14-05-2025
On this day in history, May 14
964 Said to have been the 'most wicked of popes', John XII, 29 dies. His pontificate was infamous for depravity and worldliness and his lifestyle was more suited to the secular prince that he was. He was depicted as a coarse, immoral man in the writings which remain about his papacy, whose life was such that the Lateran Palace was spoken of as a brothel.
1607 Colonists establish Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America, unaware that they had landed amid the worst drought in 800 years. Only 60 of the original 214 settlers survive.
1800 The process of moving the US capital from Philadelphia to Washington, DC, begins.
1873 The Ohrigstad River area in the Lydenburg district is proclaimed a gold field after the discovery of gold in the Selati River.
1918 Following the death of his eldest son, Reginald, on the Western Front, Cape Town Mayor Sir Harry Hands inaugurates the Two-minute Silence to honour the loss of life in conflict. Impressed, Sir Percy FitzPatrick, who wrote Jock Of The Bushveld, writes to Britain's Lord Milner about it . The idea is taken up after Armistice Day in London in 1918 and has been celebrated each year on Armistice Day commemorations.
1944 German generals Rommel, Speidel and von Stülpnagel attempt to assassinate Hitler. The failed attempt costs them their lives.
1948 Israel is declared an independent state, but the next day, Arab states attack it.
1961 The Freedom Riders (US civil rights activists who rode buses into segregated areas) have their bus fire-bombed in Alabama, and are beaten by an angry mob.
1973 Patrick Laurence, a journalist from The Star, is charged by Apartheid authorities after publishing a statement by PAC President Robert Sobukwe.
2018 Using specially designed artificial legs, Chinese double amputee Xia Boyu, who was crippled on the world's highest peak 40 years before, finally summits Mt Everest.
2018 The US moves its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
2018 The successful memory transfer in snails achieved by scientists from University of California is detailed in the journal eNeuro.
