Some of the more interesting things that happened on this day.
1283 Dafydd ap Gruffydd, the Prince of Gwynedd, in Wales, becomes the first person executed by the grisly method of being hanged, drawn and quartered.
1685 The Dutch East India Company decides to send French Huguenot refugees to the Cape. The company encouraged them because they shared the same religious beliefs as the Cape colonists, and because most Huguenots were highly trained craftsmen or experienced farmers. In 1688 the first large group of French Huguenots (180) arrived on board the Voorschoten. But the first Huguenots had in fact arrived as early as 1671, when the first refugee, Francois Villion (later Viljoen), arrived at the Cape.
1849 Famed American author Edgar Allan Poe is found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the last time he is seen alive.
1945 Elvis Presley, 10, makes his first known public performance, coming fifth in a talent show. Some reports say that he came second and won $5 in fair-ride tickets, but years later Elvis recalled that he came fifth and that his most vivid memory of the day was ‘a whipping from my Mama’ for misbehaving.
1993 In an attempt to capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, 18 US Soldiers and 1 000 Somalis are killed in heavy fighting in Mogadishu, as popularised by the book and the movie, Black Hawk Down.
1995 In a highly publicised trial, former grid-iron footballer and personality OJ Simpson is found not guilty of killing his wife, Nicole Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.
2007 South Africa’s Mark Boucher becomes the wicketkeeper with most dismissals in Test cricket (532 catches in 555 dismissals – a record he comfortably still holds).
2018 At least 259 people have died since 2011 – mostly while oblivious to surrounding dangers – as they were taking selfies, says the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.
2018 The most expensive whisky ever sold, the Macallan Valerio Adami 1926, goes for an eye-watering $1.1 million on auction in Edinburgh, Scotland .
2021 Tropical Cyclone Shaheen makes landfall in Oman and Iran, killing at least nine people and causing widespread damage.