An historic date for more than one reason

This past Saturday 11 September was the ninth commemoration of the attacks on the United States, which saw among others the twin-tower building that was the World Trade Centre taken down by passenger planes under the control of hijackers. It has etched the date forever into mankind’s collective memory, but there are also other historical reasons to remember 11 September throughout the world, including in South Africa.

Ironically it is also 401 years ago to the day  that the island of Manhattan in New York City on which the  World Trade Centre stood was first discovered by Europeans. The English explorer Henry Hudson as an employee of the Dutch East Indian Company at the time discovered the island in the mouth of the river that today carries his name.

In recent South African history it also marks the day 33 years ago in 1977 that anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko was assaulted in a police van. He would die of his injuries the next day.

Further back in South frican history it was also on 11 September  110 years ago during the first year of the previous century that the president of the then Transvaal Republic, Paul Kruger, crossed the border into Mozambique on his way to Lourenco Marques – today known as Maputo. From there he went to Europe, where he died in exile at Luserne in Switzerland.

For Americans the date also has importance because it marks the day in 1814 when in the Battle of Lake Champlain, New York, the American Navy defeated the British.

Other noteworthy events that took place through the ages on 11 September include:

813 – Charles the Great (Charlemagne) crowns his son Louis I as co-emperor of the Holy Roman Empire;

1649 – Some 3 000 English royalists in the Irish garrison town are killed by Oliver Cromwell in the Massacre of Drogheda;

1853 – The world is introduced to the first electric telegraph between San Francisco's  Merchants Exchange and Pointe Lobos;

1875 – The first cartoon ever is published in a newspaper;

1926 – Spain leaves the League of Nations when Germany joined;

1939 – Iraq and Saudi Arabia declare war on Nazi Germany;

1940 – Under Operation Sea Lion, Hitler begins preparations for aninvasion of England;

1946 – The first mobile long-distance car-to-car telephone conversation takes place;

1962 – The Beatles cut their songs “Love Me Do" and "PS I Love You."

But, maybe the world would have been a better place today if all leaders took proper note of the words penned by Benjamin Franklin on 11 September 1773:  "There never was a good war or bad peace"