Today in history
The Dutch East Indies Company dissolves, the gladiator games in Rome come to a halt and the Chinese government settles upon an appropriate roman name for the republic on this day, 1 January.
404 – Rome’s gladiator games, made famous by films like Russel Crowe’s Gladiator, come to an end as the last game in the history of the Roman Empire concludes when Saint Telemachus tried to stop the gladiatorial fight and was stoned to death by the crowd.
1800 – The Dutch East Indies Company, which brought European civilisation to the Southern tip of Africa when Jan van Riebeeck was instructed to establish a refreshment and refuelling station at Cape Town in 1652, is dissolved in the Netherlands.
1972 – Policewomen are enlisted as full members of South African Police Service for the first time in the history of the force.
2009 – If you’re not Taiwanese, it’s easier to say the name of the government of the Republic of China than to write it in Mandarin. In attempt to make it easier to pronounce, the government settled upon “Hanyu Pinyin” as its official Chinese romanisation on this day, four years ago. Before this time, the most commonly accepted way to refer to the Republic of China was “Tongyong Pinyin”.
