Historical Events:
• 1935: Ethiopian King Haile Selassie urges his countrymen to fight to the last man against the invading Italian army.
• 1978: Nelson Mandela celebrates his sixtieth birthday on Robben Island.
• 1998: Pres. Nelson Mandela marries Graça Machel on his 80th birthday at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg.
• 1955: First electric power generated from atomic energy sold commercially.
Arts, Music, TV:
• 1820: Charles Baxter, SA author and Natal magistrate, is born in Oxfordshire, England.
• 1950: Richard Branson, London, British music enterperneur (Virgin Atlantic) is born.
• 1968: Hugh Masekela strikes gold with the breezy, Latin-soul instrumental Grazing in the Grass, while Gary Puckett and The Union Gap receive a similar honour for the hit, Lady Willpower. Masekela, a trumpeter since age fourteen, saw Grazing in the Grass go to number one for two weeks (July 20/27).
• 1999: Christoffel Coetzee, SA author and winner of the Eugène Marais and M-Net awards for his novel ‘Op soek na generaal Mannetjies Mentz’, dies in Windhoek, Namibia.
Sports:
• 1997: Jacob Matlala, SA junior flyweight, wins the International Boxing Association (IBA) world champion title.
• 2007: George Caiazzo, American professional wrestler dies.
• 1982: 111th British Golf Open: Tom Watson shoots a 284 at Royal Troon.
• 1965: Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Yankee Golf Open.
Source: historyorb.com & sahistory.org.com
Compiled by: Thandi Xaba
