ON THIS DAY JANUARY 16

27BC Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire.

1547 Grand Duke Ivan IV of Muscovy (Ivan the Terrible) crowns himself the first Tsar of Russia, replacing the 264-year-old Grand Duchy of Moscow with the Tsardom.

1690 The Galiot Noord is wrecked 24km west of Cape St Francis after a survey voyage to Delagoa Bay and Natal. Most of the crew, who try to walk back to the Cape, die.

1909 Ernest Shackleton’s expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.

1917 The Zimmermann Telegram, sent from Germany to Mexico, is intercepted. It says that should the US join World War I, Mexico can have Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Knowledge of the telegram shifts US public opinion in favour of war with Germany.

1941 US Vice-admiral Bellinger foresees a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

1970 Golfer Gary Player slams the decision not to let Indian golfer Papwa Sewgolum play in the South African Open.

1981 Ex-world heavyweight boxing champion Leon Spinks is mugged for his gold teeth.

1992 The 12-year Salvadoran Civil War, that claimed at least 75 000 lives, ends.

1990 As the police dragnet closes in, paedophile Gert van Rooyen and his mistress Joey Haarhoff commit suicide in Pretoria.

1999 Louis Kruger (11) of Richards Bay, dies after being attacked by a crocodile in the Mapelane nature reserve at the mouth of the Umfolozi River in Kwazulu-natal.

2001 Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila is assassinated – shot by one of his bodyguards in front of army generals, following a dispute in which Kabila sacked them. It was later confirmed that the incident was not a coup attempt, but an argument that got out of hand. His son, Joseph, takes over. 2005 Romanian Adriana Illiescu, 66, is the oldest recorded woman to give birth.

2006 Africa’s first elected head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes Liberia’s president. 2012 The Egyptian capital, Cairo, is engulfed by a sandstorm, turning it orange. | THE HISTORIAN