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EventThe Battle of Ulundi begins
The Battle of Ulundi was the decisive battle during the Anglo-Zulu War. It took place on the 4th July 1879 and marked the end of the Anglo-Zulu War, as well as…
EventPrince Eugene Napoleon is killed during Anglo-Zulu War
The 22-year-old Prince Imperial of France, Eugene Louis Jean Joseph Napoleon, who studied in England at the Royal Military Academy and joined the British…
EventThe Battle of Gingindlovu
The Anglo-Zulu War Battle of Gingindlovu took place on 2 February 1879. It occured shortly after the Battle of Kambula and Rorkes drift. During this battle,…
EventThe Battle of Kambula takes place
On 29 March 1879, the Anglo-Zulu War Battle of Kambula took place. The battle involved the British Number 4 Column, led by Colonel Evelyn Wood VC and the Zulu…
EventThe British successfully thwart the Zulu attack at Rorke’s Drift
During the Anglo-Zulu war Lord Chelmsford, commander of the British forces, took over the buildings of the Swedish Mission at Rorke's Drift, near Isandlwana…
EventBritish troops establish their camp at Isandlwana
On 19 and 20 January the British forces under Lord Chelmsford, who had invaded Zululand during the second week of January, established their camp on the slopes…
EventZulu King Cetshwayo address his warriors at the great military kraal of Nodwengu
On the afternoon of 17 January 1879 the Zulu king Cetshwayo addressed 20 000 of his warriors at the great military kraal of Nodwengu: "I am sending you out…
The first battle of the Anglo-Zulu war takes place
EventBeginning of the Anglo-Zulu War, 10 January 1879
Sir Bartle Frere was appointed British high commissioner to South Africa in 1879 to realise the policy of confederation (policy to bring the various British…
EventSir Bartle Frere, the new British High Commissioner delivers an ultimatum to Cetshwayo the Zulu king to disband his army’
The newly appointed British High Commissioner for Southern Africa delivers to Cetshwayo the Zulu king to disband his army, handover offenders. Frere who was…
EventBritish mission to subdue Sekhukhune is abandoned
A British mission to subdue Sekhukhune was abandoned after having failed with heavy loss of life on both sides. The attempt to subdue Sekhukhune came after the…
EventNqwiliso cedes land to Cape Government
Nqwiliso, tribal chief of Western Pondoland and eldest son of Ndamase, signed a treaty with H.G. Elliott in which he ceded sovereign rights and shipping in the…
Cable communication is established between England and the Cape
EventSekhukhune successfully resists the Boers
Sekhukhune I, King of the Bapedi, successfully resisted the Boers during a protracted Boer/Bapedi land ownership dispute. On 16 May 1876, the Volksraad of the…
EventThe Cape Times appears for the first time
The first issue of South Africa's first daily newspaper, The Cape Times, was published in Cape Town as an English language morning newspaper with Frederick…
Die Patriot is published in Paarl
EventAdam Kok III is killed in an accident
Adam Kok III, founder and chief of Griqualand East, was killed in an accident when he fell from his buggy. The Cape Colonial government unilaterally annexed…
EventVerney Cameron is first European to cross equatorial Africa
Verney Lovett Cameron entered the British navy in 1857, taking part in the Abyssinian campaign of 1868 and in the suppression of the East African slave trade…
South African author Maria Elizabeth Rothman (M.E.R.) is born
SA painter Thomas Baines dies
EventThe first Boer Trek to Angola that started in 1874 reaches Lake Ngami (Thirstland Trek) in 1875
The Thirstland Trek is the name given to the exodus of Boer/Afrikaans families, most of them from the districts of Pretoria and Rustenburg, through Northern…
EventExplorer Karl Gottlieb Mauch dies
German explorer Karl Gottlieb Mauch, allegedly the first person to discover gold in South Africa, died in poverty in Stuttgart, Germany. He made geologic and…
Sir Howard Carter, English archaeologist is born
EventGerhardus Cornelis Oosthuizen buys a section of land, which is later declared part of the Witwatersrand gold reef
On 6 April 1874, Gerhardus Cornelis Oosthuizen bought a section of the farm Langlaagte for £100. This farm would later be declared a part of the Witwatersrand…
EventHlubi Chief Langalibalele becomes one of the first Black activists to be tried and banished to Robben Island
While inhabiting the area near present day Estcourt in the Drakensberg foothills, Langalibalele- a hereditary chief of the Hlubi- was summonsed to…
Battle of Bushman’s Pass takes place
EventXhosa hero Maqoma dies on Robben Island
Xhosa war hero and regent of the AmaNgqika (Gaika) Xhosa clan during the youth of Sandile, Maqoma (also spelled Makoma or Macoma), died on Robben Island. He…