SAHO global search
63,723 records
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…
The Volksraad of the ZAR approves of the construction of a railway line from Pretoria to Delagoa Bay
Giuseppe Verdi’s magnificent opera, Aida, has its world premiere in Cairo, Egypt
Marico is declared a separate district
EventSir John Frederick William Herschel dies
On 11 May 1871 astronomer, Sir John Frederick William Herschel, died. Herschel began to take a serious interest in astronomy from about 1816. Herschel's father…
Frederick William Fitzsimons, pioneer of SA’s school museum service, is born in Ireland
The Republic of Klipdrift is proclaimed
EventJan Smuts is born
Jan Christian Smuts, who became South Africa's second Prime Minister in 1919, was born on the farm Bovenplaats near Riebeeck West in the Cape. Smuts had a…
EventKing Moshoeshoe dies
King Moshoeshoe, founder and first paramount chief of the Basotho nation died and was buried on Thaba Bosigo.
EventM K Gandhi, pioneer of the SA Passive Resistance movement and leader who led India to Independence, is born
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born into a Hindu Modh family in Porbandar, India. In 1893 he accepted a year-long contract from an Indian law firm work in…
Mzilikazi dies
EventBasutoland (now Lesotho) becomes British territory
Moshoeshoe is credited as "the father of the Basotho people" as he was responsible for the creation of Lesotho (The Basotho Kingdom), and the drawing together…
EventFirst recorded discovery of diamonds in the colonial period of South Africa
13 October 1867 marks the first recorded discovery of diamonds in the colonial period of South Africa, with the very first becoming known as the Eureka diamond…