6 September

A lot to do with ships today - then also some birthdays and a random few other historical events from all over the world

In 1522 One of the five ships that set out in Ferdinand Magellan's trip around the world made it back to Spain. Only 15 of the original 265 men that set out survived. Magellan himself had been killed by local inhabitants of the Philippines.

In 1907, the luxury liner Lusitania left London for New York on her maiden voyage.




The photograph left shows RMS Windsor Castle departing Cape Town for the last time on 6 September 1977. On the horizon left can be seen the SAN type 12 frigate SAS President Pretorius, waiting to intercept Windsor Castle. Out in the bay a shot was fired across the bow of Windsor Castle and she hove to, then a ‘boarding party’ from PP presented a commemorative plaque to the Captain of Windsor Castle and she was ‘allowed’ to continue her voyage. A fitting tribute to the end of an era.  (This information thanks to my friend Graham Sonnenberg's friend Tony Jones.  They count among those who dig up wonderful bits of information about Cape Town and its history.)


In 1901, the US President William McKinley was shot and  killed in Buffalo, New York by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. 

In 1966, there was another assassination: South Africa's  Prime Minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, regarded  by many as the father of apartheid, was stabbed to death on 6 September in House of Assembly, in Cape Town, by a parliamentary messenger, Dimitrios Tsafendas.  Five years earlier, on 9 April 1961 there had been another attempt on his life when, at the Rand Easter Show, in Johannesburg, he had been shot twice in the face by David Beresford Pratt.

The date is also important in South African history for another reason: on this day in 1939, South Africa declared war on Germany under its new government led by Genl Jan Smuts (leader of the United Party). The previous day, Prime Minister JBM Hertzog resigned after his motion to remain neutral in the war was defeated by 80 votes to 67 (he reconciled with Daniel F Malan (Herenigde Nasionale Party) to become leader of the opposition.  

Two years later, in Germany on 6 September 1941, the head of the Secret Police in Germany ordered all Jews over 6 years old to wear a yellow star of David on their coats together with the word Jude (Jew).  Their movements without police permission were also curtailed.

Still in the 1940s, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands was inaugurated in Amsterdam on 6 September 1948.  Four years later (1952), across the channel, there was the Farnborough

30 August

In 30 BC Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, committed suicide, according to legend via a bite by an asp (snake). This powerful queen's life, during which her lovers included both Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, inspired numerous stories, plays (including Antony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw), books, operas and cantatas (among others by Samuel Barber, Jules-Émile-Frédéric Massenet, Domenico Cimarosa and Hector Berlioz) and movies (of which the most famous was the 1963 version starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison). 

On 30 August 1959, the first Austin Mini 7 went on sale for £497- one of the cheapest saloon cars available at the time. The Mini (as it was renamed in 1962) went on to become the most popular British-made car ever made. 

The Euro Currency was formally Introduced on August 30, 2001 and came into operation the following year. 

On this day in 1751, the German-born British composer George Frideric Handel  finished his  last oratorio Jephtha (libretto: Rev. Thomas Morell.)

Ernest Rutherford

The British physicist and chemist  Ernest Rutherford, 1^st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, was born on 30 August 1871 near Nelson, New Zealand.  He was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize for his contributions to radiation chemistry. Rutherford became a mentor to many big names in nuclear physics, including Niels Bohr, James Chadwick, Robert Oppenheimer, Hans Geiger, John Cockroft and Ernest Walton.  He is  buried in Westminster Abbey near Isaac Newton, and the element rutherfordium was named after him.

Other birthdays today include novelist Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797 - author of among others Frankenstein),Chinese-American composer Chen Yuan Lin (1957- his film scores include Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) , the Greek pianist Dimitris Sgouros (1969) and the  American entrepreneur Warren Buffett (1930).

On 30 August 1984 the Space Shuttle Discovery took off on its maiden voyage. It was retired on 9 March 2011, after 39 missions and having spent a whole year (365 days) in total in orbit. Its highlight missions included the Launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (1990) and the 100th Space Shuttle mission (2000).  The photograph below shows the space shuttles Enterprise (left) and Discovery 'meet' on 19 April 2012 at a welcoming ceremony at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Centre. Discovery  will remain on permanent display at the Centre's  James S. McDonnell Space Hangar.  Enterprise will be on display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City. 

Photo:Carolyn Russo, National Air & Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution