The Mercury E-dition

ON THIS DAY JUNE 18

1583 Richard Martin of London takes out the first life insurance policy, on William Gibbons; the premium was a hefty £383.

1795 About 60 armed burghers, occupy the drostdy in Swellendam and force the landdros to lay down his office, repudiating the authority of the Dutch East Company.

1815 The Duke of Wellington beats Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.

1858 Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Wallace that mirrors Darwin’s findings, prompting him to publish his own theory of evolution.

1897 The SS Scot arrives in Southampton, four days after diamond magnate Barney Barnato, who made his fortune on the diamond fields of Kimberley, falls overboard and drowns near Madeira. An inquest finds he drowned during temporary derangement.

1911 The first locally built plane is flown by John Weston in Kimberley, setting a SA nonstop flight record of 8½ minutes.

1916 German flying ace Lieutenant Max Immelmann, creator of the Immelmann Roll, is shot down over France.

1940 Winston Churchill delivers his ‘this was their finest hour’ speech, urging perseverance during the Battle of Britain.

1946 Dr Yusuf Dadoo flies to Durban to study the situation as White hooligans continue harassing Indian Passive Resisters.

1948 Columbia Records introduces the longplaying record album, the LP.

1959 Louisiana Governor Earl Long is committed to a state mental hospital. He has the hospital’s director fired and replaced, and is then found to be ‘sane’.

1979 Sri Lanka overcome the odds to beat India by 47 runs in a Cricket World Cup upset. 1981 The Aids epidemic is first recognised. 1995 Hulking All Black wing Jonah Lomu scores the try of the Rugby World Cup, running over SA-born England fullback Mike Catt. 1995 The Angolan soccer team is wiped out in a plane crash in Luanda. | THE HISTORIAN

WORLD

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2021-06-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

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