aim a weapon at an enemy that cannot be hit by direct fire, is used for the first time in battle. British gunners in the Second Boer War, using the techniques developed by Russian Lieutenant Colonel K. G. Guk, fire a cannon on a high trajectory toward the Boer Army, with the objective of having the shell coming down on the enemy. Voting takes place in Switzerland for the 147-member National Council. The foundering of the British steamer Zurich off of the coast of Norway kills 16 of the 17 crew aboard, with only the captain surviving. October 27 – Louise Masset, an unmarried mother, murders her 3-year old son in a bathroom at the Dalston Junction railway station in London. She will be found guilty on December 18 and hanged at Newgate Prison three weeks later on January 9. October 28 – The Swaziland Commando unit of the South African Republic Army, with 200 burghers, attacks and burns the British police post at Kwaliweni during the Second Boer War. Warned by Swaziland's King Ngwane V, the 20 policemen are able to evacuate the post office and flee to Ingwavuma, which the Commandos attack next. October 29 – The Battle of Kouno ends after two days in French Equatorial Africa at the village of Kouno, near Fort-Archambault in what is now Chad, as French Army Captain Émile Gentil leads a force of 344 troops against a much larger force of 2,700 Sudanese Arabs, led by the warlord Rabih az-Zubayr. Gentil routs the Sudanese, but at the cost of 46 deaths and more than 100 wounded. October 30 – In a key engagement in the Second Boer War, the Battle of Ladysmith begins as British troops at the Ladysmith fort in the colony of Natal attempt to make a preemptive strike against a larger force of South African Republic and Orange Free State troops that is gradually surrounding the fort. After sustaining 400 casualties and having 800 men captured, the British retreat back to the fort where a 118-day siege begins on November 2. October 31 – The House of Commons of the United Kingdom unveils the statue of Oliver Cromwell, commissioned in honor of the former Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. November 1899 November 1 – A spokesman for the White House announces that U.S. Vice President Garret Hobart will not return to public life