OCTOBER 17

1091 A tornado strikes the heart of London, causing untold death and destruction.

1480 The Great Stand on the Ugra River marks the end of the Golden Horde’s yoke over Russia.

1662 King Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France for £40 000.

1814 The London Beer Flood occurs when a 7m-high wooden vat of fermenting porter (a dark style of beer) bursts, destroying another vessel and the brick rear wall of Meux & Co’s Horse Shoe Brewery. The 4.5m-high wave swept into the surrounding streets, where it destroyed two houses and killed 8 people. 1851 A report in the Durban Observer notes that at a meeting of citizens in the Durban Government School Hall a motion is called for the introduction of indentured labour (the very first Indians, who numbered four), were brought to Natal in 1849).

1871 Great Britain annexes Griqualand.

1887 The Star newspaper appears for the first time in Johannesburg as The Eastern Star.

It began life in Grahamstown under that title on January 6, 1871, and was moved to the Witwatersrand 16 years later by its owners, brothers Thomas and George Sheffield. In 1889, the name Eastern Star was changed to the one currently in use.

1907 Marconi begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service.

1933 Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany.

1943 The Burma railway is completed, which includes the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai, built by Allied slave labour.

1983 SADF commandos bomb the ANC office in Maputo, Mozambique, and injure 5 people. This was one of many cross border raids by the SADF in the 1980s.

1989 The magnitude 6.9 Prieta earthquake shakes the San Francisco Bay Area and central California, killing 63 people.

1998 At Jesse, in the Niger Delta of Nigeria, a petroleum pipeline explodes killing about 1 200 villagers, some of whom are scavenging the petrol.

2008 Iran’s attempt to create the world’s largest sandwich (1 500m) fails when crowds eat it before it can be measured. | THE HISTORIAN