Some of the more interesting things that happened on this day.
1522 The Victoria returns to Spain. It is the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan’s round-the-world expedition and the first to circumnavigate the world. While his fleet’s expedition was successful in finding a westerly route to the spice islands and proved once and for all that the earth was round, and that ships wouldn’t fall of the edge if they sailed too far out to sea. Magellan himself was killed by a poisoned arrow in the Philippines and never made it home.
1651 King Charles II of England spends a day hiding in an oak tree after losing the decisive Battle of Worcester to Roundhead Oliver Cromwell. Before the battle, Charles contracted the Worcester Clothiers Company to clothe his army, but was unable to pay the £453.3s bill. Prince Charles settled the 357-year-old debt in 2008.
1916 The first true supermarket, the Piggly Wiggly, opens in Memphis, Tennessee.
1939 Britain suffers its first fighter pilot casualty of World War II at the Battle of Barking Creek as a result of friendly fire. South African ace Adolph ‘Sailor’ Malan commanded one of the scrambled squadrons, but was unable to call off the attack, which exposed the inadequacies of early RAF radar.
1966 The chief apartheid architect, prime minister HF Verwoerd is assassinated in parliament by messenger Dimitri Tsafendas.
1986 In Istanbul, two terrorists from Abu Nidal’s organisation kill 22 and wound six congregants in the Neve Shalom Synagogue.
1994 Actor Jackson Pinckney is awarded $487 000 after being partially blinded by Jean-Claude Van Damme during filming of Cyborg.
1997 The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place in London watch by a global TV audience of 2.5 billion people.
2007 Israel executes the air strike Operation Orchard to destroy a nuclear reactor in Syria.
2015 German police confirm that more than 13 000 refugees have arrived in Southern Germany in last 2 days fleeing conflict in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
2018 Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is stabbed at a campaign rally in Juiz de Fora, Brazil.
2020 A strain of bacteria, nicknamed ’Conan the Bacterium’, survives for three years in open space while attached to the International Space Station.
2020 Thou shall not strike a line judge: World #1 tennis player Novak Đoković is sensationally disqualified in the 4th round of US Open after hitting a ball in frustration, striking a line judge. He trailed Pablo Carreño Busta 5-6 in 1st set.
2022 Fire in a karaoke bar near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, kills at least 32 people.