Just like history’s greatest survival story, these are the events that either shaped our lives and the times we live in, or are plain darn hard to ignore.
1888 In a fit of rage Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear with a razor after arguing with fellow artist Paul Gauguin and sends the severed appendage to a prostitute for safe keeping.
1947 The transistor is invented at Bell Laboratories by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley, who share the Nobel Prize for their invention, which sparks a worldwide revolution in electronics.
1948 Seven Japanese military and political leaders, including Hideki Tojo, Japan’s prime minister, are executed in Tokyo for war crimes.
1952 Biologist and physician Alain Bombard arrives in Barbados after 65 days and 4 400km at sea – and 25kg lighter, proving his theory that a shipwrecked person could survive with almost no provisions.
1954 In Boston, the first successful kidney transplant is performed.
1972 An earthquake strikes the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, killing more than 10 000 people.
1972 The remaining 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days trapped among the mountains, and having survived by cannibalism.
1985 Five civilians die and 40 are injured when MK cadre Andrew Zondo’s bomb explodes at an Amanzimtoti shopping centre.
1987 Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager set a new world record of 216 hours of continuous flight around the world without refuelling. Their aircraft, Voyager, travelled 40 211km at a speed of 185km per hour.
1996 Four women are ordained as priests in Jamaica – the first in Anglican history.
2002 A US Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25 in the first combat engagement between a drone and conventional aircraft.
2003 The PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, in Guoqiao, Kai County, Chongqing, China, kills at least 234 people.
2007 Officials agree to abolish the Kingdom of Nepal and replace it with a federal republic.
2008 A coup d’état occurs in Guinea hours after the death of President Lansana Conté.
2015 A bomb explodes at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport, killing an airport cleaner. Four days later, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks claim responsibility for the attack. | The Historian