This Day in History

Anti-apartheid activist, Beyers Naude is born

Walter Sisulu, co-founder of the ANCYL and Umkhonto we Sizwe, is born

SA colonies meet to consider and adopt the South Africa Act, which leads to the Union of South Africa

Belgium annexes the Congo Free State

Electrically powered units replaced Johannesburg's horse-drawn trams

World’s largest diamond at the time, the Cullinan, is found in South Africa

Rabbi Israel Abrahams is born

Alan Paton is born

Cecil John Rhodes (48) dies in Muizenberg

Kitchener succeeds Roberts as Commander-in-Chief

Battle of Vaalkrans begins

Winston Churchill, is captured by Boer forces during the Anglo-Boer War

The second Anglo-Boer war, also known as the South African war, breaks out

South African Committee investigates the Jameson Raid report

Hunter and politician Johannes Viljoen dies

The Republic of Goshen is founded

Prince Eugene Napoleon is killed during Anglo-Zulu War

Zulu King Cetshwayo address his warriors at the great military kraal of Nodwengu

Nqwiliso cedes land to Cape Government

Verney Cameron is first European to cross equatorial Africa

Dr Robert Broom is born

Chief Kausobson Kausob is killed

Zulu King Dingane orders the execution of Piet Retief’s men

Slavery is abolished at the Cape

The ‘Hospital and Lunatic Asylum’, the first civilian hospital in Cape Town, is opened

Dutch East Indian Company expedition into the interior

Lord Charles Henry Somerset, governor of the Cape Colony, is born in Badminton, England

Van Riebeeck lands at the Cape

The first family at the Cape moves into the fort

Jan van Riebeeck, Dutch colonial administrator and first commander of the colony at the Cape of Good Hope, is born

Bartolomeu Dias enters Luderitz Bay