What happened today in history, February 7, from a South African perspective

How gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand, guess where your oranges come from and a loving mother gets to touch her 12-year-old son for the first time because he has to live in a sterile bubble. These are just some of the things that happened today in, February 7, in history

A South African 1kg gold bar. It was this day that George Walker accidentally discovers gold on the Witerwatersrand. Picture: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Published Feb 7, 2023

Share

1497 Bonfire of the vanities: religious fanatics publicly burn thousands of objects such as cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy, on the Shrove Tuesday festival.

1783 The Great Siege of Gibraltar is launched by US allies, France and Spain against the British colony during American War of Independence.

1848 Flooding along the Cape frontier, near Peddie, causes extensive damage.

1881 At the Battle at Ingogo, in the Transvaal, the Boers beat superior British forces.

1886 While laying foundations for a house on the Witwatersrand, George Walker discovers gold.

1900 British troops fail in their third attempt to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.

1901 Bubonic plague breaks out in Cape Town.

1943 The Japanese Navy evacuates troops from Guadalcanal, ending attempts to retake the island from Allied forces.

1945 General Douglas MacArthur makes good on his promise and returns to the Phillipines.

1959 A Cessna light plane lands in Las Vegas after 65 continuous days in the air. It was a publicity stunt for a Las Vegas hotel. Two pilots lived in the plane, working four-hour shifts and winching supplies up, including fuel and Christmas lunch, from a speeding truck.

1962 A gas explosion in a German coal mine kills 298 miners.

1969 Nigerian planes bomb and strafe a village in Biafra, killing more than 200 people.

1984 David ‘Bubble Boy’ Vetter, 12, touches his mother for the first time. Born in the US with a disease that dramatically weakens the immune system, he dies later in the year, having spent his life in a sterile ‘bubble’.

1997 NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.

2005 Britain’s Ellen MacArthur becomes the fastest person to sail solo around the world, taking 71 days and 14 hours.

2013 Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last US state to approve the abolition of slavery.

2018 A study finds all citrus fruit can be traced to the foothills of the Himalayas.