1975
U.S. President Gerald Ford survives an assassination attempt when he is shot at by Sarah Jane Moore. Ford had already survived one attempt on his life that month when Lynette Fromme also tried to kill him.

1828
Shaka, founder of the Zulu Kingdom, is murdered by his two half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana, after Shaka’s mental illness threatened to destroy the Zulu tribe.

1980
In Pittsburgh, America Bob Marley plays his last concert before his death.

1846
German Astronomer Johann Galle discovers the planet Neptune.

1988
Canadian Ben Johnson finished the 100 m sprint at the Seoul Olympics in a world record time of 9.79 seconds, ahead of rivals Carl Lewis and Linford Christie, but was later disqualified for doping.

This Day in History:

Death of Shaka Zulu
Wednesday September 24, 1828
Shaka kaSenzangakhona, Zulu king and founder of the Zulu empire, is murdered by his two half-brothers Dingane and Mhlangana at kwaDukuza on 24 September 1828. Dingane assumes the throne.

Shaka's last words have taken on a prophetic mantle - and popular South African / Zulu myth has him telling Dingane and Mhlangana that it is not they who will rule the Zulu nation but "white people who will come up from the sea." However, the version which is probably the truest rendition comes from Mkebeni kaDabulamanzi, King Cetshwayo's nephew and grandson of King Mpande (another half-brother to Shaka) - "Are you stabbing me, kings of the earth? You will come to an end through killing one another."

1905
The physics journal Annalen der Physik published Albert Einstein's paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", introducing the equation E=mc².

1983
Software developer Richard Stallman announced plans for the Unix-like GNU operating system, the first free software developed by the GNU Project.

2004
The asteroid 4179 Toutatis passes within 1 million miles of Earth.

1988
NASA successfully launches the space shuttle, Discovery, the first launch since the Challenger disaster two and a half years before.

1952
British and world water speed record holder John Cobb is killed on Loch Ness in Scotland when his craft Crusader breaks up after hitting waves at 240 mph.

1966
Seretse Khama became the first President of Botswana when the Bechuanaland Protectorate gained independence from the United Kingdom.

1955
American actor James Dean dies in a car crash in California, U.S.A.

1949
After 15 months and more than 250,000 flights, the Berlin Airlift officially comes to an end.

1938
Chamberlain declares ‘peace in our time’
Having the previous day signed the Munich agreement with Adolf Hitler; British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain triumphantly returns to Britain claiming to have negotiated, ‘peace with honour’ and declares, ‘I believe it is peace in our time.’

1908
Ford Model T goes on sale
On 1st October 1908, the Ford Model T automobile is introduced to the American market. Henry Ford and his engineers struggled for five years to produce a reliable, inexpensive car for the mass market.

1975
Muhammad Ali retains the world heavyweight boxing championship after defeating Joe Frazier in “the thriller in Manila.”

1969
During testing in France the supersonic airliner, Concorde 001, breaks the sound barrier for the first time.

1944
Warsaw Uprising ends. On 2nd October 1944, the Warsaw Uprising ends with the surrender of the surviving Polish rebels to German forces.

1985
American film icon Rock Hudson dies aged 59 from AIDS.

1952
Tea rationing ends in Britain.

1962
The USA launches the space craft Sigma 7 on the Mercury 8 mission.

1985
The NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden voyage.

1990
On 3 October 1990, East and West Germany are reunited, ending 45 years of Cold War division.

1995
In the USA, O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole brown and friend Ron Goldman.

1957
The Soviet Union fires the starting gun of the space race with its launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial Earth satellite.

1970
American singer Janis Joplin dies from a heroin overdose aged 27.

1990
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

1946
Having been sentenced to death at the at Nuremberg trails, senior Nazi, Hermann Göring, cheats the hangman by taking his own life through taking a cyanide tablet.

1931
In America, Chicago mobster Al Capone is jailed for 11 years for tax evasion.

1956
Queen Elizabeth II opens Calder Hall in Cumbria, the world’s first full-scale nuclear power station.

1968
During a medal ceremony for the 200 metres at the Mexico Olympics, American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, stage a silent protest against racial discrimination in the U.S

1973
OPEC cuts production. The Arab-dominated Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agrees to cut oil exports by 5 percent. They imposed a total oil embargo against the United States and the Netherlands in retaliation for their military support of Israel. The embargo caused a major energy crisis in the United States and Europe, which included price gouging, gas shortages and rationing. OPEC cut production several more times in the 1970s, and by 1980 the price of crude oil was 10 times what it had been in 1973.

1968
American athlete Bob Beaman sets a new world long jump record of more than 29 feet during the Olympic Games in Mexico.

1976
The funeral of the so-called “Boss of Boss” Mafia boss Carlo Gambino takes place in New York, U.S.A.

1973
In Australia, Queen Elizabeth II opens the new Sydney Opera House.

1968
The wife of assassinated U.S. President John Kennedy, 39 year old Jacqueline Kennedy, marries Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

1944.
Battle of the Bulge begins. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler orders a surprise attack on the Allied forces closing in along the Western Front.

1949
The Swedish company, Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, which is later known as Saab, produces it first car.

1969
In Britain, the House of Commons votes to abolish the death penalty.

1903
First airplane flies.Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Americans Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft.

2003
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi announces that his country will give up all its chemical weapons.

1998
The House of Representatives approves two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton is later found not guilty in a trial in the senate.

1986
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev releases dissident Andrei Sakharov and his wife, Elena Bonner, from their internal exile in the Soviet city of Gorky.

1984
In Beijing, Britain and China sign an agreement for the return of Hong Kong to the sovereignty of China in 1997.

1974
Nelson Rockefeller is sworn as Vice-President on the United States of America.

1972
U.S. spacecraft Apollo 17 splashes down on target in the Pacific Ocean bringing an end the United States Apollo programme of landing men on the Moon.

1971
Director Stanley Kubrick's controversial film 'A Clockwork Orange' opens in Britain.

1920
King Constantine I is restored to the Greek throne.

1915
The First World War: Sir Douglas Haig replaces Sir John French as commander-in-chief of British forces on the Western Front.

1843
Author Charles Dickens’ book ‘A Christmas Carol’ is published in Britain.

1972
President Nixon authorises the development of a space shuttle.

1971
Birth of 'One Day' international cricket - England v. Australia in Melbourne - after the planned five-day Test Match is abandoned because of rain.

1995
A massive earthquake hits Japan. The city of Kobe is worst hit, with hundreds of people feared dead.

1994
A huge earthquake rocks Los Angeles, killing more than 20 people.

1961
Dwight D. Eisenhower makes his last television address to the American people as President.

1912
English explorer Robert Falcon Scott (Scott of the Antarctic) reaches the South Pole, one month behind Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.

1773
Captain Cook's ship 'Resolution' becomes the first to cross the Antarctic Circle.

1987
British negotiator Terry Waite disappears while attempting to win freedom for Western hostages held in Lebanon.

1996
Yasser Arafat is elected president of the Palestinian National Council

1986
Plans to construct the Channel Tunnel, linking Britain to France, are announced.

1972
Unemployment in Britain exceeds the one million mark for the first time since the 1930’s.

1964
In England, the start of the trial of the Great Train Robbers.

1961
In America, John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States. Kennedy is to be both the youngest ever President and the first Roman Catholic to hold the office.

2003
US secretary of state Colin Powell addresses the UN Security Council, putting forward America’s case that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.

1988
In Britain, as part of Comic Relief, the first 'Red Nose Day' is launchedIn Britain, as part of Comic Relief, the first 'Red Nose Day' is launched.

1974
Patty Hearst, the daughter of millionaire American publisher Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped.

1971
The US Apollo 14 Mission successfully lands on the moon.

1919
Hollywood actors Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and director D.W. Griffith launch the United Artists Corporation.

1966
A hydrogen bomb that had fallen from an American bomber over the Mediterranean Sea is located by a U.S. midget submarine.

1950
Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announce that they've created a new radioactive element. They name it "californium". Its atomic number is 98.

1901
Seventy-one paintings by Vincent van Gogh are shown in Paris, creating a sensation.

1891
British Steamer "Utopia" sinks off Gibraltar.

1870
Wellesley College is incorporated by the Massachusetts legislature under its first name, Wellesley Female Seminary.

1834
Isaac Fischer, Vermont, patents sand paper.

1906
Margaret Bourke-White, Photojournalist, born in New York.

1951
The first UNIVAC I (UNIversal Automatic Computer) is demonstrated.

1951
The European Space Research Organisation (which later becomes the European Space Agency) is established in Paris.

1981
President Ronald Reagan (USA) fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.

1969
The Mariner 7 makes its closest approach to Mars, coming to a distance of 3,524 kilometers above the surface of the red planet.

1962
Nelson Mandela is arrested for illegally leaving the country. He is convicted and sentenced to 5 years in prison at Robben Island Prison.

1963
The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union sign a treaty banning the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space, the atmosphere, and underwater.

1944
The Holocaust: Polish fighters liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.