3432 results for “The first African FIFA World Cup kicks off in South Africa” (510 ms)
An explosion on the Greek cruise ship MTS Oceanos (pictured) ruptured its hull, causing it to sink off the east coast of South Africa, with all 571 people on board rescued.
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.
Moses Fleetwood Walker (pictured), the last African American in Major League Baseball until Jackie Robinson, played his first game for the Toledo Blue Stockings.
Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.
The first rugby union test match between the Wallabies of Australia and the Springboks of South Africa is played at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town.
The first game of the 1981 South Africa rugby union tour of New Zealand and the United States is held in Gisborne, New Zealand.
The ferry MV Sewol capsized and sank off Donggeochado, South Korea, killing 306 people, mainly students from Danwon High School.
Melbourne–Evans collision: off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half; resulting in 74 deaths.
French Revolutionary Wars: Off the coast of Brittany, a Royal Navy squadron commanded by William Cornwallis (pictured) fended off a numerically superior French Navy fleet.
The Off-Broadway show The Fantasticks premiered, eventually becoming the world's longest-running musical, with 17,162 performances across 42 years.
World War II: Last German U-boat attack of the war, two freighters are sunk off the Firth of Forth, Scotland.
World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks AHS Centaur off the coast of Queensland.
Second World War: Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was attacked and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland, killing 268 people aboard.
Second World War: The Allies began a mass evacuation of British, French and Belgian troops cut off by the German army during the Battle of Dunkirk.
World War I: Italian torpedo boats sank the Austro-Hungarian dreadnought SMS Szent István off the Dalmatian coast, killing 89 of the crew.
Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine plane.
World War I: The German minelayer SS Königin Luise lays a minefield about 40 miles (64 km) off the Thames Estuary (Lowestoft). She is intercepted and sunk by the British light-cruiser HMS Amphion.
Cardiff City defeat Arsenal in the FA Cup Final, the only time it has been won by a team not based in England.
The FA Cup final (crowd and police pictured) between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United was held on the opening day of the Empire Stadium in London.
On the day of the UEFA Cup Final, violence erupted between football hooligan supporters of both teams and the Greater Manchester Police, resulting in 39 arrests and 39 injured officers.