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Dingane orders his forces to wipe out remaining parties of Voortrekkers after the murder of Piet Retief and his companions
Dingane orders his forces to wipe out remaining parties of Voortrekkers after the murder of Piet Retief and his companions. The two Voortrekker parties at…
EventSculptor Lucas Sithole is born in KwaThema
Lucas Sithole, renowned South African sculptor, was born in KwaThema, Springs, Transvaal (now Gauteng) to a Zulu father and a Swazi mother. He created more…
ArticleA History of Lückhoff High School, 1932-1969
Introduction Lückhoff High School was established in 1935, as the first secondary school for the town’s ‘Coloured’ population of Stellenbosch. To date no…
EventMerenstejin Sinks
The Merenstejin, (or Merenstein as it is now spelled) a Dutch merchant ship that was built in Amsterdam, Holland in 1693 with a passenger capacity of 315, is…
ArticlePassive Resistance in South Africa
The passive resistance movement in South Africa is seen as, largely, led by M K Gandhi and the Indian Congresses campaigns. However, this form of passive…
ArticleMass Democratic movements, 1976-1983
IntroductionNovember 1977, Dr Mamphele Ramphele stands over Steve Biko's open casket in his home before the funeral, attended by 20,000 mourners at King…
Article1976-1983: Mass Democratic movements
Introduction
EventThe ship São José is wrecked
The Portuguese battleship São José Paquete Africa (also, São José-Paquete de Africa) was grounded in Camps Bay, Cape, with nearly 500 slaves on board. The ship…
EventThe Rand Revolt Ends
The strike by mineworkers on the Witwatersrand, also known as the Rand Revolt, ended on March 18 1922. The rebellion was a response by White mineworkers to a…
ArticleCape Town Timeline 1300-1997
Photograph of a Khoisan lady. Source: unknown 1300-1599 c.1300-c.1500 The Khoisan are established as the dominant power in the southern and south…
ArticleTimeline of the 1973 Durban Strikes
1972 October and December - Strikes at the Durban docks October 1972 - when new wages for dockworkers were not implemented, stevedores in Cape Town and…
ArticleNUSAS Wages Commission Timeline 1971-1973
1971 11 March, A resolution is passed at a student body meeting for the establishment of a student Wages Commission. David Hemson, Halton Cheadle, David…
ArticleThe Jacob Zuma Presidency - 2009 to 2017 (March)
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma ascended to the South African presidency on 9 May 2009 on a wave of popular euphoria fuelled by voters and fellow party politicians…
EventThe fall of the Berlin wall
In the aftermath of World War 2 Germany was partitioned into East and West Germany. The East was placed under the control of the Soviet Union while West…
PlaceWelkom
An Industrial and Commercial heartland, the City derived its name after the Farm; 'Welkom'. Welkom was founded in 1948 by Sir Earnest Oppenheimer, (who was the…
EventAnglo-Boer War 2: The Battle of Silkaatsnek begins
There is a pass in the Magaliesberg known as Silkaatsnek It was here that the two 12-pounder guns of 'O' Battery, Royal Horse Artillery (RHA), were placed and…
PlacePella
In the mid-1880s a huge Cathedral was built in the Bushmanland desert oasis of Pella by French Missionaries who at first had absolutely no idea what they were…
EventThe Democratic Party is founded
Location: back to this day in history search archive The Democratic Party officially came into being at a one day conference held in Johannesburg. The…
EventZAR’s last Cruesot ‘Long Tom’ dynamited
During the Anglo-Boer War II, the fourth and last Creusot 'Long Tom' of the state Artillery of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic, also…
EventMalawi switches over to a new decimal currency, the Kwacha
Malawi officially replaced the Malawian pound with the Kwacha on 28 August 1970. The country had circulated the Pound sterling, the Rhodesian Dollar and the…
ArticleHistory Grade 11 - Topic 4 Contextual Overview
Figure 1.1. With his call to put “America First”, Donald Trump is the latest recruit to a dangerous nationalism. Flagrantly authoritarian figures like Donald…
Article2016 in Review
In 2016 South Africa History Online celebrates 15 years of being a public open source heritage site. What a journey it has been. At the end of the first week…
Constructing the Union of South Africa; negotiations & contestations, 1902-10
Scanned in copy of the last page of the Treaty of Vereeniging, click to enlarge and view other pages Industrialization and British imperialism in South Africa…
EventUN warns Africa of the scourge of HIV
The United Nations states in Addis Adaba that more than eighty million Africans may die from Aids by 2025. The numbers could soar to ninety million, or more…
ArticleTimeline of the Group Areas Act and Selected Related Pieces Legislation
1885The Asiatic Bazaar Law was passed in the Transvaal, which authorized the creation of separate districts for Indians. Its primary justification was that of…
ArticleCommemoration, remembering and memorialising June 16 Soweto uprising
Since the early 1990s, June 16, now known as Youth Day, has been remembered, commemorated, and memorialised as public history. There have been different ways…
EventRobert Mugabe returns to Rhodesia after being in exile for five years
On 27 January 1980, the Rhodesian nationalist leader Robert Mugabe returned to Rhodesia after being in exile for five years. Mugabe had been trying to gather…
EventThe seven day war in Kwazulu-Natal starts
The first of more than 100 people were killed near Pietermaritzburg. Political conflict in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa caused the death of 200…
EventWorld’s largest diamond at the time, the Cullinan, is found in South Africa
On 26 January 1905 miner Frederick Wells extracted a large diamond from the Cullinan mine, a few kilometres outside Pretoria in South Africa's mineral-rich…
ArchiveThe National situation, an address delivered at the Edendale Conference of the All African Convention
The address opens with a description of three major landmarks of the year, namely;The first, the Treason Trial, which began on 5 December 1956 where 156 people…