had not been expected to take more than five days.

1945 The newly built frigate HMSAS Natal distinguishes herself by sinking a German U-boat (U 714) within four hours of leaving the builders’ yard at Newcastle-on-Tyne.

1961 A USAF B-52 bomber, crashes near

Yuba City, California. Its nuclear weapons did not detonate as their safety devices worked.

1964 A Dallas jury finds nightclub owner Jack Ruby guilty of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assumed assassin of US president John F Kennedy.

1971 Ken Rosewall beats Arthur Ashe 6-1, 7-5, 6-3 in the Australian Open final and becomes the first man to win an Open-era Grand Slam singles title without dropping a set.

1984 The nuclear power station at Koeberg becomes operational.

2018 A Nasa study finds that astronaut Scott Kelly is no longer identical to his twin brother, because, after a year in space, 7% of his genes have changed. | THE HISTORIAN