This Day in History

John Koenakeefe Mohl , SA artist and founder member of Artists Under the Sun, dies in Soweto

The ANC celebrates its centenary anniversary in Bloemfontein

Mahatma Gandhi leaves the Tolstoy Farm 1913

Molly Blackburn, political activist and civil rights campaigner is killed in a car accident

Struggle icon Nxele Makana drowns while escaping from Robben Island

Former Ivorian president is extradited to the ICC

ANC becomes signatory to the Geneva Convention of 1949 and Protocol 1 of 1977

Security police raid offices of the United Democratic Front

Retired soccer player and founder of Kaizer Chiefs FC, Kaizer Motaung, is born in Soweto

The Khoi and San National Language Body is officially launched in Upington, Northern Cape

Guinea-Bissau is granted independence

Nigerian author Ben Okri wins the Booker Prize for his novel The Famished Road

Gary Bernard, photographer of The Star, commits suicide in Johannesburg

South African photojournalist and member of the Bang-Bang, Club Kevin Carter, commits suicide

Nelson Mandela is born

Bastille Day is celebrated across the world and in Franchhoek, South Africa

The Soweto Uprising leaves 174 blacks and two whites dead following 10 days of rioting

Kgalusi Seketa Masilo Ratshatsha Malaboch (Mmalebogo, Lebogo) dies

Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek decides that December 16 will be a public holiday called Dingaan’s Day

Eleven African demonstrators are shot dead by Rhodesian police in Salisbury

Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela-Mandela is sentenced to six years

Manne Dipico, former Premier of the Northern Cape, is born in Kimberley

South Africa’s TRC begins its formal hearings into Human Rights Violations

Blacks in South Africa protest against segregation

The death of Andries Tatane

Construction of the Victoria Falls Bridge and the railway line are completed

Anton Hammerl, South African photographer, is killed in Libya

Robben Island is turned into a maximum security prison

Gerard Moerdijk, SA architect of several church buildings and the Voortrekker monument, dies

The passive resistance movement begins with a mass meeting of 2000 Africans

Scores of people, including a Chief, are killed in Lari, Kenya, following an attack by Mau Mau freedom fighters

Bram Fischer is released from prison on health grounds

The first slave arrives at the Cape

Bafana Bafana, SA’s National soccer team, wins the Africa Cup of Nations Final

P.W. Botha, former South African State President, appears in court for refusing to testify at the TRC

Zulu army defeat British Army at the Isandlwana Mountain

The first airmail in SA, consisting of 730 post cards, is flown eight kilometres by Evelyn Driver in his Bleriot plane from Ken

Jean-Bedel Bokassa, ruler of Central African Empire, crowns himself.

Bophuthatswana is granted independence by the South African government

J.J. Hadebe replies to Thabo Mbeki’s plea