South African Timeline II

This is primarily a South African genealogical timeline but for perspective I’ve included non South African events and people so that we can see what happened in other parts of the world at the same time.

For the most part I have not included online sources as their facts are difficult to verify and websites come and go and are changed continuously. My hardcopy and online sources are listed at the end.

I have tried to use old and new place names because names change and not everyone knows a place by it's old name or by it's new name. Not everyone knows the exact boundaries of the Cape Colony or where Bechuanaland, United States of Stellaland and the Land of Goshen or even the New Republic were. Not everything can be found online.

The history of our land is as diverse as it's people. And it is said that history is written by the victor. With this in mind I have tried to collate the sources but sometimes they differ vastly and in those cases I have made separate entries.

For a less detailed timeline please consult South African Timeline.

If you would like to become a collaborator then please request to join the South African Timeline above.

30 000 – 25 000 BC

• During the Middle Stone Age the northern part of southern Africa was home to the ancestors of the San. Evidence of their existence has been found in the ancient mine workings of the eastern region and in the decorated caves of today's Nambia (5) (1)

20 000

• During the Later Stone Age the hunter-gatherer San peoples became widely distributed throughout the subcontinent (5)

4000 BC

• Iron Age (North Africa) (1)

2200 BC

• Some of the San clans, living in what is now Botswana, adopted pastoral ways, kept livestock and pursued a semi nomadic lifestyle. These communities are known today as the Khoikhoi. They spread out from their original home and in the course of time became the dominant group in the south and west of the subcontinent (5) (1)

2000 BC

• Khoikhoi herders reached the southern tip of Africa (1)

1000 BC:

• Expansion of the Bantu people began. Bantu languages originated in West Africa and began to spread to other parts of Africa particularly central, south east and southern Africa. Experts believe there are approximately 250 to 525 Bantu languages in existence (1)

500 BC

• Settled Iron Age communities in sub Saharan Africa (agriculture) (1)

2nd Century AD

c. 200:

• Bantu speaking peoples, who are believed to have originated in West Africa, began to filter southwards across the Limpopo River and settled in parts of northern Transvaal. They were the ancestors of the contemporary Nguni, Tswana and Sotho peoples. They had an Early Iron Age culture and led a settled existence (5) (1)
• Start of the southern African Iron Age period (1)

4th Century

c. 400:

• Early Iron Age people settled in what is now known as KwaZulu-Natal (1)

5th Century

• The Khoisan speaking people’s language and customs was absorbed into those of the Bantu speakers. The group was made up of two culturally different people, the Khoi and the San. The amaXhosa, the southernmost group of the Bantu speakers, took certain linguistic traits from the Khoisan (1)
• The area of Great Zimbabwe was settled. The Ziwa and Gokomere communities survived by farming and mining the land. The area marked the earliest Iron Age settlements known of in the region. Great Zimbabwe later became the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe and served as the first city in southern Africa (1)

c. 500:

• Early Iron Age people develop a new form of pottery. This form is best represented in pottery fragments that have been assembled and subsequently become known as the Lydenburg Heads (1)

6th Century

• Settlers from southeast Asia, and later from the east African mainland, settled in Madagascar. Banana and rice cultivation was introduced by the Asian settlers while cattle and farming techniques were introduced by the Bantu speaking East Africans (1)

c. 600:

• Iron Age people settle along the south eastern seaboard as far as Mpame in the region later to be known as the Transkei (1)
• Beginnings of the Late Iron Age in the southern Africa region led to a greater concentration of settlement on the central Highveld of southern Africa (1)

8th - 13th Century

c. 800 - 1300:

• Larger farming communities of the Iron Age settled in the Limpopo River area, marking the settlement of Nguni speaking people in South Africa (later split to form Xhosa, Zulu, Swazi and Ndebele groups). Their move down to South Africa from areas in West Africa (mainly) was possibly driven by too dry a climate there during the Medieval Warm Epoch, between 900 and 1290 (1)

10th Century

• Sotho-Tswana states were formed on the Highveld south of the Limpopo River. Large towns of thousands of people made up early Tswana states north west of the Vaal River, with settlers leaving to start their own states over time (1)
• Indian and Arab trade settlement began in northern Madagascar to take advantage of the Indian Ocean trade. Islam was introduced by the traders (1)

11th - 13th Century

c. 1030 - 1290:

• Middle Iron Age people began to establish what is now known as the Mapungubwe kingdom. The Southern Terrace below Mapungubwe hilltop that was inhabited from around AD 1030 to 1290 was rediscovered by archeologists in the 1930s (1)
• Early ironworks were used in what is currently known as KwaZulu-Natal (1)

13th - 17th Century

• A later group of Bantu speaking people arrived on the subcontinent some time after the year AD 1200. Their appearance might have been the reason for the advance to a Later Iron Age culture, such as that which existed at sites like Mapungubwe in the northern Transvaal. By the 1500s the present pattern of distribution of the Bantu speaking peoples was much as it is today, with the Nguni groups (primarily Xhosa and Zulu) in the eastern coastal regions and the Sotho groups in the interior of the subcontinent. In the western and southern Cape the Khoikhoi and San were still firmly established at that time, as they were in the mid 17th century when the first white settlement was founded (5)

c. 13th - c. 15th Century

• Nguni communities settled along the south eastern seaboard and in the Drakensberg interior. The Highveld interior became populated by Sotho speaking people (later split to form South Sotho (Basuto and Sesotho), the West Sotho (Tswana), and the North Sotho (Sepedi)). The Khoisan were established as the dominant power in the southern and south western Cape regions (1)

1220:

• The kingdom of Zimbabwe was established. During the 13th century the Kingdom constructed a series of large stone structures in its capital of Great Zimbabwe. Some of these structures, like “the great enclosure”, were the largest ancient structures in Sub Saharan Africa. Great Zimbabwe seized control of the Indian Ocean trade and the wealth it produced from its gold supply (1)

15th Century

1430:

• A prince from the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, Nyatsimba Mutota, travelled north to expand commerce and to find new sources of salt. 350 km north of Great Zimbabwe, he found a city from which the Kingdom of Mutapa - also known as Wilayatu 'l Mu'anamutapah or Mwanamutapa (Lord of the Plundered Lands) was established (1)

1450s:

• Great Zimbabwe was abandoned, possibly due to a decline in trade, political instability, exhausted mines and climatic change which resulted in water shortages and famine (1)

1460:

• Portuguese navigators representing the interests of the Portuguese Royal House and merchants eager to find a sea route to India around the south coast of Africa reached the coast of Guinea, West Africa (1) (4) (5)

1483:

• Diogo Cão, a navigator acting under the instruction of the Portuguese King John II, reached the mouth of the Congo (Zaire) River (1) (5)

1485:

• Diogo Cão landed at Cape Cross, north of present day Walvis Bay (1) (5)

1487:

• The Portuguese explorer, Bartolomeu Dias, sailed down the coast to reach southern Angola. He later landed at present day Walvis Bay and soon after at Luderitz Bay where he erected a cross (1) (5)

1488:

• Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape, reached Algoa Bay and then turned back, erecting a cross at Kwaaihoek. He named the Cape the "Cabo de Esperança" or the Cape of Good Hope. This was a major breakthrough in the search for discovering a sea route to India (1) (5)
• The Portuguese recognised the Breede River mouth as the finest natural anchorage on the whole southern seaboard of Africa (2)

1495:

• With the ascension of Manuel I to the Portuguese throne the Royal House of Portugal strengthened its support of the scientific maritime investigation into finding a sea trade route to India (1)

1497:

• 8th July - Vasco da Gama, mandated to expand on Dias' discoveries, departed from Targus heading an expedition consisting of two ships, the São Rafael and the São Gabriel. They sailed along the southern African coast on the way to India (1)
• 8th November - They put foot on South African soil for the first time at present day St. Helena Bay on the west coast and encountered the first Khoikhoi. Da Gama gave the following description of them in his diary: 'The inhabitants of this country are tawny coloured. Their food is confined to the flesh of seals, whales and gazelles and the roots of herbs. They are dressed in skins and wear sheaths over their virile members. They are armed with poles of olive wood to which a horn, browned in the fire, is attached...' - (1) (5)
• Further east Da Gama and his crew sighted the Natal coast on Christmas Day and named it "Terra do Natal" which is Portuguese for "Land of Birth" (Christmas) (1) (5)

1498:

• Vasco da Gama reached the mouth of the Limpopo River during the first weeks and landed 85km north of it where he met the first black people, probably a Tsonga society living north of the Limpopo. Next, he went ashore at the northern branch of the Zambezi delta where he encountered Moslems. He crossed the Indian Ocean with the help of the famous Arabian pilot, Ahmad ibn-Mayid, and reached India via the Cape of Malabar thereby establishing the Portuguese monopoly of the sea trade route to India (1) (5)

1500:

• By this time the Kingdom of Mutapa had conquered several surrounding kingdoms, including the Kingdom of the Manyika, as well as the coastal kingdoms of Kiteve and Madanda. At its largest expansion the Kingdom of Mutapa covered most of modern day Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and the northern part of South Africa (1)
• The power of the Portuguese nation began to decline. This marked the start of many European nations pursuing the sea route rather than the land route to India (1)

16th Century

• Through the establishment of markets along the Zambezi River, the Portuguese gained a measure of military and political control over Mutapa, the empire which arose out of the fall of Great Zimbabwe under Nyatsimba Mutota (1)
• The Portuguese began mapping and exploring the South African coastline and basic trading took place between the Khoikhoi and the Europeans. Nguni and Sotho speaking groups began colonising South Africa (subjecting and incorporating neighboring groups and dispossessing their land) with eventually only the western and northern areas of the Cape not dominated by them (1)

1503:

• Antonio da Saldanha, leading a Portuguese squadron, entered Table Bay (called Aguada da Saldanha until 1601) owing to a navigational error. They were the first Europeans to climb Table Mountain which they named Taboa do Cabo (the Table Cape) on account of its shape (1) (5)

1510:

• 1st March - On his way back to Portugal the Viceroy of Portuguese India, Francisco d' Almeida, was killed in a skirmish with the Khoikhoi, probably due to a misunderstanding arising from barter between the Khoikhoi and the Portuguese at the mouth of the Salt River in Table Bay. Thereafter, Portuguese traders tended to bypass the Cape itself and relied on Robben Island for fresh meat and water (1) (5)

1554:

• 24th April - The Portuguese ship São Bento was wrecked north of the Great Fish River on its return from the East. Manuel de Mesquita Perestrelo, Portuguese navigator and cartographer, was one of 64 survivors of the crew of 473 who reached Delagoa Bay on foot and one of 23 to be ultimately rescued (1)

1564:

• An account of the shipwreck of the São Bento by mariner Manuel de Mesquita Perestrelo was published in Portugal, the oldest book dealing exclusively with events on South African soil (1)

1575 - 1576:

• Portuguese mariner and cartographer Manuel de Mesquita Perestrelo explored the south and southeast coast of South Africa on a voyage for this purpose. He gave the first detailed description and drew a map of the coast (1)

1576:

• It was about this time when King Sebastian's navigator, Manuel de Mesquita Perestrelo, was enthusiastic over the bay at the mouth of the Breede River. He named the bay after Dom Sebastiao, the most serene King of Portugal, St. Sebastian's Bay and the west bank he named Cape Infanta - (2)

1580:

• 18th June - An English admiral, Francis Drake, rounded the Cape on his voyage round the world in his quest to reach India for the English Crown. He described the Cape in the following words: 'This Cape is a most stately thing, and the fairest Cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth.' (1) (5)

1590s:

• The English and the Dutch began to call regularly at Table Bay on their way to and from Asia. The Khoikhoi traded mainly iron, copper and marijuana with the foreigners at this stage (1)

1594 - 1601:

• 1st August - The English navigator, James Lancaster, bartered sheep in the Bay of Saldanha (called Table Bay after 1601) from the Khoikhoi. He described the sheep as very large, with good mutton, bearing no wool but hair, and with very large tails (1) (5)

1595:

• 4th August - Four ships under Cornelis de Houtman reached São Bras. This was the first contact of the Dutch with the coast of southern Africa (1)
• Dutch East India Company was formed (5)

17th Century

• Europeans settled in South Africa for the first time and began to further colonise and trade with the Khoikhoi at the Cape. By the middle of this century the first Khoikhoi Dutch war was fought and slavery was entrenched (1)
• Throughout the rest of the country the Nguni and Sotho groups began splitting, as a result of strengthening chiefdoms, into the groups we know today (Zulu, Ndebele, Tswana, Xhosa etc.) (1)

1601:

• Joris van Spilbergen, leading a Dutch fleet, cast anchor in the Bay of Saldanha (Aguada da Saldanha) and named it Table Bay after Table Mountain while the original name was transferred to the present Saldanha Bay (1)
• 1st November - James Lancaster, in command of the first East India Company fleet of England, rounded the Cape again on his way to the East (1)

1602:

• 20th March - The Vereenigde Landsche Ge-Oktroyeerde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) trading company received a charter from the States General, the highest authority in the Republic of the United Netherlands, that entailed a trading monopoly and the right to acquire and govern Dutch possessions in the Orient for a period of 21 years. It was extended in 1623 and 1647 (1)

1608:

• Cornelis Matelief traded with Khoikhoi at Table Bay (5)

1613 – 1630:

• Several Dutch trading groups bartered with the Khoikhoi; some involved themselves in local conflicts (5)

1615:

• Sir Thomas Roe attempted to land some deported British criminals at the Cape but those who did not drown or were killed by Khoikhoi were soon removed from the Cape and the scheme was abandoned (1) (5)

1620:

• June - Captains Andrew Shillinge and Humphrey Fitzherbert formally annexed the shores of Table Bay in the name of King James 1 but the English King refused to confirm the annexation (1)

1628:

• Following a battle, the Portuguese replaced leadership in Mutapa with a lord under their control who signed treaties in Portugal’s favour, giving them unlimited control over mineral export rights. By undermining trade the Portuguese successfully destroyed the Mwanamutapa system of government and the region was in serious decline by 1667 (1)

1631:

• The English took Strandloper Autshumao (also Autshumato), chief of the Goringhaikonas Khoikhoi, to Batavia. He was known to the English as 'Harry' and later to the Dutch as 'Herry'. He was later returned to the Cape to act as the resident agent or postmaster for passing ships and as a translator (1) (5)

1632:

• Autshumao (Herry) asked passing sailors to ferry him and twenty of his followers to Robben Island where they remained on and off for the next eight years, protected from their mainland Khoikhoi enemies and within easy reach of the Island's edible resources that included penguins and seals (1)

1639:

• 14 October: - Simon Adriaans van der Stel was born to parents Adrian van der Stel and Maria Leviens aboard the Le Cappel on route to Mauritius (1)

1646:

• 25 May: - Simon van der Stel's father, Adrian van der Stel, died in the line of duty and the family moved to Batavia (1)

1647:

• 25th March - The Dutch ship, Nieuwe Haerlem, was wrecked in Table Bay. A survivor, Leendert Janszen, was instructed to remain behind with some crew to look after the cargo. After a year a Dutch ship fetched Janszen, his crew and the cargo. Upon his return to Holland Janszen and one of his companions, Matthijs Proot, was required to write a feasibility report on the establishment of a refreshment station at the Cape (1) (5)

1649:

• 26th July - The well known 'Remonstrantie' (feasibility report) was presented by Leendert Janszen and Matthijs Proot in support of the Dutch establishing a refreshment station at the Cape. Jan van Riebeeck, who was subsequently appointed by the VOC to establish the trading and refreshment station, supported them (1)

1652:

• 6th April - Jan van Riebeeck, onboard the Drommedaris arrived in Table Bay (1) (5)
• 7th April - He personally went ashore to look for the best place to erect a fort and a garden and established a refreshment station at the Cape between the foot of Table Mountain and the shores of Table Bay. The purpose was to provide fresh water, fruit, vegetables and meat for passing ships en route to India as well as build a hospital for ill sailors. He used Autshumao (Herry), chief of the Goringhaikonas, as interpreter in cattle bartering transactions with the Khoikhoi (1) (5)
• Van Riebeeck immediately requested the VOC to supply him with slaves imported from Asia to do the farming, perform other tasks related to the needs of the crews of passing ships and to build a fortification as the VOC has issued clear instructions that the indigenous population was not to be enslaved. The VOC did not send slaves for at least five years. The only slaves that Van Riebeeck received were either stowaways or those that captains on passing ships give him (see later entries) (1)
• Shortly after Van Riebeeck's arrival the first horses were imported from Java (1)

1653:

• 2nd March - The first slave, Abraham, a stowaway from Batavia, was given to Van Riebeeck. He worked for the Company until he was sent back to Batavia three years later (1)
• 19th October -Autshumao (Herry), chief of the Goringhaikonas and Van Riebeeck's interpreter, murdered the cattle-herd David Jansz and took off with almost the whole of the settlers' herd of cattle. He was pursued but not captured (1)

1654:

• The first Cape based slave expedition was sent to Madagascar and Moçambique. However, the ship was wrecked along the coast of Madagascar (1)
• 6th April - On the second anniversary of his arrival at the Cape, Van Riebeeck announced that in future this day would be observed as a prayer and Thanksgiving Day to God (1)

1655:

• The Dutch ensigned Jan Wintervogel was sent by Van Riebeeck to explore the interior. He was to scout for trading opportunities with the indigenous communities there as well as to identify arable land. He reaches Saldanha Bay on the south west coast overland (1) (5)
• Having fled the Cape after the murder of cattle-herd David Jansz in 1653, Autshumao (Herry) returned to the Cape. Van Riebeeck allowed him to settle there once more. He was not punished for his former misdemeanour (1)
• Willem Muller, a corporal and accompanied by the interpreter Autsumao (Herry), was sent by Van Riebeeck to explore the Hottentots Holland region and to barter livestock. On this occasion Autsumao took the barter goods (copper) and traded on his own account. He returned with thirteen cattle for the Company and a fair number of cattle and sheep for himself (1) (5)
• Maize seeds were introduced to the Cape from the Netherlands (1) (5)
• Van Riebeeck had the first vine planted in the Company's garden (1) (5)
• March - There were three slaves at the Cape who were brought from Madagascar (1)

1656:

• The first conflict between the Dutch and local Khoi erupted at the Cape (1)
• The first slave was freed to marry a Dutch settler (1)

1657:

• The first 12 free burghers settled along the Liesbeeck River in the Cape to cultivate land to provide ships stopping at the station with fresh food (1) (5)
• Nine Company servants were freed at Van Riebeeck's recommendation to the VOC to farm and keep livestock on freehold land along the Liesbeeck River. These ex servants, now called "free burghers", were exempted from taxation and had access to slaves. However, they had to sell all their produce to the Company. This was an attempt by Van Riebeeck to match the requirements for fresh produce by passing ships as five years into the establishment of the refreshment station Van Riebeeck was still not able to produce the fresh food required by the ships on their way to the East (1)
• Doman, leader of the Goringhaiqua Khoikhoi, was sent to Batavia to be trained as an interpreter (1)
• Van Riebeeck discussed the Khoikhoi policy with Commissioner Rijckloff van Goens. They agreed the only practical attempt to avoid thefts by Herrie and his Goringhaikonas followers was the method of territorial separation: 'haer af te snijden op den pas, door middle van onse fortificatiën en wachthuisen' (to prevent their entry into the settlement by means of fortifications and watch houses). This was the first introduction of the official policy of territorial segregation in South Africa. Van Riebeeck was further encouraged to continue his past policy of trying to win the Khoikhoi over to his side by gentle persuasion (1)
• 22 October - Abraham Gabbema was sent on an investigative mission into the interior where he reached a river and named it the Berg River. During his expedition he also reached and named Diamantberg, Paarlberg and Klapmutsberg (1) (5)
• First group of slaves imported from Angola and West Africa (5)
• Pineapples were introduced to the Cape (5)

1658:

• 25th, 26th or 28th March - The ship Amersfoort that two months earlier was intercepted by a Portuguese slaver bound for Brazil from Angola arrived in Table Bay with a shipment of 174 slaves. Most were sent to Batavia. Thirty eight men and thirty seven women remained at the Cape. Jan van Riebeeck obeyed the order of the VOC to not enslave the indigenous people of the Cape (1)
• 6th May - Another ship, the Hasselt, arrived in Table Bay with 228 slaves from Popo, Gulf of Guinea, (Dahomey). Most of them slaves were shipped to Batavia (1)
• 10th July - Van Riebeeck banished Autsumao (Herry) to Robben Island. He escaped in December 1659 in a leaky boat and was again allowed to settle near the Fort with his followers (1)

1659:

• Simon van der Stel's mother, Maria Leviens, remarried and Simon van der Stel moved to Holland (1)
• 2 February - The first wine was pressed at the Cape. Van Riebeeck wrote in his journal that the harvest amounted to twelve "mengelen" (about fourteen litres) of Must (1) (5)
• May - The first of the Khoikhoi-Dutch Wars began. The first of a series of armed confrontations over the ownership of the land took place between the Dutch settlers and a Khoikhoi clan led by Doman. The Khoikhoi attempted to steal cattle used by Dutch settlers to plough the land that the latter had appropriated from them. In this first anti colonial Khoikhoi-Dutch war the settlers sought refuge in the fort. A lack of unity among the Khoikhoi group undermined the revolt. Consequently, the Peninsular Khoikhoi lost more land to the Dutch settlers and many men. In an attempt to prevent the stealing of cattle the Dutch administration erected a series of fortified fences along the Liesbeeck River and an almond hedge in present day Kirstenbosch to separate the Khoikhoi from their ancestral land and from the Dutch. Khoikhoi were restricted in their movement and were forced to use designated gates when entering the enclosed and fortified area (1) (5)

1659 - 1664:

• During these years five different expeditions set out to find the land of the Namaquas (1)

1660:

• The Thembu, Mpondo and Mpondomise and Xhosa kingdoms formed and were well established (1)
• Settlers planted an almond hedge and erected a line of fortifications along the Liesbeek River (5)
• The first Dutch exploratory expedition on horseback set out north- and eastwards. Jan Danckaert reached what he named the Olifants River. Across the river they saw the fires of the Namaqua but exhaustion forced them to return (1) (5)
• Pieter Everaert located the mouth of the Olifants River 2 years later (5)
• April - Peace was finally restored after months of negotiations and the first Khoikhoi-Dutch war ended (1)

1660 – 1670:

• The first horses were imported during the decade (5)

1661:

• 31 January - Pieter Cruythoff, with fifteen men, set off on his first expedition into the interior north of the Cape. They reached the territory of the Namaquas who were described as giants wrapped in cured animal skins and wearing iron and copper beadwork (1) (5)

1662:

• Pieter Everaert discovered the mouth of the Olifants River (1)
• Doman, leader of the Goringhaiqua (Kaaimans) Khoikhoi, died (1)
• 6 May - Zaccharias Wagenaer succeeded Van Riebeeck as Commander of the refreshment station which, under Van Riebeeck's command, became a colony (1)
• 7 May - [[Jan van Riebeeck Jan van Riebeeck] and his family left Table Bay onboard the Mars for Batavia and was succeeded by Z. Wagenaer (1) (5)
• There were 40 free burghers with about 15 women and 20 children settled at the Cape who cultivated land to provide ships stopping at the station with fresh food (1)

1663:

• Cape Dutch settlement expanded. Outposts were established in the Hottentots Holland and Saldanha Bay areas (5)
• Autshumao (Herry), interpreter and chief of the Goringhaikonas (Strandlopers), died (1)
• Simon van der Stel married Johanna Jacoba Six and had six children (1)

1666:

• 2 January - Work began on the building of a stone fortification at the Cape (later popularly known as the Castle) with the laying of the four foundation stones of the first bastion (1) (5)

1668:

• Hieronimus Cruse explored the east coast. Part of the expedition returned overland to the Castle from Mossel Bay. His crew in the vessel Voerman were to explore the coast of Natal (1) (5)

1670:

• According to oral history the Zulu royal line was founded. The word Zulu means 'Sky' and Zulu was the name of the ancestor who founded the Zulu royal line (1)

1672:

• The VOC attempted to transact a formal transfer of land seized from Khoikhoi in numerous skirmishes (1)
• Sugarcane was introduced (1) (5)
• Brandy, which was used as currency in the bartering trade relations with the Khoikhoi, was produced in the colony for the first time (1) (5)
• August - Thirteen company officials were sent to the fertile Hottentots Holland area to establish an outpost to increase the production of wheat (1)
• The Dutch East India Company (VOC) took over the Hottentots Holland, False Bay and Saldanha Bay areas (1)

1673:

• Following the various exploratory excursions into the interior north of the colony the Dutch discovered fertile grazing land to the north east of the Hottentots Holland Mountains which belonged to the Chainoqua, Hessequa, Cochoqua and Gouriqua Khoikhoi chiefdoms. These Khoikhoi had big herds of livestock. They were also willing to engage in trade with the Dutch. Land was actually bartered from Chaitain Dhouw. However, the Dutch terms of trade led to warfare and raiding of livestock, as well as amongst the Khoikhoi chiefdoms (1)
• 18 July - The Company sent Hieronimus Cruse to attack the Cochoqua. This attack, executed on horseback, marked the beginning of the Second Dutch-Khoikhoi War and lasted two years. The Dutch took approximately 1800 head of livestock (1) (5)

1674:

• The building of the stone fortification, known as the Castle of the Cape of Good Hope, was completed (1) (5)

1676:

• The VOC launchesd a second attack on the Chocoqua. In this Third Dutch-Khoikhoi War almost 5000 head of livestock and weapons were taken from the Chocoqua (1)

1677:

• Governor Bax sent Skipper Cornelis Wobma along the west coast to determine 'where the Hottentots (Khoikhoi) end and where the abode of the K*****s begins'. He returned with news that the boundary was somewhere north of Mossamedes (Ed – south western Angola? https://www.jstor.org/stable/1781781) (1)
• 25 June - The Third Khoikhoi-Dutch war ended. Governor Bax extracted the submission of the Chocoqua to Dutch rule expressed in an annual tribute of 30 head of cattle. This submission paved the way for Dutch colonial expansion into the land of the Khoikhoi (1)

1679:

• A Slave Lodge was built to house Company slaves (1)
• May - Simon van der Stel arrived at the Cape, accompanied by his four sons and sister-in-law Cornelia Six. They were initially accommodated in the old Governor's house but were then relocated to the Castle. He was soon appointed Commander of the Cape of Good Hope Colony and was specifically mandated by the VOC to vigorously continue with the Company policy of Dutch colonial expansionism. He authorised expansion of the settlement to include the Stellenbosch, Eerste River, Drakenstein, Paarl, Franschoek, Tygerberg and Wagenmakers Vallei areas, all land belonging to the Khoikhoi (1) (5)

1682:

• Commissioner Rijckloff van Goens instructed Commander Simon van der Stel to oppose all miscegenation (mixture of races) at the Cape (1)
• Four heemraden were appointed (5)

1683:

• 28th September - Colonists addressed a petition to the Political Council in which they asked for a school at Stellenbosch to accommodate the children of the thirty families already settled there. Their request was granted and Sybrand Mankadan was sent as teacher, preacher and sick-visitor (1)

1684:

• The Rozwi (Rozvi) Empire was established on the Zimbabwean Plateau by Changamire Dombo. The empire fought off Portuguese invasion which formed part of Portuguese attempts to gain control of their gold trade. Driving them off the Zimbabwean Plateau he ensured that Europeans had little presence in the Eastern Highlands of the region (1)
• The VOC unilaterally established price controls over hides, skins, ivory and ostrich eggs, thereby provoking more conflict with the indigenous population and the "black market" dealing in these commodities (1) (5)

1685:

• The visiting VOC Commissioner, Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede, decreed that male slaves buy their freedom at the age of 25 and female slaves at 22 years. The freed slaves were to be trained in designated areas of work including agriculture. This decree was not enacted. However, a slave school was established in the Company Slave Lodge for the children of Company slaves only (1) (5)
• 16 July: - VOC commissioner Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede granted Simon van der Stel title deeds to a farm that Van der Stel named ‘Constantia’ (1)
• August: - Simon van der Stel launched his first expedition to Namaqualand in search of the region’s rumoured copper potential (1)
• Marriages between Dutch men and female slaves wee prohibited except in the case of female slaves with Dutch fathers (1)
• Dutch settlers 'discovered' the copper deposits in Namaqualand after decades of exploratory expeditions (1) (5)
• Johannes Mulder was appointed Stellenbosch Landdrost (5)
• Jesuit Father Guy Tachard made first astronomical observations https://www.scross.co.za/2018/06/a-jesuit-at-the-cape-in-the-1680s/ (5)

1687:

• Simon van der Stel declared new land available for Freeburgher settlement in the Upper Berg River Valley. He surveyed False Bay and renamed the area then known as Yzelstein’s Bay to Simon’s Bay, after himself (1)

1688:

• Huguenot refugees began arriving in the Cape from Europe and settled mainly in the Drakenstein and Franschhoek and, shortly afterwards, in the Wellington region (1) (5)

c. 1690:

• This period marked the appearance of the Trek Boer, a semi nomadic Dutch farmer and cattle grazer who settled beyond the Cape's official borders and out of the reach of the authority of the Company. Though prohibited and punished by the Cape authorities if discovered, instances occurred where they raided livestock of the Khoikhoi, burnt down their dwellings and settlements and drove them off the land which was then appropriated for themselves. On the other hand San and Khoikhoi attacked, raided and burnt down farms. The Trek Boers are not to be confused with the Voortrekkers who left the Cape Colony in a series of organised treks in the 1830s to settle permanently in areas in the interior not under British rule (1) (5)

1690:

• Slaves in Stellenbosch attempted unsuccessfully to rise up against their owners (1) (5)

1691:

• 14 December: - The VOC replaced the office of ‘Commander’ with ‘Governor’ and Simon van der Stel became the first official Governor of the Cape. He moved into his newly completed manor house at Groote Constantia (1) (5)

1693:

• Governor Simon van der Stel authorised an attack on Khoikhoi Captain Dorha and his kraal after the group refused to supply the Company with livestock. Captain Dorha was captured by the soldiers, many of his followers killed and all of his livestock stolen (1)

1699:

• Governor Simon van der Stel retired. His son Willem Adriaen van der Stel, who governed until 1707, succeeded him (1) (5)

1700:

• The first "Placaat" (ordinance or statute) restricting the importation of Asian slaves was promulgated (1)
• Dlamini chiefdoms moved south from Delagoa Bay and settled on land north of the Phongolo River thereby forming the core of the future Swazi nation (1)
• Free burghers were permitted to trade with local Khoikhoi chiefdoms. The latter suffered economic decline as a direct result of the terms of the trading system set by the Dutch (1) (5)
• At the advice of Cape Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, the Dutch colonial administration annulled its policy of forbidding the inland trek of migrant stock farmers or Trek Boers. This paved the way for unencumbered colonial expansion. The boundaries extended north and included Winterberg, Witzenberg and Roodezand later called Tulbagh (1) (5)

18th Century

• The Cape colony under the Dutch grew, bringing slaves from Indonesia, Mozambique and Madagascar. The Khoikhoi resisted the northward movement of the settlement by utilising raids and guerrilla warfare thus slowing the colony’s expansion for that period (1)

1701:

• 13th March - Khoisan raided more than 40 cattle from Dutch farmers at the Cape (Wallis) (1)

1702:

• Trafficking cattle and ivory at the Cape colony was firmly established. An eastern expedition of ivory traffickers unsuccessfully attacked the amaXhosa for cattle. They lifted cattle from the Khoikhoi instead. This attack was the first recorded evidence of encounters of colonists with the amaXhosa (1) (5)
• In an attempt to put a stop to cattle raiding and other forms of brigandage by Trek Boers the VOC imposed a temporary ban on free trading with the Khoikhoi at the Cape (1)

1703:

• Licences, or Loan Farm Ordinances, were issued to stock farmers allowing them to graze their cattle beyond formal colonial boundaries on the land of the Khoikhoi. This was an attempt to increase their productivity. It was estimated that whereas colonists owned 8 300 head of cattle and 54 000 sheep in 1700, by 1710 this number had increased to 20 000 head of cattle and 131 000 sheep (1) (5)

1704:

• The Free Trade Embargo against the Khoikhoi was dropped (1)

1706:

• Adam Tas, representing farming burghers, drew up a formal Memorandum Of Complaint which was addressed to the Directorate of the VOC in Batavia. In the memorandum the signatories accused Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel and Company officials of illicit farming and trading, illegal landholding and setting up of illicit monopolies on the sale of wine, wheat and meat. The Governor ordered the arrest and detention of Adam Tas and 60 signatories. However, the VOC removed the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Chaplain and the Landdrost (magistrate) from their posts and all the land in possession of company officials had to be disposed of. In addition, the monopolies were rescinded. This meant the VOC reasserted the official Company policy with regards to prohibiting the involvement of Company officials in farming and trading activities and restricting them to their official administrative responsibilities (1) (5)

1710 - 1720:

• A continuing surplus of wheat and wine resulted in a price slump with serious consequences for the wholly agrarian Cape economy (1)

1712:

• Simon Adriaans van der Stel fell ill and died at the age of 73. He was buried in the Groote Kerk, Cape Town (1)

1713:

• A group of Cape slaves deserted the immediate Cape Colony and attempted to establish a life for themselves to the north west. They were captured and severely punished. Thomas van Bengalen (possibly Thomas de Korte van Bengalen, partner of Diana van de Caap, was hanged while Tromp van Madagascar, the leader, was sentenced to death by impalement. Van Madagascar committed suicide in goal. The rest of the captured slaves had their Achilles tendons severed or their feet otherwise broken on the wheel (1)
• March - An outbreak of smallpox, introduced by crew and passengers of a passing ship, resulted in the death of 25% of the White population and virtual decimation of the south western Cape Khoikhoi who had no resistance to this disease. The decimation of the Khoikhoi resulted in an acute labour shortage. Tracts of land became "ownerless". Colonial cattle farmers appropriated this land. Further outbreaks of smallpox occurred in 1755 and most seriously in 1767 which registered three separate outbreaks (1) (5)

1715:

• Trek Boers raided cattle from the Khoikhoi as far north west of the Cape Colony as Saldanha Bay (1)

1717:

• The VOC decided that future grants of land to settlers at the Cape should no longer be done on a freehold basis but as loan farms called Leningplaatsen. The farmers had to pay a rental to the Company for the use of the farm. However, approximately 400 freehold farms had been granted by the time this system was changed. The owners of these farms were consequently unaffected by the new system of land tenure (1)
• Estimates put the colony's population at 744 officials, approximately 2 000 burghers and just over 2 700 slaves. Hence the slave population formed approximately 50% of the total population within little more than 50 years of the founding of the refreshment station (1) (5)
• The Company (VOC) reinstated the ban on free trading with the Khoikhoi that it had suspended in 1704 (1)
• In an attempt to enforce its control over the maintenance of borders in the eastern regions of the Cape Colony the Company established an administrative post at Ziekenhuys (1)

1719:

• Tobacco industry began with the arrival of Cornelis Hendriks (5)

1721:

• March - An attempt to take possession of Rio de Lagoa (Delagoa Bay) for the VOC was launched by sending a company of soldiers to occupy the bay (1)

1728:

• Conflict between Trek Boers and the indigenous population escalated into a full blown skirmish as the Khoikhoi were systematically and with violent means robbed of their land and livestock. Twelve Khoikhoi were killed by gunshot in this skirmish (1)

1730:

• Early slave market in Zanzibar (1)
• The VOC began the systematic trading for slaves in Moçambique and Zanzibar (1)
• Phalo assumed rule over the amaXhosa. During his forty five year reign power struggles between two of his sons, Gcaleka, Great House Son, King of the Xhosa, Father of the Transkei (a province in South Africa), and Rharhabe, Right Hand House Son, Xhosa Chief, Father of the Ciskei (a province in South Africa, led to a deep political rift in his kingdom (1) (5)
• A commando attacked a group of Khoisan whom they suspected of having lifted cattle. Apart from six Khoisan being shot dead by the commando, the commando took a woman and three children captive. This was the first record of indigenous women and children being taken captive and forced into domestic labour by Dutch colonists as booty of warfare. It was to become a characteristic practice in the ensuing clashes and skirmishes between the Dutch and the indigenous population (1)
• December - The attempt to take possession of Rio de Lagoa (Delagoa Bay) for the VOC failed and the garrison of 103 soldiers that occupied Fort Lydsaamheid since 1721 returned to the Cape (1)
• Trek Boers reached the present-day George area in the east, Langkloof in the north (5)

1732:

• In an attempt to contain the movement of the Trek Boers and to enforce payment of rent on the Leningplaatsen the VOC revised the land tenure system. It introduced the quitrent system which allowed the farmer land tenure for fifteen years. If after a tenure of the agreed fifteen years the farm was returned to the Company the farmer was reimbursed for all fixed improvements made to the farm (1)

1734:

• The Company (VOC) set up an administrative post to the east at Rietvlei. The Great Brak River was declared the eastern boundary of Cape colony (1) (5)

1737:

• September - Georg Schmidt, a Moravian missionary, was granted permission by the VOC to establish a mission station for landless Khoikhoi. He established himself at Zoetemelksvlei, a military outpost beyond Caledon, but moved a few months later to Baviaanskloof, today known as Genadendal. This marked the beginning of Protestant missionary activity in South Africa (1)

1739:

• Cattle raids (1)
• South western Cape Khoikhoi took up arms against the Dutch in protest against the colonial seizure of their land. This was their last organised rebellion. After it was suppressed the defeated Khoikhoi were absorbed as unskilled farm labourers into the colonial economy (1) (5)
• The Khoikhoi complained to the Castle that a group of farmers of the Olifants River had robbed them of their cattle. The matter was investigated and the Khoikhoi proved right. They were placed under protection of the Company and given back their cattle. The farmers were angry and ignored an order to appear before the Landdrost and the Council of Justice (1)
• San (Bushmen) in the north became actively hostile and many farmers were forced to leave their farms. The Acting Governor, Daniël van den Henghel, raised a large commando against them, promising amnesty to all those who helped him in the campaign (1)
• March - Under leadership of Etienne Barbier a group of eight armed horsemen, who were found guilty of robbing Khoikhoi of their cattle, fastens(sic) a document accusing the government of tyranny and stating they would no longer pay taxes. They took advantage of the amnesty offered to those who take part in the commando against the San by Governor van den Henghel. Barbier, however, remained in hiding and was eventually caught (1)
• April - Hendrik Swellengrebel became governor of the Cape (1)
• November - Etienne Barbier, a French soldier in service of the VOC who deserted and became leader of a group of dissatisfied farmers, was drawn and quartered (body cut into four parts) and exhibited along the main roads as a warning. He was the first rebel in South Africa (SESA, v. 2, p. 174) (1)

1742:

• Georg Schmidt baptised five Khoikhoi. This caused upheaval as politically it was still not clear whether converts to Christianity from the indigenous population should be accorded equal civil and political rights as colonists. The Council of Policy therefore forbade such baptisms by Schmidt, citing the excuse that he was not an ordained Minister. Two years later, in 1744, Schmidt left the Cape for Holland in order to be ordained and hence be allowed to baptise Khoikhoi. In his absence no missionary activity took place (1)

1743 - 1745:

• Governor-General Baron van Imhoff inspected the Cape Colony. He changed the land tenure system to discourage migrant pastoralism among the Dutch border farmers as the introduction of the quitrent system proved ineffective. In addition, he established the district of Swellendam and also ordered the establishment of Dutch Reformed churches in areas that were to become known as Malmesbury and Tulbagh (1) (5)

1751:

• Ryk Tulbagh was appointed as Governor of the Cape. During his reign from 1751 to 1771 he established the Colony's first library and a plant and animal collection in the gardens of the Company (1) (5)

1752:

• Ensign Friedrich Beutler explored the eastern coastal region of South Africa with a team comprising a surveyor and cartographer, a surgeon, a botanist, a wainwright and a blacksmith. He returned to the Company (VOC) with descriptions of the Nguni inhabitants of the Keiskamma River region (1) (5)

1753:

• Ryk Tulbagh initiated the codification of slave law (1)

1754:

• A census of the Cape revealed it's non indigenous population comprised 5 510 white settlers and 6 279 slaves (1) (5)
• Khoisan groups attacked and raided farms in the Roggeveld area (1)

1755:

• The second great smallpox epidemic broke out at the Cape (1) (5)

1760:

• Hendrik Hop and Willem van Reenen completed a successful exploratory expedition into Namaqualand as far north as Walvis Bay and Keetmanshoop. They discovered evidence of copper in that region (1) (5)

1762:

• Jacobus Coetzee undertook an exploratory expedition north of the Orange River (1) (5)

1765:

• The Meermin sailed from the Cape to purchase slaves in Madagascar. Due to a mutiny by the slaves on the return journey, the journey nearly failed. After a battle on the ship between captured sailors and slaves near Cape Agulhas only 122 slaves of the cargo of 140 reached the Cape (1)

1767:

• Drawing of Cape Town and the castle in 1764 by J Rach (1)
• The Cape frontier was pushed further eastward beyond the Gamtoos River into the land of the amaXhosa. Armed confrontations between the amaXhosa and the Dutch colonists ensued (1) (5)
• Trek Boers reached the Swartkops River to the east and Bruintjieshoogte to the north (1) (5)
• The 3rd great smallpox epidemic broke out in the Cape Colony and wreaked devastation among the Khoikhoi and nearly eradicated them. Those who survived become westernised, Christianised and learnt to speak Dutch, which later became Afrikaans, and dressed in European clothes (1) (5)

1774:

• Georg Schmidt of the Moravian Church established first mission station at Genadendal (5)

1775:

• The death of Phalo increased the political tensions and strife within the amaXhosa people. Consequently they split into two groupings: followers of Gcaleka, Great House Son, King of the Xhosa, Father of the Transkei (a province in South Africa) and followers of Rharhabe, Right Hand House Son, Xhosa Chief, Father of the Ciskei (a province in South Africa, two of the sons of Phalo (1)
• The Council of Policy of the VOC extended the borders of the districts of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein to Bruintjieshoogte and up to the Great Fish River (formerly extended in 1779) and the district of Swellendam to the Bushmans River as part of its policy of expanding the Cape Colony (1) (5)
• Apprenticeship laws were promulgated at the Cape (1)

1778:

• The Cape Colony's eastern border was extended to the Upper (Greater) Fish and Bushmans Rivers by decree of the VOC Council of Policy. This lay the foundation for a series of anti colonial wars by the amaXhosa and skirmishes that were to last until the end of the nineteenth century (1) (5)
• Gcaleka, Great House Son, King of the Xhosa, Father of the Transkei (a province in South Africa), the paramount chief of the amaXhosa, died. Ngqika succeeded him under the regency of Ndlambe, the son of Rharhabe. Rharhabe used Gcaleka's death to extend his own power. This included attempts to form an alliance with the Colony. In the ensuing strife Rharhabe and his Amarharhabe were banished to the north of the Eastern Cape (1) (5)
• September - Baron Joachim Amana van Plettenberg, Cape Governor, left the Castle with a small party of officials on an expedition to visit "the most outlying regions as far as they are occupied'. In his diary he recorded that he met the first Khoikhoi, two men with their women-folk and children, on the tenth day after their departure on the journey through barren and uninhabited veld (1)
• September - Governor van Plettenberg erected a beacon of slate 2m high at the bay formerly called by names such as Bahia de la Goa, Angra das Alagoas, Bahia Formosa, Bay of St Catherine and various others, and named it Plettenberg Bay (1)
• September - The Governor reached grassy plains where he found farmers and their livestock. Continuing his journey he noticed there were no Khoikhoi kraals left but that they were living with the farmers on their farms. He recorded "that these distant border families are 'usually ... moral, reasonably skilled and ardently wished for' a minister and a landdrost". The farmers near the Sneeuberge complained about the "Bushmen- Hottentots" who steal their livestock and murder their herdsmen (Muller, C.F.J. (ed)(1981). Five Hundred years: a history of South Africa; 3rd rev. ed., Pretoria: Academica, p. 78.) (1)

1779 - 1881:

• The amaXhosa drove large herds of their cattle across the border in search of grazing. Clashes between them and border farmers took place and by the end of 1779 many farmers had abandoned their farms on the Fish and Bushmans rivers. After two farmer's commandos organised in 1779 and 1780 to follow the amaXhosa into their own country, Adriaan van Jaarsveld was instructed to implement the establishment of the eastern border of the Colony (Greater Fish and Bushman's Rivers) by enforcing a relocation of all amaXhosa chiefdoms living to the west of the Greater Fish River. Under the pretence of bringing the Amamdange a gift of goodwill Van Jaarsveld ordered his commando to attack the unsuspecting and unarmed Amamdange, killing many. Other chiefdoms wre similarly attacked. In addition to defeating the amaXhosa, Van Jaarsveld, contrary to his instructions, netted almost 6 000 head of cattle and divided them amongst the members of the commando and other border farmers who had suffered losses during raids by the amaXhosa. Numbers for other livestock are not known (1)
• This series of skirmishes and attacks went down in history as the First War of Dispossession, or the First Frontier War, between the amaXhosa and Dutch colonists. It was the first of a series of nine wars waged by various colonial administrations against the amaXhosa in attempts to dispossess them of their land and livestock, to settle colonists there and to safeguard the frontier farmers against raids by the amaXhosa (1) (5)

1780:

• The Cape government declared the entire length of the Fish River as its eastern boundary without consulting the amaXhosa, claiming most of the Zuurveld for the colonists. Since this claim could not be enforced against them except by military means it was only achieved in 1812 (SESA, p. 56) (1)

1780 - 1783:

• War between Holland and England hastened the end of the commercial and political influence of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) which had started to decline in the early second half of the eighteenth century (1) (5)

1781:

• In an attempt to avert a British threat to Dutch control at the Cape the French, who were allies of the Dutch, stationed troops at the Cape. They remained there for three years (1) (5)
• The rix dollar became the unit of paper currency in the Cape Colony, gradually replacing gold and silver coins (1) (5)

1782:

• Boer commandos defeated the Xhosa (5)
• Wreck of the Grosvenor (5)

1782 or 1787:

• The chief of the amaXhosa and brother of Gcaleka, Rharabe, died near Dohne (1)

1785:

• Shaka, the future king of the amaZulu, was born (1) (5)

1786:

• Graaff-Reinet, third oldest country town in the Cape Colony, was established as a district and as the location from which the Colonial Administration implemented its policy of separation of Trek Boers and amaXhosa and enforcing the border that they had drawn up. M.H.O. Woeke was appointed as first Landdrost (1) (5)
• Landrost Woeke estimated that between 1 July 1786 and 31 December 1788 the San murdered 107 cattleherds and stole or killed 99 horses, 6 299 cattle and 17 970 sheep. (Kruger, D.W. (ed)(1979). Geskiedenis van Suid-Afrika; verwerk en bygewerk deur D.W. Kruger; 3de bygewerkte uitg., Goodwood, Cape Town: NASOU, p. 102) (1)
• Birth of Moshweshwe, (Ed – probably Moshoeshoe) future Basuto (Sotho) king (1) (5)

1787:

• The Philadelphia Convention took place in America and the different State representatives drew up a federal constitution (1)

1789:

• Serious conflict developed between Spain and Britain over the American fur trade (1)
• Merino sheep originally from Spain (though some believe the breed originated in North Africa) were imported from the Netherlands. This marked the start of the lucrative wool industry in the Cape Colony. It was also a significant reason for ensuing battles for the land of the indigenous people as Settler merino farmers demanded more grazing land (1) (5)
• The first overseas mail service in South Africa was inaugurated (1) (5)
• Ngqika (Gaika), who made an unsuccessful bid for the supreme leadership of the amaXhosa, defeated Ndlambe. By the end of the decade Ndlambe moved west of the Fish River, back to their ancestral land. Large numbers of amaXhosa west of the border and cattle thefts by bands of marauders increased the anxiety of the farmers. However, raids by San remained the greatest danger for hunters and farmers (1) (5)
• King Mzilikazi, future leader of the amaKhumalo and later of the amaNdebele, was born near Mkuze, Zululand. He died in Ingama, Matabeleland in 1868 (1)

1790:

• San Sebastian Bay was surveyed by the French sailor Captain Duminy (2)
• The Second War of Dispossession (Second Frontier War) began as burgher commandos of the Graaff-Reinet area forced amaXhosa chiefdoms across the Fish River and pillaged their cattle. The view of the burghers was that they do not pillage cattle but are taking back what belonged to them before raids by the amaXhosa. The war ended three years later in a truce that did not appease the burghers' demand for more land than already taken from the amaXhosa (1)

1791:

• Burghers were successful in their demand for the slave trade to be opened to private enterprise (1)

1792:

• Three ordained Moravian missionaries, Hendrik Marsveld, Daniel Schwinn and Christian Kuehnel, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41033769, arrived at Baviaanskloof (Genadendal) to revive the work begun by Georg Schmidt in 1737. The missionaries found an aged woman named Lena who had been a member of Schmidt's original congregation. Together the four people rebuilt the mission station. The VOC Government, although more sympathetic to missionary activity than the government under which Georg Schmidt has served, nonetheless forbade the missionaries from erecting a church and a school. Religious and school instruction was given either in the homes of the missionaries or under trees (1)

1793:

• May - Honoratius Christiaan David Maynier was appointed the landdrost (magistrate) of Graaff-Reinet (1)
• Frontier farmers threatened by three groups, the amaXhosa, Khoikhoi and San, were prohibited from pursuing cattle thieves on the advice of Honoratus Maynier. SESA v. 5, p. 53.(1)
• End of Second Frontier War between Xhosa and Settlers of the eastern Cape (5)

1794:

• The American representative John Jay was sent to Britain and concluded the Jay Treaty (1)
• Tuan Guru founded the Auwal Masjid (mosque) in Dorp Street, Cape Town, the first Muslim place of worship in southern Africa (1)
• December - The Portuguese ship São José was wrecked in Camps Bay, Cape Town, with nearly 500 slaves on board of whom about 200 drowned during the disaster (1)

1795:

• Rebellion of the 'Republics' of Swellendam and Graaf-Reinet (5)
• Honoratius Christiaan David Maynier was driven out of Graaff-Reinet by burghers who accused him of not dealing effectively with the "K****r" problem, that is, in the view of some historians, of not siding with the demand of the burghers for the land and livestock of the indigenous population. Other historians supported the position of the burghers, namely that they rebelled against the Government because they were not protected against raids from the San and amaXhosa and were vexed by the poverty and misery into which many of them had lapsed as a result of the policy of the Company. (SESA, v. 5, p. 295).They lost their short lived independence because their settlements were economically not viable without the support of the Cape Government (1)
• September - With the first British occupation of the Cape (1795-1803) the rule of the VOC there came to an end. General J. Craig was appointed Commanding Officer (1)
• The British Authority outlawed torture in the Cape Colony (1)

1795 – 1803:

• First British Occupation of the Cape. General Craig initially appointed Governor (5)

1795 - 1854:

• British annexation of the Cape continued intermittently during this period (1)

1798:

• May - the Breede River mouth was visited by Lady Anne Barnard nee Lindsay and her husband Andrew Barnard, who was Colonial Secretary under the British Administration, with Jacob van Reenen of Slangrivier. Her letters detailing this event and titled 'South Africa a Century Ago; letters written from the Cape of Good Hope (1791-1801) may be found here (2)
• The VOC was officially dissolved (1)
• A fire devastates large areas of Cape Town (1) (5)
• The construction of the Cape Colony's first post office began (1) (5)

1799:

• The second Graaff Reinet rebellion took place after Adriaan van Jaarsveld was arrested on a charge of fraud. (Muller, C.F.J. (ed)(1981). Five Hundred years: a history of South Africa; 3rd rev. ed., Pretoria: Academica, p. 107.) (1)
• 31st March - The Reverend Johannes Theodorus van der Kemp, physician and missionary of the London Missionary Society, arrived at the Cape from the Netherlands. He began his activities in collaboration with the Chief of the amaXhosa, Ngqika, but establisheD the settlement of Bethelsdorp for roving Khoikhoi in 1803 (1)

1799 – 1801:

• Third Frontier War (eastern Cape Khoikhoi were participants) (5)

1799 - 1802:

• KhoiSan rose up in an unsuccessful but protracted rebellion in the eastern districts of the Cape in what became known as the Third War of Dispossession between the Khoisan and the colonial authorities (1)
• Under Queen Ranavalona I, approximately 150 000 Christians were killed in Madagascar after Christianity was banned (1)

1800:

• Cape Colony: An official newspaper press was established. A Government Gazette was issued. The establishment of an official press forbade freedom of the press with a heavy fine threatening anyone who attempted to publish. In July the Cape government ordered the publication of a weekly newspaper called the Cape Town Gazette and African Advertiser (1) (5)
• Cape Colony: Ndlambe and his people settled to the west of the Fish River, an area from which the Dutch colonial administration had driven the amaXhosa on a number of previous occasions (1)
• Landrost Anthony Faure reported to Governor Sir George Yonge that the Breede River was suitable for navigation "up to six hours inland, with excellent safe loading places for small vessels along either bank'" (2)
• A massive drought began in southern Africa resulting in the Mahlatule famine. This resulted in conflict over cattle, grain and water between various indigenous tribes resulting in war and eventually contributing to the Mfecane (1)

19th Century

1802:

• The region of the amaZulu was plagued by drought and accompanying famine. This led to internal strife and social dislocation within the amaZulu chiefdoms. The drought produced thousands of internal refugees (1)
• Baron von Buchenröder visited San Sebastian Bay, crossed the river in a small boat and pronounced it "only three to four feet deep at low tide, and thus only suitable for sloops and long flat vessels, such as one sees on the Main, Nekker and Weser in Germany." He also found an English ship anchored in the Breede River. Refer to the About Me section of his profile for clarification of the exact year (2)

1803:

• The American state of Ohio was established. American Prseident, Thomas Jefferson, dispatched Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, with a Corps of Discovery, to find a water route to the Pacific and to explore the uncharted west of America (1)
• Dirk Gysbert van Reenen gave the same advice about the Breede River (as Baron von Buchenröder in 1802) to General Janssens (2)
• February - The British returned the Cape Colony to the Batavian Republic. The new administration reinforced the colonial government’s claims to the frontier zone in the east and vowd to restore the European dominated social order.  Subsequently, the district of Uitenhage was established with Ludwig Alberti as the landdrost and several white farmers who had deserted the area due to attacks by the Khoi and Xhosa returned (1)
• May - A peace settlement was reached between the Batavian government and Khoisan after the parties fought over issues of land and livestock raids.

1803 - 1806:

• After the Cape was retroceded to Dutch rule under Batavian administration Advocate A. de Mist was elevated to the rank of Commissioner General in order to receive the colony from Britain. He was also instructed to establish a new system of government for the Cape (1) (5)
• Lieutenant General J Janssens was appointed Governor (1) (5)
• A mail service between Cape Town and Algoa Bay (present day Port Elizabeth) was inaugurated (1) (5)

1804:

• Godongwana, a son of Jobe the Chief of the amaMthethwa, attempted to seize power by plotting to assassinate his ageing father. The plot was foiled and Godongwana was sent into exile (1)
• A large group of Khoikhoi, deserting slaves, San, people of mixed ancestry and some who had problems integrating into the Cape colonial society trekked from the Cape and settled at Klaarwater north of the Orange River. They were called "Basters" by the colonial authorities but named themselves Griqua, a name which has its possible origins in an old Khoikhoi clan, the Guriqua and which was recommended to them by the missionaries of the London Missionary Society who worked amongst them (1) (5)

1805:

• Khoikhoi runners were employed to deliver letters from Cape Town to drostdies (offices of magistrates) in the various districts of the Colony (1)

1806:

• The British occupied the Cape for a second time. After a skirmish between British troops and a Cape burgher militia at Blaauwberg the Dutch capitulated. All property of the Batavian Government was surrendered to the British. The formal cession of the colony to Britain took place eight years later in 1814 (1) (5)

1807:

• Promulgation of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in Britain by which Britain banned slave trading which included the importation of slaves to the Cape. However, ownership of slaves was still legal (1) (5)

1808:

• Cape Colony - The Moravian missionaries were given the farm Groenekloof in the Malmesbury district to undertake missionary work among the freed slaves and Khoikhoi. The farm was later renamed Mamre. This grant marked the beginning of the founding of a number of Moravian missionary settlements amongst the Khoikhoi and later their descendants in the Western Cape as well as amongst the amaMfengu in the Eastern Cape (1)

1809:

• A Canadian-Indian chief, Tecumseh, formed an alliance of tribes to try to halt American expansion (1)
• The expansion of the Cape Colony's borders to the Orange River came up for the first time (1)
• 1 November - Cape Governor Caledon introduced a code, the so called "Hottentot Proclamation", to regulate the use of Khoisan and Coloured labour to satisfy the labour needs of white farmers. In terms of the Act, each Khoikhoi within the confines of the colony had to have a fixed place of residence and carry a valid pass should they move from one place to another. This entailed the curtailment of the freedom of movement to seek work (1)
• Jobe of the AmaMthethwa died. His exiled son, Gogongwana, returned with a new name, Dingiswayo. He removed his brother who had taken over the chieftainship from their father and proclaimed himself Chief of the amaMthethwa. The amaMthethwa society and economy blossomed under the rule of Dingiswayo although he had assumed power and ruled autocratically and by violent means (1)
• Eastern Frontier regions were affected by severe drought (5)

1810:

• King Shaka was appointed chief of the army of the AmaMthethwa (1)

1811:

• The American Congress met and President James Madison decided to declare war on Britain for Canadian territory (1)
• Circuit courts were introduced in the Cape Colony to which black employees were able to formally lodge complaints against ill treatment by their white employers (1)
• John Cradock replaced Caledon as Governor of the Cape as he was expected to follow a more aggressive policy towards the Colony's eastern frontier than Caledon. His "frontier policy" resulted in hostilities breaking out between the colonists and the amaXhosa (1) (5)
• The British government at the Cape appointed John Graham as its Commissioner for the eastern frontier (1)
• The headquarters of the Cape Regiment was named Graham's Town (subsequently Grahamstown) after Commissioner John Graham after his onslaught on the amaXhosa (1)
• The town of Cracock was founded (5)

1811 - 1812:

• The Fourth War of Dispossession between the amaXhosa and colonists took place under the command of Commissioner John Graham who, assisted by about 700 men of the Cape Regiment drove an estimated 20 000 Xhosa men, women and children over the Fish river from the Zuurveld in the fourth War of Dispossession. The brutal battle included the indiscriminate shooting of women and other civilians as well as destruction of crops, even though the colonial authorities knew that the amaXhosa only attacked men as men were regarded as soldiers while women were not. The amaXhosa also never attacked male missionaries. The British then established 27 military garrisons along the river to prevent Xhosa people from returning and stationed more British troops in Grahamstown and Cradock (1)

1812:

• The Anglo American War broke out (1)
• Cape Colony - The Apprentice Ordinance was promulgated which gave any white farmer the right to apprentice the children of his labourers for a period of ten years from the age of eight (1)

1812 - 1813:

• Cape Colony - In an attempt to provide Khoikhoi and Coloured employees with legal protection with regard to labour, "Circuit Commissions" were instituted. Many charges made by the labourers against their employers could not be substantiated. However, the Commissions uncovered the violence endemic to the system of master-servant relationships (1)
• In the so-called public "Black Circuit" court hearings and sittings numerous white employees were convicted of ill treatment of their employees. Missionaries such as James Read played a significant role in making the ill treatment of labourers by their employees public, leading to the conviction and punishment of the worst perpetrators. The circuit courts and the support they enjoyed from missionaries led to tensions between the white settlers on the one hand and their servants and labourers and some missionaries on the other (1)
• Governor Sir John Cradock passed plans for the introduction of white English medium schools throughout the Cape Colony (1)

1813:

• Malagas was named after the farm belonging to Adriaan Odendaal, "Malagas Craal gelegen aan de Breede Rivier" (2)
• The founding of the Cape Town Free School for needy white children (1)
• Cape Colony - Fiscal Daniel Dennijson codified the Cape Slave Trade Law (1)
• Cape Colony - The Griqua at Klaarwater created the beginnings of a political state. The head of state was a Kaptyn (Captain). Adam Kok II and Barend Barends were elected Provisie Kaptyns (temporary Captains) (1)
• The freehold land tenure under a perpetual quitrent system was introduced. It replaced the old system of the loan farms (1)

1814:

• The British war against France was won. British war veterans were sent to the Canadian/American border to protect British land. Peace negotiations commenced between Britain and America at Ghent and in the resulting Treaty neither side gained any territory. Large numbers of European settlers arrived in America after the Napoleonic War (1)
• With the official cession of the Cape from the Batavian Government to Britain, Lord Charles Somerset was made Governor of the Cape (1) (5)
• Cape Governor Sir John Cradock changed the system of land tenure from leasehold to freehold for white farmers. Prior to this period farmers paid little for the land nor made major developments as they recognized that they did not own the land. This measure was introduced to allow for a denser population of white people on the eastern border to act as buffer against black people (1)

1815:

• The Mfecane (also known as Difaqane or Lifaquane) period began during which much warfare occurred between the peoples of southern Africa. Starting with the rule of King Shaka the period centred on King Mzilikazi's reign from 1826 – 1836 and finally ended in approximately 1840. States such as modern day Lesotho were formed during this time (1)
• Cape Colony - The colonial army crushed the Slachter's Nek Rebellion of white farmers against perceived British philanthropic policies in favour of the black population (1) (5)
• Cape Colony - Governor Lord Charles Somerset forced Ngqika into an alliance with the Cape government in terms of which the latter had to prevent cattle raiding on the eastern frontier. This alliance caused friction amongst the chiefs of the amaXhosa (1)
• King Shaka assumed supreme power over the amaZulu (1)

1816:

• Indiana became part of the United States of America (1)
• One of the most influential diviners of the amaXhosa, Ntsikana Gaba, converted to Christianity (1)

1817:

• Mississippi became part of the United States of America (1)
• It was found that the sand bar in the Breede River mouth was navigable by vessels displacing no more than six feet of water. Lord Charles Somerset named the east bank Port Beaufort after the title of his father, the Duke of Beaufort (2)
• Captain Benjamin Moodie and his partner, Hamilton Ross, were to bring out 10 000 Scots to South Africa. After the first 50, Ross pulled out. Moodie brought in 200 men, many of them artisans. The Scots were to pay Moodie the &20 (pounds) back before or after the trip. If they couldn't they had to work for Moodie for 18 months (2)
• December - Joseph Barry arrived at the Cape on the 'Duke of Malborough', returning soon to London (2)

circa 1817:

• Illinois became part of the United States of America (1)
• Dingiswayo, Chief of the AmaMthethwa, wandered out of his military camp and was captured by Zwide, King of the AmaNwandwe. He was executed by Zwide which caused the AmaMthethwa Confederacy to collapse without a leader. The ensuing power vacuum allowed the rise to regional prominence of the amaZulu under the leadership of their young paramount chief, King Shaka (1)
• Lord Charles Somerset met Ngqika, a Xhosa chief, at the Kat River and (Ngqika) was forced to cede land between the Fish and Keiskamma Rivers to the British (1)

1818:

• The Battle of Mhlatuze River occurred during which King Shaka of the Zulus defeated King Zwide of the Ndwandwe who became aware of Shaka Zulu’s strategy of pulling together the scattered Mthethwa tribe and resolved to subdue Shaka. He was defeated by the Zulu’s superior strategy and discipline. Fleeing to Mozambique at around 1820 along with the Ngwane Chief King Sobhuza they established the Gaza Kingdom and chased the resident Tsonga people to the Northern Transvaal over the Lebombo Mountains (1)
• Ndlambe inflicted defeat over the British ally Ngqika's forces at Amalinde (5)
• The British invaded Xhosa territory by attacking Ndlambe and seizing 23 000 cattle marking the outbreak of the Fifth War of Dispossession, or the Fifth Frontier War. Subsequently, those Xhosa people whose cattle had been seized rallied behind Makhanda ka Nxele who led an attack of 6000 warriors on Grahamstown (1) (5).
• Worcester and Beaufort West were founded (5)

1818 - 1819:

• Cape Colony - The Fifth War of Dispossession took place as a result of Governor Lord Charles Somerset lifting 23 000 head of cattle belonging to Ndlambe who had been accused of alleged stock theft (1)

1819:

• Alabama became part of the United States of America (1)
• Joseph Barry bought the cutter, Duke of Gloucester, and arrived at Port Beaufort with food for the starving populace. This signified the fact that the Overberg had achieved its own gateway to the markets of the world. 500-600 wagons were assembled on the heights above the river mouth awaiting the cutter. Joseph Barry was persuaded to open a small trading store at Port Beaufort. Due to bad health he returned to the Cape Colony (2)
• Colonial forces heavily defeated Ndlambe's forces when he took the battle to Grahamstown (1) (5)
• The alliance between Ngqika and the Cape Government was destroyed when Governor Lord Charles Somerset appropriated land between the Fish and the Keiskamma Rivers. The land was to serve as a buffer between the Colony and the amaXhosa. The Cape Government declared the Keiskamma River asits eastern border (1) (5)
• The amaZulu under King Shaka's military leadership defeated the AmaNdwandwe at Gqokoli Hill (1)

1820s:

• British settlers arrived at the Cape of Good Hope and the extension of the Colony's borders to the Orange River became more necessary (1)
• King Shaka of the Zulu people established a centralised Zulu kingdom. He went on to conquer most of its neighbouring kingdoms and in turn caused mass disruption within much of southern Africa. Shaka is famous for various military inventions such as the short stabbing spear and a centralised military force not known to the region before (1)

1820:

• Approximately 5 000 British settlers from economically depressed regions of Britain arrived in Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape to increase the size of the white settler population. Upon arrival it was revealed to them that they were also required to act as a civilian defence force against the indigenous people on whose land they are settled. They were allocated land in the Zuurveld next to the Fish River (1) (5)
• Port Elizabeth was founded (1) (5)
• The rise of the kingdom of the amaZulu continued the already violent dispersal of neighbouring political entities competing with each other and with British and Boer colonisers for land and basic resources. This troubled period went down in official South African history as either the Mfecane (IsiZulu) or Difaqane (SeSotho) which literally means "forced dispersal" or "forced migration" because the upheavals caused thousands of refugees. The amaMfengu, for example, fled to the eastern Cape Colony to the lands of the amaXhosa. The fleeing political entities engaged in armed skirmishes for land with kingdoms and chiefdoms which they encountered during their flight. This conflict continued for a number of years throughout the southern African region. Until the 1990s the view (was)that the upheavals were caused solely by the alleged tyranny of Shaka's rise to power. This view has subsequently been challenged with some historians disputing the existence of the Mfecane or Difaqane at all. Instead, historians identified increasing pressure on the various communities that populated the region as colonisers moved in and colonisers and indigenous people fought each other for the dwindling resources. This phenomenon is seen as a direct result of an increase in population and a quest for power (1)
• King Moshoeshoe moved the capital of the Basotho people to the Butha Buthe Mountain to escape the ravages of the upheavals commonly called the Mfecane or Difaqane (1)
• Cape Colony - The missionaries of the London Missionary Society played a significant role in forming the Griqua state. With the arrival of the authoritarian missionary Robert Moffat at Griquatown the role of the missionaries lead to internal strife in the Griqua community (1)
• Cape Colony - Adam Kok II and his followers left Griquatown for the area of the Riet River. The Griqua community was without a political leader (1)
• Andries Waterboer was elected the new leader or Kaptyn of the Griquas (1)
• Captain Benjamin Moodie established the Port Beaufort Trading Company. Credit must go to him for first enticing the vessels to cross the bar regularly for mercantile purposes (2)
• He built a warehouse at Port Beaufort (2)
• Some of the Cape's merchant vessels brought in manufactured goods. The vessels were loaded with wheat, wine, brandy and fruit (2)
• It was this year that the coastal trade established Port Beaufort (2)
• Moodie noted the advantages given to the 1820 Settlers so he claimed them for himself for his earlier efforts. He was given the farm "Westfield" just east of the Breede River mouth (2)

1821:

• As he had done with King Zwide of the Ndwandwe, King Mzilikazi of the Ndebele revolted against Shaka and fled to the Transvaal Highveld with his following (1)
• First textile mill built at Bathurst in the eastern Cape (5)

1822:

• The Cape Colony's borders were redefined to accommodate the influx of European settlers and now extended to the Orange River in the north and towards the east it stretched to the Stormberg Spruit (1)
• Around this time King Mzilikazi and his Ndebele forces conquered the Pedi kingdom (1)
• Cape Colony - A large group of Griqua left their community and joined up with groups of Koranna people. Together they eked out their existence by raiding cattle and attacking the various communities along the Orange and Vaal Rivers causing increased instability in the region. These roving bands were called "Bergenaars" (1)
• Cape Colony - The London Missionary Society, under the direction of Dr Philip, established a mission station for the San community at Philippolis (1)

circa 1822:

• amaNgwane crossed the Drakensberg and entered the Caledon River valley (1)
• AmaMfengu (Fingo) refugees from the upheavals called the Difaqane settled in eastern Cape (1) (5)

1823:

• June - The Fokeng, led by Sebetwane, the Hlokoane and the Phuting converged on the Tlhaping settlement of Dithakong (1)
• Mzilikazi and the Ndebele left the Pedi Kingdom and moved in a south westerly direction and settled near the Vaal River (1)
• Cape Colony - The London Missionary Society established southern Africa's first printing press in the Tyhume Valley. Materials advancing missionary education and activities were printed. Eleven years later, in 1834, a printing press was built in Genadendal, the first Moravian missionary settlement. It is still operational (1)
• The Cape Government introduced a series of so-called "ameliorative" laws which attempted to improve the relationship between slave owner and slave by determining the nature of punishment that slave owners would be allowed to mete out, regulating working hours and the provision of food and clothes for slaves. The legislation outlawed public flogging, particularly of female slaves (1)
• The amaKhumalo, under King Mzilikazi, moved north of the Vaal River as a result of the upheavals called the Difaqane (1)
• Joseph Barry opened a store in Port Beaufort (2)
• His nephew, Thomas, entered the coastal trade (2)

1824:

• The AmaTlokwa besieged the Basotho. They fled from Butha Buthe and founded a new capital and fortress, Thaba Bosiu (1) (5)
• King Shaka granted land and other rights to Farewell and Henry Fynn in future Natal (5)
• English traders landed at Port Natal, which later became Durban. King Shaka not only traded with them but also made use of their services on military expeditions. He granted generous land and other rights to two British traders and adventurers, Lieutenant Francis Farewell and Henry Fynn, who pretended to be envoys of the British monarch and who established fiefdoms on the land granted them. They were involved in illicit trade. When the colonial government became aware of their criminal activities the men attempted to divert the attention of the colonial authorities from themselves, instead claiming to the British and Cape governments that Shaka and his people were "barbarians" and that Britain should annex Zululand. Together with another adventurer, Nathaniel Isaacs, these men determined the stereotype of Shaka as the "barbaric despot" who needed to be civilised by a colonising imperial Britain (1)

(Ed – I cannot find a source to corroborate sahistory.org's commentary which I think is important because it seems to contradict what is stated in Henry Francis Fynn's diary, derived from the Fynn Papers, which can be read here. So far as I can ascertain the 3 main people involved were: Henry Francis Fynn, Francis Farewell and Nathaniel Isaacs. More about Henry Francis Fynn can be read here – https://natalia.org.za/Files/4/Natalia%20v04%20article%20p14-17%20C..., Francis Farewell here - https://natalia.org.za/Files/4/Natalia%20v04%20article%20p8-13%20C.pdf and Nathaniel Isaacs here – https://natalia.org.za/Files/4/Natalia%20v04%20article%20p19-21%20C.... The articles were published by The Natal Society Foundation in 1974 and can be viewed on their website www.natalia.org.za

• Cape traders settled at Port Natal later renamed Durban (1)
• Moshweshwe (Ed – probably King Moshoeshoe) founded the Basuto nation, established fortress capital at Thaba Bosiu (5)
• The Dutch Reformed Church convened its first synod (1) (5)
• South Africa's first lighthouse was built at Green Point, Cape Town (1) (5) (Ed – this is incorrect as the original lighthouse was built in Mouille Point of which only the base still stands in the grounds of a hotel onsite)
• Joseph Barry moved to Swellendam, "a small and considerable place" with only one shop (2)
• 16th July - The vessel King George IV sank in the Breede River mouth, San Sebastian Bay (Witsand) (2)
• 2nd September - The vessel Locust sank in the Breede River mouth next to the Breede River Lodge (2)

1825:

• Plagues of locusts and drought resulted in farmers in the Orange River area being allowed to extend their grazing over the river as an emergency measure (1) (5)
• A Portuguese delegation visited King Shaka’s court to discuss his interest in the ivory trade (1)
• King Mzilikazi and the Ndebele attacked and defeated the Ngwaketse and their ruler Chief Makaba (1)
• Cape Colony - An uprising of slave and Khoikhoi labourers against their owners took place in the Worcester district. Slaves were increasingly demanding the vindication of their rights in terms of the amelioration legislation that had been introduced as of 1823 (1)
• Landdrost Andries Stockenström began issuing temporary permits allowing white farmers to graze their livestock north of the Orange River but they were not allowed to trade or erect buildings. This changed later in the decade as farmers stopped asking for permission and simply informed the magistrate (1)
• Cape Colonial Frontier was extended to the Orange River (5)
• The depreciated rix dollar was converted into British currency (1)
• Adam Kok II was elected Kaptyn of the Griquas in the Riet River area as well as that of the "Bergenaars" (1)
• Paul Kruger, who was to become the most influential president of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR), was born (1) (5)
• Somerset East was founded (5)
• First steamship arrived in Table Bay (5)

1826:

• Rainfall allowed most of the farmers who had grazed their cattle across the Orange River in 1825, as an emergency measure against drought, to return their cattle (1)
• King Mzilikazi of the Matabele started his reign in the Transvaal region of southern Africa. During his ten year reign he attempted to decimate all opposition and reorganised the region in efforts to establish the Ndebele order resulting in a depopulation of the area. His reign formed part of the Mfecane or Difaqane period during which much warfare occurred between the peoples of southern Africa (1)
• The Ndwandwe, under Zwide’s successor Sikhunyani, again challenged Shaka’s Zulu forces and were completely defeated (1)
• The Cape colonial government approved the election of Adam Kok II. Due to internal strife Adam Kok II resigned some months later. He was succeeded by Cornelius Kok II (1)
• Cape Colony - Legislation was passed to reform the justice system. Jury in the Cape Colony instituted the Cape Charter of Justice which introduced trial (1)
• The Cape Parliament passed Ordinance 19 which provided for the appointment of a Guardian of Slaves to ensure that slave owners adhered to the extent of punishment that they were allowed to mete out to their slaves. Slaves could lodge complaints of violations of the "ameliorative" legislation to the Guardian of Slaves or his assistants who were required to investigate the accusations and take action against the perpetrators (1)
• Ordinance 19 also provided for slaves to have their freedom bought for them by family members (1)
• Slave owners rose up in protest against Ordinance 19 (1)

1827:

• King Mzilikazi of the Ndebebele decided, around this time, to leave his Vaal River settlement and move to an area between the Apies and Elands Rivers (1)
• Joseph Barry was insolvent (2)
• First medical society established in Cape Town (5)

1828:

• Another drought in the territory of the Cape Colony next to the Orange River broke out and contributed to the permanent settlement north of the Orange River (1)
• King Shaka's mother, Queen Mother of the Zulus died (1)
• King Shaka assassinated (5)
• The Ngwane moved out of the Highveld and into Thembu territory as a result of an attack from Dingane and the Zulus, which had been asked for by King Moshoeshoe, where they were broken up by colonial forces (1)
• King Moshoeshoe's Basuto forces repelled Ngwane under Matiwane (5)
• In one of the numerous skirmishes that formed part of the Difaqane, combined forces of the Colonial Government, amaXhosa, amaThembu and white soldiers and farmers defeated Matiwane, Chief of the AmaNgwane at the Battle of Mbholompo in an attempt to restore some stability in the region. Matiwane returned to Zululand where Dingane executed him (1)
• Dingane, who succeeded him as paramount leader of the amaZulu, assassinated King Shaka (1)
• The Kora, under leadership of Jan Bloem, in cohesion with Moletsane’s Taung, attacked the Ndebele camp while most of King Mzilikazi forces were campaigning against the Ngwaketse (1)
• Ordinance 49 was passed. The Ordinance allowed the government to source labourers from ‘Frontier Tribes’. All black workers were given passes for the sole propose of working and all contracts over a month long had to be registered (1)
• Cape Colony - Promulgation of Ordinance 50, which aimed at ensuring equality before the law of "every free inhabitant in the Colony" was introduced. Effectively this Ordinance curtailed the power that an employer had over his employee. It also exempted Coloureds from carrying passes. Furthermore, the Ordinance revised the Apprenticeship Ordinance of 1812 by requiring that children could only be apprenticed with the consent of their parents. Finally, magistrates no longer had the power to administer corporal punishment (1) (5)
• Freedom of the press was recognised by the Cape Government (1)
• The Griqua leader Cornelius Kok II died and Adam Kok II once again became the political leader of the Griquas (1)
• 1 January - William Dunn arrived in San Sebastian's Bay as an official to keep a watching brief for the authorities in Port Beaufort. His salary was 150 pounds per year (2)
• Malmesbury founded (5)

1829:

• Andrew Jackson became President of the United States of America (1)
• January - Maqoma raided Bawana, a Thembu chief, forcing his followers to flee across into territory seized by the colonists (see below) (1)
• In revenge for the attack by the Kora in 1828, King Mzilikazi sent a force that defeated the Taung decisively (1)
• The fertile land in the basin of the Kat River in the Cape was granted to two hundred and fifty Khoikhoi and Coloured families. This marked the beginning of what came to be known as the Kat River Settlement. This area was regarded as particularly strategic in the struggle between the amaXhosa and the Colonial Government for the land of the amaXhosa. The settlement was designed as a buffer zone of the eastern frontier. Hence the inhabitants were armed by the Colonial Government despite objections by white settlers in the region. The settlement soon developed into a self sufficient farming community supported by much missionary activity, a phenomenon which further irritated the white farmers because it meant that the well organised settlers of the Kat River could not be hired as underpaid labourers on their farms (1)
• Lieutenant Governor of the Eastern Districts, Andries Stockenström ordered the expulsion of Maqoma from the Kat River Valley. Maqoma responded by increasing cattle raids on white farms forcing them to informally allow him to return to the territory (1)
• Cape Colony - In the face of attacks by the British colonial authorities the Rharhabe and Gcaleka polities reconciled and established peace between them in order to ward off colonial aggression as a combined force (1) (5)
• The South African College was founded in Cape Town in order to advance higher education in the colonist society as higher education was lagging behind elementary education (1) (5)

1830s:

• The Rozwi Empire on the Zimbabwean Plateau was conquered by invading Nguni from Natal and fell into ruins (1)

1830:

• The Barrys owned a substantial warehouse in Port Beaufort (2)

1830 – 1831:

• 28 May - American President Andrew Jackson's suggestion of relocating all Indians to the west, over the Mississippi River, became law (1)
• King Mzilikazi’s Ndebele forces in central Transvaal continued raiding the Tswana and he eventually attacked King Moshoeshoe’s stronghold at Thaba Bosiu but was unsuccessful (1)

1831:

• A force of around 300 mounted Kora and Griqua and several Tswana planned to completely conquer the Ndebele and achieved relative success as they captured large herds of cattle. They were surprised by Ndebele forces who not only took back their cattle but also killed a large number of their force (1)
• King Moshoeshoe's Basuto forces defeated King Mzilikazi’s Ndebele (Matabele) 'raiding kingdom' (5)
• 31st January - The portion, Port Beaufort no.484 Swellendam 1419 morgan, was given in freehold title by Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole for the management of a "mercantile warehouse" to the trustees Messrs Ewan Christian, Joseph Barry and Francis Collison (2)
• 10 October - The farm, "Westfield" no.478 Swellendam 5257 morgan, Government ground, was granted to Captain Benjamin Moodie by Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole as a reward for his efforts in bringing 200 Scots into the country (2)
• Soon after 1830 Thomas Barry settled permanently in Port Beaufort (2)

1832:

• American Indian chief Black Hawk was captured after years of waging war on white settlers (1)
• August - Mzilikazi of the Ndebele was attacked by the Zulu under Dingane. Both sides suffered heavy losses (1)
• Westfield homestead built. Over the years various people had erected accommodation next to the river mouth on stands obtained by the Moodie family of Westfield. The village of White Sands near Port Beaufort was laid out on that part of the farm Westfield called White Sands held by Captain Benjamin Moodie and DD Moodie, under certificates of registered title dated 30 December 1908 (2)

1833:

• The Basotho kingdom of King Moshoeshoe came under threat from marauding mounted and armed "Bergenaars", defectors from the Griqua and Korana polities. Moshoeshoe introduced horses that were adapted to his mountainous kingdom and armed his subjects to meet the threat. With this strategy they successfully beat off the "Bergenaars" as well as subsequent attacks on the Basotho kingdom. The kingdom was able to maintain its sovereignty and is an independent state today (1)
• King Moshoeshoe of the Basotho invited missionaries to assist him with the consolidation of a modern state. Two missionaries from the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, Thomas Arbousset (possibly Reverend Jean Thomas Arbousset) and Eugene Casilis, as well as the artisan Constant Gosselin assisted with this project. Moshoeshoe instructed the missionaries to establish villages south of the capital Thabo Bosiu along the frontier with the Korana under the leadership of his sons Letsie and Molapa. The establishment of villages along threatened borders became a pattern when other missionaries followed the first missionaries to ensure that the King's authority was recognised by potential attackers (1)
• The British Parliament passed an emancipation decree, the Abolition Act, which abolished the system of slavery but which wrote a kind of indentured labour system called "apprenticeship" into the legislation. This was to ensure that the slave based economies of the British Empire did not collapse as a result of the end of slavery. Estimated slave population 59 000 (1) (5)
• First Xhosa grammar published (in Grahamstown) (5)

1834:

• A reconnaissance mission by Voortrekkers reported that the areas in Natal south of the Tukela and in the central Highveld on both sides of the Vaal River were fertile and virtually uninhabited as a result of the Mfecane (1)
• The Wesleyan mission at Maquassie was threatened by an attack from the Ndebele and the missionaries led a mixed group of Rolong, a number of Griqua and a Kora community to settle at Thaba Nchu on the border of Moshoeshoe’s kingdom of Lesotho (1)
• King Mzilikazi and the Ndebele were once again under attack from his Kora-Griqua antagonists supported by the Hurutshe (1)
• Cape Colony - Official emancipation of slaves. Although legally emancipated (in 1833) the Cape slaves were indentured as "apprentices" to their owners for a period of four years. Despite the system of "apprenticeship" numerous slaves deserted their owners while those who remained to serve their "apprenticeship" increasingly adopted a less subordinate attitude towards their masters. Desertion and insubordination hence became characteristic of the slave-master relation after Emancipation. It is estimated that the slave population of the Cape stood at 59 000 souls at Emancipation - (1)
• The newly appointed Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, established Executive and Legislative Councils to determine the parameters of legislative and executive authority in the Colony. Although no one could be elected onto the Council freedom of debate was guaranteed and most legislative initiatives had to pass through the Council for approval. (1) (5)
• Governor Sir Benjamin D'Urban annexed territory between Keiskamma and Kei rivers (Province of Queen Adelaide) (5)
• Beginning of the migration out of the Cape Colony by groups of armed Boer farmers in what was to go down in South African history as the Great Trek. Preparations for the migration were done secretly in 1834. The key organisers, Louis Trichardt, Hans van Rensburg, Hendrick Potgieter and Hoof Kommandant Gert Maritz kept their scouting preparations a secret from the British authorities thereby making an accurate reconstruction of events historically unreliable (1)
• The widely accepted reasons for the Great Trek are regarded as political, economic and social. Boer farmers migrated from the authority of the British Colonial Government of the Cape whom they perceived as being politically unsympathetic to their needs. Policy decisions taken in London meant that the Boer farmers were no longer allowed to expand their farms and grazing areas at the expense of the indigenous population with impunity. Ordinance 50 of 1828 granted Khoikhoi and Coloureds, the traditional servants and slaves of the Boer farmers, not only the freedom to seek work but also to own land. This led to a shortage of labour for Boer farmers. In addition Ordinance 50 put all "free inhabitants" of the Colony on equal political footing before the law. This political act was unacceptable to the Boers who regarded Blacks as uncivilised heathen and therefore inferior to Whites. Finally, the gradual introduction of a cash economy meant that Boer farmers also had to engage in surplus farming in order to get cash. Boer farmers had been accustomed to a bartering economy (1)
• Barry and Nephews formed (2)
• Joseph Barry's premises were burnt to the ground (2)
• Sixth Frontier War (5)
• Piet Uys led an exploratory trek to Natal (5)

1834 – 1835:

• 21 December - The Xhosa launched an attack on the British after Xhoxho was injured by a British patrol sparking the Sixth War of Dispossession. Other long standing grievances such as loss of land, cattle also fueled the rebellion. A massive herd of 276 000 stock was seized by the Xhosa fighters and 456 farms were destroyed. The British retaliated and later murdered Hintsa (1)
• The Governor, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, sent in the Cape regiment troops as well as African allies to effect a devastation of the invading amaXhosa. The target of the military action was less the armed amaXhosa as the basis of their livelihood. Hence D'Urban ordered the destruction of whole villages and all the crops and food supplies. An amaXhosa nation thus impoverished and devastated would be forced to accept colonial authority and rule (1)
• With the amaXhosa defeated and stripped of their means of production and existence, D'Urban annexed all their land between the Kei and Keiskamma rivers and expelled the amaXhosa living there. The annexed land was called the Province of Adelaide (1)
• The London Missionary Society missionary, Dr John Philip, intervened on behalf of the amaXhosa. As a result of his report to the British Government, D'Urban was forced to reverse his annexation policy. Philip and the London Missionary Society had in the past persuaded the British Government of the injustice and belligerence of Cape colonial polices towards the indigenous people of the Cape. His Researches in South Africa which was published in 1828 formed the basis of the British Government's decision to act against some Cape colonial policies (1)
• Missionaries were instrumental in the first publication of an isiXhosa grammar school in Grahamstown (1)

1835:

• Cape Colony - Ordinance 1 laid down the number of hours that an "apprentice" was required to work in gardens or on fields. This did not apply to domestic service. Most provisions of this Ordinance proved to be unenforceable. One of the things it forbade was slave owners meting out punishment. A judicial and magisterial system was introduced to implement punishment in an attempt to establish the "rule of law" in the Cape Colony (1)
• The trekking groups (Voortrekkers) moved north and east of the Cape Colony and during the Trek seized in violent skirmishes and protracted battles the land of African political entities that they encountered (1)
• British commander Harry Smith crossed the Kei River with a large force, marking the beginning of a systematic conquest of the Tembus, Pondos, Fingoes and Xhosa tribal communities in what came to be known as the Transkei and Ciskei areas. Smith's invasion formed part of what came to be known as the Nine Xhosa Wars or Frontier Wars that spanned a hundred year period and eventually led to the imposition of British rule in the Eastern Cape following the 9th Frontier War in 1879. The British administration imposed the Village System or Grey System of local government on the territories conquered in the successive wars. Devised by Sir George Grey, the Governor of the Cape Colony at the time, the system divided land into counties, towns and villages and gave them English names. Mission schools were established and Xhosa children were obliged to attend to learn English language and culture (1)
• Hintsa, Paramount, ka-Khawuta, Chief of the amaXhosa, (Chief of the Gcaleka (5)) was illegally captured under a flag of truce and the pretext of peace negotiations by the military troops of the Cape Governor, Sir Benjamin D'Urban. Both the Governor and his Colonel, Sir Harry Smith, unsuccessfully tried to force him under the threat of being hanged to convince the amaXhosa to surrender to the Colonial Government during the Sixth War of Dispossession, interrogated him for days. They murdered him while he attempted to escape. His ears were taken as a trophy (1)
• Great Trek began: Louis Trichardt, Hans van Rensburg, Hendrick Potgieter and Hoof Kommandant Gert Maritz trekked north of the Vaal River (5)
• Durban founded (5)

1836:

• Cape Colony - Andries Stockenström, Lieutenant Governor of the Eastern Districts, restored the Province of Queen Adelaide, land that had been annexed during the Sixth War of Dispossession, to the amaXhosa at the instruction of Britain. This followed his testimony to the Aborigines Commission in London in which he described the freedom with which settlers were allowed to counter raid suspected cattle thieves among the amaXhosa as a significant reason for the outbreak of warfare on the frontier. Stockenström also instituted a "treaty system" that recognised the independence and authority of the smaXhosa chiefs. This caused tension between him and Governor Sir Benjamin D'Urban who had been overlooked by Britain in the making of this policy (1) (5)
• The Cape of Good Hope Punishment Act was passed and stated that after crossing the Orange River the Voortrekkers were not totally out of reach of the Cape judiciary. They were liable for all crimes committed south of 25 degree latitude, which fell just below the present day Warmbaths in northern Transvaal (1)
• First Volksraad met north of the Orange River (5)
• Main body of initial Voortrekkers moved north (5)
• The amaNdebele under the leadership of their king, Mzilikazi, posed the biggest challenge to the marauding Voortrekkers during the course of the Great Trek. In a series of bloody battles they defeated the amaNdebele, most notably by Hendrick Potgieter from his main laager at Vegkop. The Battle of Vegkop, while signalling a victory for the Boers, demanded a great toll on lives on both sides as well as on their stocks of cattle and trek oxen. Chief Moroka of the Barolong and his missionary Archibell come to the rescue of the Voortrekkers with food and oxen (1)
• Voortrekker leaders Hoof Kommandant Andries Potgieter and Kmdt. Petrus Lafras "Piet" Uys Kmdt Pieter Uys], with the aid of the Griqua, Barolong, Koranna and BaTlokwa, seized the stronghold of King Mzilikazi in Mosega and drove him and his people out of the region towards the Marico Valley in the north. The Voortrekkers concluded "friendship" treaties with their allies in the defeat of Mzilikatsi (1)
• Joseph Barry built a Thatch (known as a wolwe-end) on the commonage at the end facing the sea (2)

1837:

• January: The Boers attacked King Mzilikazi’s stronghold at Mosega with the help of a small force of Griqua, Kora, Rolong and Tlokwa and successfully drove the Ndebele further north (1)
• November: Mzilikazi fled north and the Voortrekkers occupied all the land between the Vet and Limpopo Rivers (1)
• The Voortrekkers under the leadership of Andries Potgieter defeated the Ndebele under Mzilikazi at the Marico River and seized vast tracts of land between the Limpopo and Vaal Rivers (1)
• The Voortrekker leader and spokesperson, Piet Retief set out in a Manifesto the reasons for the Great Trek. One of the main reasons was the perceived lack of sympathy of the Colonial Government to the political and economic demands of the Boers which was expressed in the passing of legislation that aimed at placing Black and White on equal footing before the law (1)
• Dissension amongst the Voortrekkers caused them to split. Piet Retief and his followers trekked eastwards to Port Natal which was later known as Durban. Other groups moved northwards (1) (5)
• Piet Retief and an advance party of Trekkers visited Dingane, Chief of the Zulus to negotiate an apparent claim to the land between the Tugela and Mzimvubu Rivers in exchange for cattle and rifles. The cattle were delivered but not the rifles. Dingane ordered the execution of Retief and his negotiating party (1)
• Battle fo Blood River: King Dingane was defeated and deposed in favour of King Mpande (5)
• The arrival of Boer settlers drove the Matabele people north of the Limpopo causing them to settle in Zimbabwe in an area which is now known as Matabeleland (1)
• The Voortrekker Republic of Natalia was established (1) (5)
• Michiel van Breda of Oranjezigt took the chair at the first meeting of the trustees in the Commercial Exchange. There were 600 paid up shareholders. Many city people invested in this venture. They received an erf for every &2 (pounds) share they bought (2)
• Louis Trichardt reached (and died at) Delagoa Bay (5)

1837 - 1838:

• The forces of Potgieter and Uys attacked King Mzilikazi anew. This time they drove him and his people beyond the Limpopo River into what is present day Zimbabwe. Potgieter and Uys seized the land of the amaNdebele (1)

1838:

• American Indian chief Black Hawk died in detention (1)
• The Voortrekkers, who by now had settled on the land seized from the various African chiefdoms in battles, attempted to organise themselves as a state. They drew up the framework of a Constitution which entrenched the superiority of White over Black and a racial master-servant social order (1)
• The main institution of the new state was a Volksraad (people's council or assembly), a body comprising twentyfour elected men. The Volksraad combined legislative, judiciary and executive powers. The British Colonial Government did not recognise the Republic of Natalia and hence occupied Port Natal thereby denying the newly founded Republic access to the harbour that was the potential gateway to the eastern trade routes (1)
• 16 May - amaZulu regiments were defeated by the military superiority of the Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius at the Battle of Blood River which was fought on the banks of the Ncome River, a revenge attack for the murder of Piet Retief and the subsequent attack on Boer laagers at Weenen. The amaZulu lost an estimated three thousand troops (1)
• The kingdom of the amaZulu broke into civil war. Mpande, chief military advisor and brother of the King of the amaZulu, overthrew Dingane (Dingaan), Chief of the Zulus with the assistance of Voortrekkers who captured children to work as their servants. Dingane fled into Swazi territory. Pretorius instated Mpande as king. The Republic of Natalia annexed the southern region of Zululand (1)
• The Voortrekkers lifted thousands of head of King Mzilikazi's cattle and distributed them amongst the Boer farmers (1)
• Hoof Kommandant Andries Potgieter founded Potchefstroom as the capital of the new Transvaal Republic north of the Orange River (1) (5)
• Louis Trichardt, a Voortrekker leader, moved with his following to Delagoa Bay. He died there (1)
• Britain occupied Port Natal. It was later named Durban (1) (5)
• The estimated African population in Natal was 11 000 (1)
• The Voortrekkers declared the Republic of Natalia (1)
• Cape Colony - The "apprenticeship" of slaves, formally emancipated in 1834, ended. This marked the factual end of slavery in the Cape as the "apprentices" were officially no longer slaves (1)
• Civil war of a kind broke out in the strife ridden Griqua confederacy as the various leaders and their following, each group aided by a missionary, fought each other to establish who would be the most senior leader of the confederacy. A treaty was concluded between the two Kaptyne, Adam Kok III and Andries Waterboer, that provided for a Joint Council to act as a Supreme Court for these two captaincies (1)
• Ninety shares were issued (to the 600 paid up shareholders who bought shares in the Commercial Exchange). The Swellendam surveyor W.M. Hopley laid out the ninety plots. These were drawn for by ballot except for Joseph Barry and Captain Moodie who were entitled to the "extensive erven" upon which their warehouses were built (2)
• William Dunn crossed the Breede River and settled on the Potteberg farm Rietfontein with the adjacent farm Brakkefontein which had been transferred to his name in 1837 (2)
• Mzilikazi’s Ndebele tribe had split into two after repeated assaults by a Boer commando and the Rolong, the Zulu forces under Dingane and Kora-Griqua forces. The group under Gundwane Ndiweni that contained many of Mzilikazi’s wives and his heir, Nkulumane, settles near the Malungwane hills east of the Matopo Mountains in Zimbabwe (1)
• May – June - Some Boers remained in the area above the junction of the Caledon and Orange Rivers instead of moving north into Natal. These Voortrekkers start moving north east. A pioneer among them, Jan de Winnaar, settled in the Matlakeng area at this time (1)
• December - Governor Sir George Napier sent his military secretary, Major Samuel Charters, to occupy Port Natal (1)

1838 - 1843:

• The Republic of Natalia recruited Tsonga men from Moçambique to fill their labour needs (1)

1839:

• King Mzilikazi’s Ndebele tribe had split into two after repeated assaults by a Boer commando and the Rolong, the Zulu forces under Dingane and Kora-Griqua forces. The group under Gundwane Ndiweni that contained many of Mzilikazi’s wives and his heir, Nkulumane, settled near the Malungwane hills east of the Matopo Mountains in Zimbabwe. The other group was led by Mzilikazi himself and in mid 1839 he discovered the position of the other Ndebele group and joined them (1)
• The town of Pietermaritzburg was founded. It was named after the Voortrekker leaders Hoof Kommandant Gert Maritz and Piet Retief. It became the capital of the newly established Voortrekker Republic of Natalia (1)

1840:

• The Ndebele moved to south west Zimbabwe as a result of Zulu expansion (1)
• By this year Barry and Nephews were the undisputed "princes of the port" (2)

1841:

• In the Republic of Natalia a simple system of governance was established with Andries Pretorius as President. He was assisted by a people’s assembly or Volksraad of 24 members and local governement. In this year an adjunct council was established at Potchefstroom with Potgieter as Chief Commandant (1) (5)
• Cape Colony - Passing of the Cape Masters and Servants Ordinance which superseded Ordinance 50 of 1828 by disqualifying racial distinction between servants. White and Coloured servants as well as ex slaves were placed on equal legal footing in terms of criminal sanctions for breach of contract (1)
• After the Battle of Blood River of 1838 there was considerable movement in the Zululand-Natal region as refugees entered Natal to return to their homelands that had been absorbed into Shaka's kingdom. While the increased number of Africans meant that the problem of labour for Boer farmers was being solved the Boers perceived the presence of tens of thousands of Africans in Natalia as a security threat. Hence the Volksraad determined that all "surplus" Africans, that is, Africans who were not working for Whites, be moved to the area between the Mtamvuba and Mzimvubu Rivers (1)
• Port Beaufort was declared a port (2)
• By this year Captain Benjamin Moodie's venture had for all practical purposes disappeared (2)
• 15th April - The vessel Sir William Heathcote sank in the Breede River mouth (2)

1842:

• Cape Governor Sir George Napier issued a proclamation against the incursions by Boers of the territories of the Basotho and Griqua. This was the result of interventions to both the Imperial and Colonial Governments about Boer aggression against the indigenous population by Adam Kok III and Dr John Philip of the London Missionary Society (1)
• A severe drought broke out in the eastern region of the Cape Colony. This led to cattle theft by both settlers and amaXhosa. It marked the decline of the treaty system introduced by Andries Stockenström in 1836, and abandoned by Cape Governor Maitland in 1844, and set the scene for yet another war on the frontier (1) (5)
• February - George Leith continued William Dunn's job after a Temporary held this position for about 3 years (2)
• 23 May: Captain (Thomas) Charlton Smith attacked the Boer camp at Congella. The Voortrekkers fought back and besieged the British camp during which Richard (Dick) King rode to Grahamstown with a letter requesting reinforcements. Thereafter the Boers were defeated and began to leave Natal (1) (5)
• British in Durban besieged by Boers (5)
• June: A British relief force under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Abraham Cloete arrived at the Congella siege and crushed the Boer resistance (1)
• 15 July: The Boer Volksraad at Pietermaritzburg signed the conditions of submission to the British forces after being subdued at Congella in June of the same year (1)
• October: Jan Mocke and his Boer followers, the Trans-Orangia Boers erected a beacon at Allerman’s Drift on the banks of the Orange River and proclaim a republic (1) (5)

1843:

• British forces of Governor Sir George Napier annexed the Republic of Natalia which became a British colony. The annexation came in the wake of a military intervention in 1842 when British forces attempted to pre-empt a n (sic) by other European imperialist powers and when the Voortrekker head of state, Commandant-General Andries Pretorius, staged a failed siege against the British. The official African population of the area is estimated to be between 80 000 and 100 000 (1)
• As a result of the strength of British intervention Zulu King Mpande agreed to cede St Lucia Bay to the British. Furthermore he signed a treaty which restricted the amaZulu to the region south of the Tugela River (1)
• The entrenchment of merino sheep farming in the eastern regions of the Cape Colony changed it's socio economic as well as the political arena. Merino farmers were intent upon gaining access to more grazing land despite the fact that the land they wanted belonged to the amaXhosa (1)
• As Boer merino sheep farmer contingents looked to expanding their grazing areas by violent means and marauding Griqua groups called "Bergenaars" raiding the region, King Moshoeshoe's kingdom was constantly threatened by these groups. The Governor, Sir George Napier, supported Moshoeshoe's claim to his territory by concluding a treaty with the Basotho king in which the Basotho territory was determined as all the land between the Orange and Caledon Rivers. Moshoeshoe was granted a salary of £75 to maintain order in his newly defined territory (1)
• Cape Governor Napier signed an agreement with the Griqua leader Adam Kok III to maintain order in his territory in return for an annual salary of £100. Unlike the treaty with Moshoeshoe, Kok's treaty did not define the limits of his territory (1) (Ed – sahistory.org.za seemingly contradicts The South African Family Encyclopaedia, written and compiled by Peter Joyce, published by Struik Publishers 1989, copyrighted.)
• Griqualand and Basutoland became 'treaty states', their boundaries formally defined in agreement with Cape Governor Sir George Napier (5)
• Captain Benjamin Moodie lived on the farm Grootvadersbosch until this year (2)

1844:

• Sir Peregrine Maitland became Governor of the Cape Colony. His first action was to rescind the treaty system introduced by Andries Stockenström in 1836. He replaced it with his own treaty system which forespelt conflict on the Eastern Frontier because the new system gave farmers the right to follow up on allegedly stolen cattle and to demand equivalent compensation if they could not find the cattle. The treaty system also allowed for the erection of military fortifications in ceded territory. Tribunals at which farmers could lodge complaints against chiefs and Diplomatic Agents were part of Maitland's new treaty system. Finally, African converts to Christianity no longer fell under the jurisdiction of their chiefs (1)
• Fighting broke out between the Boers and the Griqua as the former refused to accept Adam Kok III's jurisdiction over them (1)
• Natal was annexed to the Cape Colony but became a separate territory in 1845. The majority of Boers left Natal (5)

1845:

• The new Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Peregrine Maitland, sent troops into the area to counter Boer attacks on the Griqua in compliance with the treaties Napier had signed with the Griqua and the Basotho. The Boers were defeated by the British with their Griqua allies in the Battle of Zwartkoppies. This skirmish marked the first open shooting exchange between Boers and British (1)
• Cape Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland concluded a treaty with Adam Kok III. In terms of this "Maitland Treaty" the land of the Griqua was divided into "alienable" and "inalienable" areas. Griqua were permitted to hire farmland in the alienable areas to Boers who were British subjects for a period of no more than forty years. A British Resident was placed in the region to oversee the implementation of the conditions of the treaty (1)
• After the annexation of the Republic of Natalia by the British in 1843 Natal became an autonomous district of the Cape Colony. The most important government offices were held by Martin West who was made Lieutenant Governor, Hendrick Cloete who took on the position of Chief Justice and Sir Theophilus Shepstone who was appointed the "Diplomatic Agent to the Native Tribes" (1)
• Two parties of Voortrekkers, one of them led by Andries Hendrik Potgieter, arrived near areas settled by Pedi people. Andries Hendrik Potgieter founded the Boer settlement of Andries-Ohrigstad whereafter he moved to Lydenburg (1) (5)
• 5 July: King Sekwati and Boer leader (Andries?) Hendrik Potgieter ‘signed’ a peace treaty. The treaty became a subject of dispute between the Boers and Pedi. The former claimed the treaty gave them full ownership and title to a large area of Pedi lands while the latter claimed the treaty merely allocated land on which Voortrekkers could settle without relinquishing his people’s ownership to the land. When Voortrekkers offered cattle as payment to acquire more land to establish a farming settlement Sekwati refused their offer (1)

1846:

• 26 July: King Mswati signed a treaty with the Voortrekkers as a way of protecting his kingdom against Zulu invasion. He granted them the right to lands bounded by the Oliphants River in the North and the Crocodile and Elands River in the South. The land covered areas settled by the Pedi, Ndzundza Ndebele and several Sotho speaking groups (1)
• Chief Justice Cloete and Sir Theophilus Shepstone set up the Locations Commission to investigate the feasibility of segregating black and white in Natal. Seven locations were initially established and financed in the main by a hut tax imposed on Africans. Shepstone introduced the system whereby the hereditary chiefs were responsible for the immediate running of the locations. The system came under attack from white settlers who feared the self sufficient locations would rob them of cheap black labour (1)
• Seventh Frontier War began (5)
• Bloemfontein founded (5)

1846 - 1847:

• The Seventh War of Dispossession against the western amaXhosa or amaNgqika went down in history as the War of the Axe as the ostensible reason for the colonial attack on the western amaXhosa was the theft of an axe which led to the detention of the thief and the subsequent freeing of the thief by his fellow clansmen (1)
• The real reasons for this war are to be found in the persistent efforts by the Colonial Government to seize the land of the western amaXhosa and the agitation in the Graham's Town Journal that the Province of Queen Adelaide be given to the settlers, land that had been seized by the colonial troops during the Sixth War of Dispossession of 1834 but which Britain had decreed should be returned to the amaXhosa (1)
• The conflict was a full scale war with the western amaXhosa being the more victorious side. They adopted the British tactic of a scorched earth policy which did not only wreak havoc on the colonial troops but also within the western amaXhosa chiefdom. Despite the imminent defeat of the colonial troops the amaXhosa offered to end hostilities. The British colonial troops realised the offer of peace was because the amaXhosa were running out of food supplies, demanded their unconditional surrender and the annexation of all land west of the Kei River (1)

1847:

• Mzilikazi of the Ndebele’s stronghold in Zimbabwe is attacked by a Boer force, but as all the captured cattle were returned by an Ndebele pursuit party (1)
• The western amaXhosa resisted the British conditions of peace while simultaneously refusing to engage in warfare. Sir Peregrine Maitland thereupon attacked the homes, remaining cattle and crops as well as the grain bins of these amaXhosa. Hence the defeat of the amaXhosa by the British colonial forces was ultimately not effected on the battlefields but in the homesteads of a people passively resisting warfare (1)
• Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Harry Smith was appointed Governor of the Cape. He embarked on aggressive expansionist politics (1)
• With the defeat of the amaXhosa in the War of the Axe the Cape Colonial Government in the person of the newly appointed Governor and High Commissioner, Sir Harry Smith, extended the Colony to the Keiskamma River. Smith also created a new colony on the land of the amaNgqika which he named British Kaffraria. amaXhosa were allowed to live in that region as British subjects (1)
• Cape Governor Sir Harry Smith met with the Griqua leader Adam Kok III. He rescinded the land tenure system that Sir Peregrine Maitland had negotiated with the Griqua in 1846. The new agreement was loaded to the advantage of the British Crown and the white farmers in the region. Smith demanded that all rent accrued from white tenant farmers on Griqua land north of the Riet River be paid to the Crown. Maitland had demanded half of the rental. Smith also decreed that white farmers be allowed to settle on Griqua land south of the Riet River which Maitland had forbidden (1)
• Cape Governor Sir Harry Smith met with Basuto King Moshoeshoe and the chiefs of the Basotho in Winburg. He proclaimed the sovereignty of the British Crown over all the land between the Orange and the Vaal rivers which included land of the Basotho. White farmers were not allowed to acquire new land in the region except in Adam Kok's territory, Griqualand. At this meeting Moshoeshoe lay claim to the territories of the chiefs Moroka and Sekonyela. With Smith's support Moshoeshoe was able (to) unify the scattered chiefdoms and consolidate these under his sole rule. He was also able to gain British protection against claims of white farmers to his land (1)
• The British colonial administration displaced the Korana and /Xam from their lands to increase grazing pastures for sheep. This resulted in the raid of the settler farmer’s livestock by the Korana and other San groups whose lives had been disrupted (1)
• Sir Henry Pottinger appointed Cape Governor (5)
• East London established (5)
• British extended authority to Kaffraria (5)
• Cape Town got gas lighting (5)

1848:

• Sir Harry Smith appointed Cape Governor (5)
• Boers defeated at Boomplaats (5)
• 10 February: A Land Government Commission established during the year stated that the extent of land recommended by the 1846 - 47 Commission was excessive. The commission apportioned land to white settlers (1)
• Hendrik Potgieter founded the town of Soutpansberg, which later became Schoemansdal, in the eastern Transvaal (1) (5)
• Cape Governor Sir Harry Smith, assuming that he was acting with the popular approval of the Trekboer community in that region where they had become British subjects, expanded British authority by annexing the area north of the Orange or Gariep River known as Transorangia. The annexed land became known as the Orange River Sovereignty. The annexation was met with hostility and the Voortrekker leader Commandant-General Andries Pretorius led a commando against Smith. The British, with the assistance of the Griquas, defeated the Voortrekkers at the Battle of Boomplaats. The region came under full British control (1) (5)
• Cape Governor Sir Harry Smith instructed the British Resident of the newly constituted Orange River Sovereignty, Major Henry Warden, to set up boundaries between the black and white communities in the land north of the Caledon River based on their occupation of that region. He was further instructed not to cede land to the black communities where there may have been overlapping of occupation between Black and White. The boundaries came to be known as the "Warden Line" and was promulgated in 1849. Basuto King Moshoeshoe lost large areas of his territory (1) (5)
• Cape Colony - The inhabitants of the Kat River Settlement came under great Government pressure when Governor Sir Harry Smith recommended to his Legislative Council the promulgation of "vagrancy" legislation to evict "idlers" from the settlement. His intention was to satisfy the settlers' demand that the inhabitants of the Kat River Settlement be forced to work for them. The hostile reaction of the Kat River inhabitants forced Smith to abandon this scheme (1)
• 8th March - The vessel Harriet sank in the Breede River mouth (2)

1849:

• After the defeat of the western amaXhosa in the War of the Axe the Cape Colonial Governor, Sir Harry Smith, exercised an extreme form of authoritarian governance over the amaXhosa. He introduced military rule in British Kaffraria that entailed severe punishment for even petty crimes, the impounding of cattle for alleged trespassing and the indenturing of "k****r youths" to white farmers. The chiefs of the amaXhosa openly defied some conditions of Smith's rule (1)
• 15th July - The vessel Belleisle sank in the Breede River mouth (2)
• British attempts to establish a convict settlement at the Cape were successfully opposed (5)
• Treaty of Derdepoort, another ineffectual and painful step to Boer unity north of the Vaal (5)

1850s:

• Sir George Grey confiscated land from black African people leaving them to search for work on farms (1)
• German and British missionaries penetrated most of Southern Africa paving the way for further colonial expansion (1)

1850 - 1853:

• Sandile, Paramount Chief of the amaNgqika, with the support of the amaGcaleka and amaThembu, resisted Cape Governor Sir Harry Smith's harsh rule by launching a series of attacks on colonial patrols and administrative stations including an attack on Fort Beaufort in 1851. These attacks marked the beginning of the Eighth War of Dispossession (1)
• Sir Harry Smith's magistrate for the Kat River Settlement, Thomas Holden Bowker invaded the Settlement with amaXhosa police to evict "squatters". During the eviction campaign homes were burned and crops destroyed. Hundreds of people were left homeless. This attack preceded the outbreak of the Eighth War of Dispossession by six months. The inhabitants of the Kat River Settlement joined the war on the side of the amaXhosa hoping for a victory that would rid them of the threat posed by the settler's greed for their land and labour (1) (5)

1850:

• Rustenburg (Transvaal) founded (5)

1851:

• Cape Colony - The Kat River Settlement rose up in rebellion. Willem Uithalder, the leader of the rebel groups, launched attacks in the Fort Beaufort district and occupied Fort Armstrong. The rebellion was successfully crushed by the colonial artillery troops. Rebels who survived the crushing of the uprisings were found guilty of high treason. Their death sentences were commuted to life sentences of hard labour, such as the building of roads. The Settlement slid rapidly into economic decline. Rebel land was appropriated and given to white farmers who bought up the remaining arable land (1)
• The promulgation of the "Warden Line" led to conflict in that region as the various communities vied for land. When the Basotho, under King Moshweshwe, and the Kora and Griqua communities became involved in cattle raiding, Warden mustered a force and attacked the detractors of his division of the territory. He suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Viervoet. He also lost authority over the Voortrekkers in the region (1) (5)
• The British Government sent two special Commissioners, WS Hogge and CM Owen, to meet with Voortrekker representatives under the leadership of Commandant-General Andries Pretorius at Sand River to negotiate around the question of who rules the Voortrekkers. Hogge and Owen signed an agreement with the Voortrekkers guaranteeing them the right to rule themselves. The Voortrekkers had to undertake not to enter into any alliance with the black communities of the region or to trade in arms and ammunition with them. Their system of slavery, known as the inboekseling system, was prohibited. The Sand River Convention, as the agreement became known, formd the basis for the establishment of the republican state north of the Vaal River called the "Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek" (1)

1852:

• 17 January: The Sand River Convention took place between the British and the Boers, which results in the recognition of Boer settlements north of the Vaal River or the Transvaal (renamed the South African Republic in 1860) (1) (5)
• Sir George Cathcart became Governor of the Cape Colony. He led the defeat of the amaXhosa. Settlers gained the land of the amaXhosa in the Amatola (Amathole) Mountains (1) (5)
• As a result of their defeat during the Eighth War of Dispossession thousands of amaXhosa and Coloureds were rendered landless and impoverished, their political and social systems largely destroyed. Thus dislocated they were forced to work on white farms as grossly underpaid labourers and at conditions set by white settlers and farmers (1)
• Basuto King Moshoeshoe was given to believe that the terms of the Sand River Convention meant that the Basotho nation would have authority of the land to the south west of the new Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek. His soldiers henceforth attacked white farmers still occupying those areas in order to re-establish Moshoeshoe's sole authority and further the cause of the building of a unitary state of Basotho. The Basotho lifted thousands of cattle in the attacks. The Cape Governor entered the region with a force of 2 000 soldiers and artillery. He sent Moshoeshoe an impossible ultimatum to deliver 10 000 head of cattle and 1 000 horses within three days, failing which he would attack the Basotho. Cathcart launched the attack and lost more men than the Basotho did. They lifted several thousand cattle of the Basotho. In order to prevent further fighting that might destroy his kingdom Moshoeshoe conceded "defeat" in a diplomatically worded letter to Cathcart (1)
• Beginnings of Natal's sugar and coffee industries (5)

1853:

• British Under-Secretary of State, Sir George Clerk, was sent to Bloemfontein in the Orange River Sovereignty to manage the withdrawal of the British troops after Basuto King Moshoeshoe's "defeat" (1)
• Moshoeshoe used the fact of British withdrawal to drive Sekonyela of the BaTlokwa and his allies the Kora and Griqua from their strongholds that fell within what he regarded as territory of the Basotho. Moshoeshoe thereby effectively placed all southern Basotho who remained in the Caledon River region under his control. The BaRolong were an exception (1)
• The first Postmaster at Malagas was Dennyson (2)
• 5th July - Cecil John Rhodes was born at Bishop's Stortford. His father, the vicar of that place, was descended from a Midland family of successful graziers and farmers, had also some Danish blood, married twice, and propagated a family of nine sons and two daughters. Cecil was the fifth sone of the second wife, Louisa Peacock, whose nature was more genial than that of her husband, a man of long nose and heavy jowl, who was strict and evangelical in his way of life. He hoped that all his sons would go into Church, made them take Sunday school classes, but as it happened they either went to the Army or Colonies or both (3)
• November: A resolution taken by the Volksraad enabled District Commandants to grant land for occupation by Africans on condition of ‘good behaviour’. However, under the resolution there was no individual title, Africans had to use the land communally, chiefs were regarded as trustees of the tribe. However, power over the land still remained the hands of the white government (1)

1854:

• February: The Bloemfontein Convention took place and resulted in the British-Boer agreement of independence for the Orange Free State. The British renounce all sovereignty of the area (1) (5)
• Sir George Clerk entered into negotiations with the Voortrekker leaders and whites loyal to the British Crown in the region. The agreement reached led to the establishment of another Boer republic, namely the Orange Free State. The agreement, called the Bloemfontein Convention, transferred the government of the Orange River territory to the signatories of the Convention. The Convention document declared that no alliances with black political entities, except with Adam Kok III of the Griqua, were permitted. Furthermore, Kok would be forced to abrogate his treaty with the British. The Convention made no mention of the boundaries of the new state and together with forcing Kok to abrogate his right to land in East Griqualand, the way was paved for more conflict in the region (1)
• The establishment of the republican Orange Free State marked the beginning of the disintegration of East Griqualand which had depended on the presence of the British in that region for their right to holding land (1)
• The British Government granted the Cape Colony representative government. A Constitution was drawn up with provided the Colony with a non racial but qualified franchise. The franchise was restricted to men only. All male citizens over the age of twenty one years who owned property valued at £25 per annum, or who received an annual salary of £50, or whose annual salary was £25 but who received free board and lodging, enjoyed the franchise (1) (5)
• Despite the fact that slavery was outlawed in the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek as a condition for independence from Britain the Republic continued the systematic raiding (of) African homesteads to capture African children and youth as slaves as slavery had become an entrenched part of the Boer economies. The captives were called inboekselingen. The most notorious slave raider for the "black ivory", as the children and youths were also known, was Hermanus Potgieter who terrorised the amaNdebele leaving many adults dead in his wake (1)
• In an attempt to stop these raids amaNdebele troops under the leadership of Chiefs Mokopane and Mankopane attacked Boer settlements. 42 Boers were killed. In retaliation Boers attacked Mokopane. He and his people took refuge in a network of caves where they were besieged by hundreds of Boer commandos and 300 baKgatla allies. The siege lasteds 25 days. About 1 000 amaNdebele, including Mokopane, died either of thirst or were shot as they tried to escape from the caves or surrender. The victorious Boers took 700 women and children captive (1)
• 7th April - The vessel Arion sank in the Breede River mouth (2)

1855:

• Imports to the tune of & 45 000 (pounds) passed through customs who collected dues averaging &1000 (pounds) per year (2)
• 13th April - The vessel Osprey sank in San Sebastian Bay (2)
• 18 June: Resolution 159 was adopted by the Transvaal government. It prohibited anybody who was not a burgher from owning land and also prohibited Africans from having burger rights (1)
• Pretoria founded (5)

1856:

• A young woman, Nongqawuse, had a vision that led her to prophesy about the imminent return of the ancestors who would restore their land. In preparation for that liberating time, most Xhosa homesteads sacrificed their cattle and livestock, an event that has come to be known as the Xhosa Cattle Killing. Over the course of a year, most families sacrificed their cattle and refrained from planting new crops, resulting in destitution and starvation. Over 40 000 people died and as many were incorporated into the colonial economy as wage labourers. Coming on top of the massive loss of lives and the destabilisation of the social and economic fabric of those tribes who fought against the conquest and colonisation of the Eastern Cape, the cattle killing was a turning point in Xhosa history and subjugation to British imperialism (1) (5)
• Promulgation of the Masters and Servants Act by the Cape Government. The Act was designed to regulate labour relations and conditions of labour to the advantage of the white moneyed settlers over their black labour force (1)
• Natal, a full Crown Colony, was granted limited responsible government. The Natal Constitution, unlike that of the Cape Colony, introduced a franchise system which made it effectively impossible for Blacks to gain the franchise. During the period in which Natal exercised responsible government only three black males enjoyed the franchise. Sir Theophilus Shepstone was appointed Secretary for Native Affairs (1)
• The Natal Legislature passed rulings on the employment of indentured labour imported from India to satisfy the labour needs of coastal sugar planters (1)
• Civil war broke out in the kingdom of the amaZulu as Cetshwayo and his brother, Mbuyazi, vied to build up power bases to clarify who would eventually succeed Mpande as the King of the amaZulu. Cetshwayo defeated and killed his brother at the Battle of Ndondakusuka (1)
• Captain Benjamin Moodie died at "Westfield" and was buried on his farm (2)
• Voortrekkers declared an independent Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) and laid claim to the Transvaal and the land up to the Limpopo River (1)
• Constitution (Grondwet) accepted by Lydenburg and Potchefstroom leadership (5)
• Lydenburg seceded from the Transvaal (South African Republic) (5)

1856 - 1857:

• In the wake of the devastation of the Eighth War of Dispossession the amaXhosa experienced extreme hardship: the loss of their land and widespread political fragmentation as a result of the land loss. Their economic misery was exacerbated by the spread of lung disease amongst their remaining livestock. In their search to find meaning in their despair the amaXhosa accepted the apparently prophetic message of a young woman, Nongqwase, of the independent amaSarhili. She promised them a reversal of their fortunes if they purged themselves of their cattle and crops and refrained from sowing. According to her vision this purge would resurrect fallen heroes and other dead and the amaXhosa would be assured of healthy cattle and crops. The white settlers would be swept away into the sea. The Paramount Chief Sarhili supported her in her prophecy. The prophecy caused bitter internal conflict. Sarhili ordered the mass slaughter of cattle and the burning of crops. Famine followed. Fifteen months later, when Sarhili rejected the prophecy, and with civil war imminent the amaXhosa were all but decimated. This act of desperation sealed the fate of the amaXhosa as defeated people, people already ravished by centuries of colonial wars of dispossession and their belief and philosophical systems undermined by missionary intervention (1)

1857:

• 29 April: Lieutenant General Scott issued a Proclamation offering vacant Crown lands which were between 300 and 3000 acres. This increased land speculation by white settlers who in turn after purchasing the land leased it to Africans at yearly rental of five shillings (1)
• Joseph Barry moved to Cape Town and lived in Hope Mill at the top end of the Government Avenue (2)
• 7th May - The vessel Barrys II sank in the Breede River mouth (2)
• First of German Legion immigrants settled in Kaffraria (5)
• Union Shipping line gained Southampton-Cape mail contract (5)

1858:

• First of the Orange Free State - Basotho Wars broke out as Free State commandos attacked Basuto King Moshoeshoe in a bid to seize more arable land. Moshoeshoe, who was able to retrieve some land in terms of the peace agreement known as the Treaty of Aliwal North, mobilised an army of 10 000 warriors who raided unprotected settler farms and defeated the Voortrekkers and forced them to retreat (1) (5)
• The Tlhaping /Kora of the Tswana ethnic group raided outlying Boer farms sparking retaliation by the Voortrekkers who in turn seized thousands of cattle, beheaded a Chief and carried away women and children as apprentices (1)
• By this time Joseph Barry's business was as far as Robertson, Montagu, Sweetmilk Valley (Riviersonderend), Bredasdorp, Heidelberg, Riversdale, Mossel Bay, Zwartberg (Ladismith) and Barrydale (2)
• Joseph Barry sent John Barry to the London office to purchase a steam driven vessel. Other Barry vessels were The Barrys, Kadie, Vallisneria and Ceres. The Barrys and Kadie were wrecked at the mouth of the Breede River (2)
• 26 February - T.J. Herold was the second Postmaster at Malagas (2)
• By now the House of Barry reigned supreme in the Overberg (2)
• Soutpansberg (Schoemansdal) leadership agreed to join united community (5)
• Xhosa military power finally collapsed in the Eastern Cape (5)

1859:

• Natal Act No.14 of the Colony of Natal was passed. It regulated the immigration of Indians as indentured labourers with the option of returning to India at the end of a five year indenture. The Law also provided for labourers to re-indenture for a further five year period which would make them eligible to settle permanently in the Colony (1)
• The indentured Indian labourers who arrived in the early period were also entitled to a gift of Crown land and full citizenship rights. This provision was withdrawn after 1891 to discourage the settlement of Indians in Natal (1) (5)
• Barry church completed by Thomas Barry. The register contains names of the Reitzes, the Moodies, the Dunns and the Barrys (2)
• 13th June - The vessel Osmond sank in the Breede River mouth (2)
• 26 September - The 156 ton screw steamer "Kadie" arrived at Port Beaufort after sailing for 81 days from Scotland. This vessel was built expressly for Barry and Nephews. On board was her Commander, Captain Fowler, and his family and the Rev. John Samuel, headmaster of the Swellendam Grammar School, the 15 year old Francis William Reitz, President of the Orange Free State 1889-1895 who was on holiday at Rhenosterfontein from the South African College. The trip up the Breede River to Malagas took 2 hours and 20 minutes. "Kadie" was piloted by one of Williams Dunn's numerous descendants (2)
• Work began on the Cape-Wellington rail link (5)

1860:

• Thomas Barry joined the firm (2)
• The village of Port Beaufort now consisted of about 20 buildings. Among them was the hotel and a canteen, the warehouse, customs house, Queen's warehouse, stores, a shop and some houses (2)
• Transvalers united within the South African Republic (5)
• Southern Africa's first railway – between Port Natal (Durban) and Point – inaugurated (5)
• Pretoria became Transvaal (South African Republic) capital (5)
• Construction began on new Cape Town (Table Bay) docks (5)

1861:

• Orange Free State occupied Griqua territory (5)
• Adam Kok III led his people to Griqualand East (5)

1862:

• Water was scarce in Port Beaufort and in this year the Malagas pontmaker fitted up a waterboat. It served Port Beaufort well and finally beached itself on the east bank opposite the wool shed where it's remains can still be seen (next to the Breede River Lodge) (2)
• Kadie reached Knysna to load wood for Cape Town. The farthest Kadie sailed was to Mauritius with a cargo of ostriches which were destined for Australia (2)
• Philip Wodehouse was appointed Cape Governor (5)
• Cape's first railway link, Cape Town-Eerste River, inaugurated (5)

1864:

• A highlight of Kadie's short life was the Great Western Province Agricultural Exhibition in Swellendam. It made special trips to Cape Town with livestock and implements. Eastern Province exhibitors were fetched at Algoa Bay (2)
• The Port Beaufort Customs Officer was transferred (2)
• Port Beaufort was abolished as a port (2)
• April: The Natal Native Trust was created and enabled the British colonial government to place under its control all the unalienated location land in Natal. This land was to be held in trust for the African population with the Executive Council of Natal as Trustees (1)
• J.H. Brand became Orange Free State President (5)

1865:

• 17th November - The steamship Kadie was stranded in the mouth of the Breede River on the rocks off Cape Infanta (2)
• Joseph Barry died at Hope Mill in Cape Town on Sunday 26th March aged 70 years (2)
• The Great Fire of Swellendam (2)
• J.H Brand launched an attack on Thaba Bosiu but the Voortrekkers were repulsed. They then besieged the Mountain and resorted to a ‘scorched earth’ policy burning crops, villages and seizing livestock. King Moshoeshoe refused to surrender and appealed for British protection (1)
• Kaffraria became part of Cape Colony (5)
• Ostriches first farmed in Eastern Cape (5)

1866:

• The firm Barry and Nephews went bankrupt (2)
• The Voortrekkers went to war with the BaSotho in order to seize the fertile Caledon Valley and defeated the BaSotho. They forced them to ‘sign’ the Treaty of Thaba Bosiu under which the BaSotho lost all of their land north of the Caledon River and a large area in the north west (1)
• June: Thirteen beacons were erected to fix a boundary between Swaziland and the South African Republic taking some of the kingdom’s land and, despite objections by the Swazi, the beacons became a recognized boundary which was accepted by both the Voortrekkers and the British (1)

1867:

• Village raids of the Venda conducted by Voortrekker armies in the Transvaal sparked a rebellion led by King Makhado. The Voortrekkers were defeated and pushed out of lands which they had occupied. Makhado also destroyed the settlers’ settlement at Schoemansdal (1) (5)
• War broke out between BaSotho and Voortrekkers after King Moshoeshoe refused to give up land to them. He appealed to the British for protection (1)
• First northern Cape found near Hopetown (5)

1868:

• The Boers from the Orange Free State continued to overrun King Moshoeshoe of the Basotho (1)
• March – Basutoland under King Moshoeshoe, which later became Lesotho, became a British Protectorate (1) (5)
• King Mzilikazi, leader of the amaKhumalo and later of the amaNdebele, died in Ingama, Matabeleland (1)

1868 - 1869:

• The first Korana rebellion broke out after /Xam speaking San groups joined forces with the Korana to halt the advance of the white settler farmers who were increasingly taking over their land and grazing pastures (1)

1869:

• First Kimberley region diamonds discovered (5)
• Frontiers of Orange Free State-Basutoland established by Treaty of Aliwal North (5)

1870:

• Cecil John Rhodes's health broke down and he was sent to Natal where his brother Herbert had gone to settle. The voyage took 70 days and he landed at Durban on the 1st of October 1870. Herbert had a farm in the Umkomaas Valley, was away at the time, so Cecil stayed with some people at Pietermaritzburg (3)
• By this time Malagas was completely stastic(sic) (2)
• February: Ruiters and 25 followers were captured bringing to an end active operations against the Korana. All three captured chiefs, Kivido, Rooy and Ruiters were tried, convicted and imprisoned on Robben Island (1)
• Kimberley founded (formally named in 1873)
• Britain annexed diamond fields of Griqualand West (5)
• Moshoeshoe died. Territory became Crown Colony in 1872 (5)

1871:

• First heavier-than-air flight (glider) achieved in South Africa by Natalian Goodman Household (5)

1872:

• Cape Colony gained responsible parliamentary government (5)
• Kokstad (Griqualand East) founded (5)
• King Mpande died. His son, Cetshwayo, became king the following year (5)

1873:

• Cecil John Rhodes returned to England and matriculated at Oriel, keeping the Michaelmas term, after spending one and a half years on the sorting table of a diamond mine in Kimberley. It was not long before he caught a chill at rowing. His heart and lungs were affected and the specialist who saw him ordered him back to Africa, writing in his case-book, 'not six months to live' (3)
• Lydenburg gold fields discovered (5)

1874:

• 10th June - The vessel Minnie sank in the Breede River mouth (2)

1876:

• July: The South African Republic declared war on the Pedi which ended in defeat for the Afrikaner owing to a combination of Pedi ingenuity and division within the combined Afrikaner force (1)
• Die Afrikaanse Patriot, first Afrikaans periodical, was published (5)

1877:

• Cecil John Rhodes had his 1st heart attack at the age of 24 (3)
• 19th September: Cecil John Rhodes wrote the 1st of a series of wills (3)
• The British occupied the South African Republic and in terms of Article 21 of the Pretoria Convention appointed a Commission to investigate land ownership by Africans. Amongst its members were S.J.P. Kruger, Vice-President of the Transvaal State, George Hudson, British Resident, and H.J. Schoeman Native Commissioner for Pretoria and Heidelberg. The Committee recommended that Africans could purchase or acquire land in any manner but the transfer of that land should be registered on their behalf in the name of a Native Location Commission (1)

(Ed. - I cannot find any evidence or source to support or validate this entry. To the best of my knowledge the British never occupied the South African Republic before the end of the Anglo Boer War. They annexed the land next to it, as was their law/custom, in an area that formed part of what was then knows as Bechuanaland)

• Britain annexed Transvaal (5)
• Ninth and last Frontier War (5)
• The Second Korana War which lasted until the following year broke out around the Orange River after the Korana and San launched livestock raids on settler farms. Subsequently, more Korana chiefs were arrested and imprisoned on Robben Island and the British proposed to enlist the landless communities as servants (1)

1878:

• The 9th Xhosa war ended and the two main Xhosa tribes were forced across the Kei River (1)
• Xhosa people who had settled in the Prieska region south of the Orange River allied with the Kora and San to launch an attack on white farms in the southern districts of Griqualand. As the attacks spread they were joined by the Griqua and Tlhaping. Loss of land to white settlement and loss of authority by chiefs over their own people were primary causes of the rebellion (1)
• July: The colonial forces launched an attack and quelled the Xhosa, Kora and San rebellion (1)

1879:

• 22 January: Cetshwayo, King of the Zulus defeated the British forces at the Battle of Isandlwana in the Anglo Zulu War but was finally defeated at Ulundi (1) (5)
• Zululand was broken up into independent chiefdoms under British suzerainty (5)
• Griqualand East annexed to Cape Colony (5)
• Cable link between Cape Town and Britain established (5)
• 28 November: The Pedi under the leadership of Sekhukhune were defeated by British forces leaving about 1000 Pedi warriors dead. Sekhukhune was captured and imprisoned in Pretoria (1)
• The Cape government annexed Fingoland (Mfenguland) and Griqualand West which constituted two thirds of the territory between the Cape and Natal (1)

1880:

• The Cape Parliament rejected a scheme for a South African federation (4)
• Transvaal claimed independence from Britain and declared itself a republic. The start of the first Anglo-Boer War (4)
• In France, Louis Pasteur identified Streptococcus bacteria (4)
• In the USA, T.A. Edison and J.W. Swan independently made the first practical electric light (4)
• In Britain, W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan wrote 'The Pirates of Penzance' (4)
• William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal) became Prime Minister of Britain (4)
• Major General H.H. Clifford replaced Sir Bartle Frere as Acting High Commissioner of the Cape and after two weeks was succedded by Sir G.C. Strahan (4)
• H.E. Bulwer became Lieutenant Governor of Natal (4)
• Griqualand West annexed to the Cape (5)
• The Afrikaner Bond, with 'Onze Jan' Hofmeyr as it's leader, was founded in the Cape Colony (4) (5)
• April - Paul Kruger and General Joubert travelled to the Cape to campaign for support and to put pressure on Cape Afrikaner parliamentarians to reject the Cape Draft Act that envisioned federation. The mission was a success and Kruger was confident that Gladstone would cancel the annexation. His refusal to even grant Self Rule led to great disappointment (1)
• December - The Volksraad was called to Paardekraal, south west of Pretoria, on the advice of Paul Kruger. Here the Government of the Republic was placed consisting of Kruger, P.J. Joubert and M.W. Pretorius. Kruger's base was to be in Heidelberg and armed forces took up position on the Natal border while others surrounded the British garrison in the Transvaal. Kruger realised that the British forces would be too powerful (and) thus decided to continue with negotiations (1)
• The town of Barrydale was founded (2)

1881:

• The Boers defeated the British at Laing's Nek and Mauba Hill and regained qualified independence under British suzerainty (4) (5)
• Paul Kruger wrote a letter to request that a British Royal Commission be set up to make an honest investigation. He promised fighting would stop if this happened. When Britain concluded the Pretoria Convention, recognising the independence of the South African Republic (Transvaal), the first South African War ended, a triumph in Kruger's career (1) (4)
• Pablo Picasso was born in Spain (4)
• Western outlaw Billy the Kid was killed in New Mexico by Sheriff Patrick Garret (4)
• James Abram Garfield (Republican) succeeded Rutherford Birchard Hayes as U.S. President, was assassinated and was in turn succeeded by Chester Alan Arthur (Republican) (4)
• T.C. Scanlen succeeded J.G. Sprigg as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (4)
• Sir Hercules Robinson became High Commissioner and Governor of the Cape (4)
• Germany, Austria and Russia formed the Three Emperor's Alliance (4)
• August - The Pretoria Convention was signed and the Vierkleur was flown once again (1)
• 25th November - The vessel Cape of Good Hope sank in the Breede River mouth (2)
• Electric light introduced in Cape Town (5)

1882:

• For the first time in ten years an election was held and Paul Kruger won (1)
• Italy joined the Austro-German Alliance which became the Triple Alliance (4)
• Franco-British dual control of Egypt was established (4)
• Tuberculosis bacillus was identified by Dr. Robert Koch in Germany (4)
• Married Woman's Property Act in Britain gave married women the right of separate ownership of property of all kinds (4)
• Gottlieb Daimler built the first petrol engine in Germany (4)
• Psychoanalysis was pioneered by Viennese physician Josel Breuer who used hypnosis in treating hysteria (4)
• Republics of Stellaland and Goshen (in Tswana territory) proclaimed as separate but short lived republics on the western border of the Transvaal (4) (5)
• London's Savoy Theatre, built by Richard D'Oyley Carte, opened with the first electric illumination in any British public building (4)
• St Gothard Tunnel, first railway tunnel through the Alps, opened (4)
• G.P. Colley succeeded H.E. Bulwer as Lieutenant General of Natal (4)
• First tobacco factory opened in Oudtshoorn (5)
• First urban general electrification in Kimberley (5)
• First telephone exchange in Port Elizabeth (5)

1882-3:

• White farmers lay a siege of Ndzundza-Ndebele for nine months who, when faced with starvation, were forced to surrender. Their fertile lands were seized and divided among the Voortrekkers. Each war participant was given five families to use as servants who worked for little or no pay on the farms (1)

1883:

• 9 May - Paul Kruger was sworn in as President and subsequently announced a policy that was based on Christian principles. Introduced Concession policy as the country was in financial difficulty. He also introduced a new education policy that was more acceptable to the public. Kruger left for England again to persuade the British Government to revise the Pretoria convention as means of establishing a rail link with the east coast (1) (5)
• 16th June - The vessel SS Umsimkulu sank in the Breede River mouth (2)
• Germany began settlement of South West Africa and Angra Pequena (4)
• Secret Austo-Rumanian Alliance formed, prompted by Rumanian fear of Russia (4)
• Portuguese government granted a concession to a U.S. promoter for a railway from Delagoa Bay to the Transvaal (4)
• Orient Express's first run between Paris and Constantinople – Europe's first transcontinental train (4)
• Ferdinand de Lesseps started work on the Panama Canal (4)
• Robert Louis Stevenson wrote 'Treasure Island' (4)

1884:

• 27 July - The old Pretoria Convention was replaced with a new one, the London Convention though foreign relations, the authority to make treaties remained a British perogative. Hollanders were granted permission for the construction of the Delagoa Bay railway and the establishment of trade ties with European powers. Most of the Transvaal's grievances stemming from the Pretoria Convention were removed (1) (4)
• Charles Parson in England invented the first practical steam turbine engine (4)
• Divorce re-established in France after abolition in 1816 (4)
• Cetshwayo, King of the Zulus died and was succeeded as King of the Zulus by his son, Dinuzulu (4) (5)
• A number of Transvaal burghers under Lucas Meyer established the New Republic with Vryheid as it's capital (4) (5)
• Thomas Upington became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (4)
• Cocaine was used as an anaesthetic by New York surgeon William Halsted who became addicted to the drug (4)
• John Tengo Jabavu founded the weekly newspaper 'Imvo Zabantsundu' in King William's Town (4)
• E.C. Williams became the first South African to play in a final at Wimbledon (4)
• October - President Paul Kruger allowed the Proclamation of Authority by the Republic over an area that fell within Bechuanaland, a British protectorate at the time (1)
• The Berlin Conference, chaired by Chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck was held to divide Africa between the various colonial empires. Bismarck annonced a German Protectorate over Damaraland and Namaqualand, a vast territory 776996 square kiometers in extent. This began the scramble for Africa, a decade of rapid conquest by various European powers of the African continent. Ethiopia was the only part of Africa that remained independent (1)
• Ngangelizwe, grandfather of the Tembu Chief, Jongintaba Dalindyebo, died. Jongintaba Dalinyebo later became Nelson Mandela's guardian, entrusted to him by Mandela's father on his death bed (1)
• Germany occupied South West Africa (4) (5)
• Basutoland became British High Commission territory (5)
• Barberton gold fields opened (5)

1885:

• President Paul Kruger reached a compromise with Sir Charles Warren to avoid a possible war over territory with the British, putting an end to Stellaland and Goshen (1) (5)
• Khartoum fell to the Mahdi Mohammed Ahmed (it was later re-taken by Kitchener) (4)
• Congo State was established as a personal possession of Leopold II of Belgium (4)
• Italy occupied Massawa, Eritrea (4)
• German East Africa Company was chartered; Germany annexed Tanganyika and Zanzibar (4)
• Gladstone (Liberal) resigned as British Prime Minister and was succeeded by Lord Salisbury (Conservative) (4)
• First anti rabies vaccine was administered by Louis Pasteur in France (4)
• The Rover Company in England introduced the 'Safety' bicycle designed by J.K. Starley (4)
• William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan wrote 'The Mikado' (4)
• Grover Cleveland (Democrat) became U.S. President (4)
• Gcalekaland and Thembuland were incorporated into the Cape Colony (1)
• Britain proclaimed southern portion of Bechuanaland a colony (northern portion remained a protectorate) (5)
• Kimberley-Cape Town rail link completed (5)
• Phylloxera devastate Cape wine industry (5)

1886:

• Proclamation of the first gold fields in the Witwatersrand. Soon there was an increase in the number of foreigners residing in the Transvaal, creating a political problem for President Paul Kruger. Johannesburg was born (1) (4) (5)
• All official trace of Port Beaufort finally vanished from the Blue Books of the Cape Colony (2)
• Lord Salisbury resigned and Gladstone, re-elected British Prime Minister, introduced the Home Rule Bill for Ireland. The Conservatives contested the Bill and, after the ensuing general election, formed a new ministry under Lord Salisbury (4)
• Last major Indian war ended in the USA with the capture of Apache chief Geronimo (4)
• J.G. Sprigg became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony for the second time (4)
• Coca-Cola went on sale in Atlanta, Georgia, formulated by local pharmacist John Pemberton (4)
• Television was pioneered by German inventor Paul Gottlieb Nipkov who devised a rotating scanning device (4)
• Haymarket massacre in Chicago: on 1 May Chicago police fired into a crowd of strikers, killing four and wounding many. At a peaceful rally held by the Knights of Labour Organisation to protest agsinst the shootings a small bomb was thrown, killing one policeman and mortally wounding another six. Police fired into the crowd and workers sustained three times as many casualties as the police. This marked the beginning of May Day as a worldwide revolutionary day (4)
• Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York harbour (4)
• South Africa's first electric trams, imported from the U.S.A., ran between Adderley Street and Mowbray Hill, Cape Town (4)
• A.E. Havelock became Lieutenant Governor of Natal (4)

1887:

• In a public speech Otto von Bismarck advocated a larger German army (4)
• First Colonial Conference in London opened (4)
• British East Africa Company was chartered (4)
• Russo-German Reinsurance Treaty replaced expired Three Emperor's Treaty Alliance which Russia had refused to renew (4)
• After defeating the Zulu warriors at the Battle of Ulundi, the British formally annexed Zululand to block the Transvaal's attempt to gain communication with the coast and to pre-empt the simmering threat of the Zulu people fighting back to recover the loss of their territory. The kingdom was broken up into 13 chiefdoms by Garnet Wolseley and placed under different chiefs each with a British resident. Dinuzulu was exiled (1) (4) (5)
• Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria celebrated her 50 years on the British Throne (4)
• 'Bloody Sunday' with casualties and arrests in Trafalgar Square at Socialist meeting attended by Irish agitators (4)
• Britian, Austria and Italy signed the Triple Alliance 'to maintain status quo' in the near east (4)
• Lazarus Zamenhof, a Warsaw oculist, invented 'Esperanto', the international language (4)
• Aluminium produced electrolytically for the first time, in Switzerland (4)
• Electricity introduced to Japan by Tokyo Electric Light Company (4)
• In the U.S.A. Thomas Edison invented the first motor driven phonograph playing cylindrical wax records (4)
• Kruger granted a concession to a Dutch group for a railway from Komatipoort to Pretoria and Johannesburg. The Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorwegmaatschappij was created (4)
• Cape black's voting rights restricted by Parliamentary Voter's Registration Act (restrictions were extended by Franchise and Ballot Act of 1892) (5)
• South African Republic (Transvaal) and Orange Free State negotiate defence pact (5)

1888:

• President Paul Kruger was re-elected as president, making it possible for him to extend his limitations on the political representation of the Uitlanders (foreigners) (1)
• The New Republic united with the Transvaal to become the district of Vryheid (4)
• Lobengula, King of the Ndebele, accepted British protection (4)
• Through the Rudd Concession, Cecil Rhodes obtained mining rights in Matabeleland and Mashonaland (4)
• Cecil Rhodes formed De Beers Consolidated Mines (4)
• The President of the O.F.S., J.H. Brand, died and was succeeded by F.W. Reitz (4)
• George Eastman in the USA perfected his 'Kodak' box camera which made it possible for any amateur to take satisfactory snapshots (4)
• Jack the Ripper made headlines in London by feeding streetwalkers with poisoned grapes and then disembowelling them (4)
• Norwegain Fridtjof Nansen successfully led an exploring party across Greenland's ice cap (4)
• First patent for a pneumatic bicycle tyre was awarded to Scottish veterinary surgeon John Boyd Dunlop in Belfast, Ireland (4)
• Benz motor carriages were advertised for the first time in in Mannheim, Germany by Karl-Friedrich Benz (4)
• The Burroughs adding machine was patented by inventor William Burroughs of St. Louis, Mississippi. It was the first key-set recording and adding machine (4)
• Johannesburg's first theatre, the Globe, opened (4)
• The Wanderer's Club was founded in Johannesburg (4)

1889:

• President Paul Kruger persuaded (the) Volksraad to pass legislation to create a second Volksraad with limited authority where the Uitlanders would have representation (1)
• Cecil John Rhodes formed the British South Africa Compnay (Chartered Company) (4)
• King Leopold bequeathed the Congo Free State to Belgium in his will (4)
• Austria's Crown Prince Archduke Rudolph was found dead with his 17 year old mistress, Baroness Marie Vetser, at his hunting lodge, Mayerling. His nephew, Franz Ferdinand became heir apparent (4)
• Adolf Hitler was born at Braunau, Autria-Hungary (4)
• Sir Henry Loch became High Commissioner of the Cape Colony, succeeding Lieutenant-General H.A. Smyth (4)
• Benjamin Harrison (Republican) became U.S. President (4)
• Cordite was patented by English chemist Frederick Abel and Scottish chemist James Dewar (4)
• World's first lifts were installed by the Otis Company in New York's Demarest building on 5th Avenue (4)
• The Eiffel Tower, designed by French engineer Alexandre-Gustav Eiffel, was completed in Paris, France (4)
• London's Savoy Hotel opened (4)
• In the U.S.A. George Eastman produced the first roll-film for cameras (4)
• The South African Rugby Board was formed (4)
• James Couper defeated Woolf Bendoff in South Africa's first major boxing match at Eagle's Nest, Johannesburg (4)
• C.B.H. Mitchell became Lieutenant-General of Natal (4)

1890s:

• The British South African Company defeated Mzilikazi’s Ndebele (1)

1890:

• Cecil John Rhodes became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (4)
• British South Africa Company occupied Mashonaland (Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe) (5)
• Rand Tram, Johannesburg-Springs, started to run (5)
• The Chartered Company's Pioneer Column reached the site of Salisbury and the town was founded (4)
• The O.F.S and the Transvaal conclude a treaty of commerce and friendship and a political alliance guaranteeing mutual aid (4)
• German East Africa Company ceded it's territorial rights to the German government (4)
• The first commercial dry cell battery was introduced under the name 'Ever Ready' by the National Carbon Company in the U.S.A. (4)
• London's first electric underground railway went into service, passing beneath the River Thames (4)
• First tetanus anti toxin was produced by Berlin bacteriologist Emil von Behring and Shibasaburo Kitazato (4)
• Vincent van Gogh shot himself at Auvers, France, and died there two days later at the age of 37 (4)
• The 'Gibson Girl' created by New York illustrator Charles Dana Gibson made her first appearance in the weekly magazine 'Life' (4)
• Tchaikovsky's 'The Sleeping Beauty' was produced for the first time at Petersburg's Maryinsky Theatre (4)
• Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany forced Prince Von Bismarck to resign as Prime Minister (4)
• Peanut butter was invented by a St. Louis, Mississippi, physician who developed it as a health food (4)
• First aluminium saucepan was produced at Cleveland, Ohio, by Henry Avery, whose wife used it until 1933 (4)
• Herman Hollerith's new tabulating machine was used to process US census data. His Computing Tabulating Recording Company, together with two other companies, was to become IBM (4)
• President Paul Kruger's proposal for a second Volksraad was put into effect. This, of course, remained an Uitlander grievance against the Kruger government (1)
• March - Paul Kruger was publicly insulted during a visit to Johannesburg. Subsequently, he guaranteed Britain that he had no ambitions to the north. However, he stated his interest in Swaziland to the east (1)

1891:

• Squatting on Crown lands by black people was prohibited by Volksraad Resolution No. 359 (1)
• Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria and Italy was renewed for 12 years (4)
• Leander Starr Jameson became Administrator of the British South Africa Compnay's territories (4)
• Work on the Trans-Siberian Railway began in Vladivostok. It linked Moscow with the Pacific coast (4)
• Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' was first published in the 'Strand' magazine (4)
• Nyasaland became a British Protectorate (4)
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec produced his first Montmartre music hall posters (4)
• Basketball invented at Springfield, Massachusetts by Canadian-American physical education director James Naismith (4)

1892:

• William Gladstone (Liberal) became British Prime Minister for the fourth time (4)
• The Uitlanders on the Witwatersrand formed the Transvaal National Union (4)
• The railway from the coast reached the Vaal River and the railway from Komatipoort to Johannesburg was opened (1) (4)
• In Germany, Rudolf Diesel patented the diesel internal combustion engine (4)
• Haile Selassie, future Ethiopian emperor, was born (4)
• In England, C.F. Cross and E.J. Bevan discovered viscose, making possible the production of rayon (4)
• Cape Town-Johannesburg rail link inaugurated (5)

1893:

• President Paul Kruger won the Presidential elections and was re-elected President of the Transvaal for the third time (1) (4)
• Fietas, Johannesburg: The first 'locations' were established under the Kruger government. Locations were 'non white' areas. Three existed namely the 'Coolie Location', the 'K****r Location' and the 'Malay Location' (1)
• May - Paul Kruger sworn in as President for the third time (1) (4)
• Natal was granted self government with Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson as Governor and Sir John Robinson as first Prime Minister (4) (5)
• Ndebele revolted against the rule of the British South Africa Company. Leander Starr Jameson crushed the revold and occupied Bulawayo (4)
• Grover Cleveland (Democrat) was inaugurated as U.S. President (4)
• The railway linking Pretoria to Cape Town was completed (4)
• World's first open heart surgery performed by Chicago surgeon Daniel Williams (4)
• Women's suffrage was adopted in New Zealand, the first country in the world to give women the right to vote (4)
• Wall Street stock prices took a sudden plunge, the market collapsed, 100 banks closed their doors and more than 15 000 businesses failed. This depression was to last 4 years (4)
• Johannesburg cyclist Lourens Meintjies triumphed at the Chicago World Fair to become South Africa's first world champion (4)
• Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen led an expedition to the North Pole (4)
• Karl Benz constructed his 4 four-wheel car in Germany (4)
• Mohandas Gandhi arrived in South Africa (4) (5)
• Johannesburg's Parktown suburb was laid out by the Braamfontein Estate Company (4)

1894:

• Uganda became a British Protectorate (4)
• Japan declared was on China (4)
• Fourth Gladstone Ministry ended after he shattered the Liberal Party with his fight for Irish Home Rule. Liberals retained power with Lord Rosebery as Prime Minister (4)
• Leander Starr Jameson completed the occupation of Matabeleland (4)
• In England, Rudyard Kipling published 'The Jungle Book' (4)
• Tsar Alexander III of Russia died and was succeeded by his son Nicholas II (4)
• Oil was discovered in Texas when a well being bored for water started spouting oil (4)
• Opening of London's Tower Bridge that spanned the Thames (4)
• Death Duties (inheritance tax) was introduced in Britain (4)
• Peche Melba was created by chef Auguste Escoffier at London's Savoy Hotel to honour Australian Nellie Melba who was singing at Covent Garden (4)
• 23rd August - James (Jimmy) Arnold La Guma was born in Bloemfontein. A trade unionist and political activist he was the elder of two children born to an itinerant cobbler, Arnold, and his wife Jemima. While the domestic circumstances of the LA Guma family, which was of French-Malgasy origin, are obscure during this period it is known that La Guma was orphaned when he was but five years old. He and his sister, Marinette, were at first cared for by a washerwoman and later adopted by an uncle, James Mansfield, who lived in Parow on the outskirts of Cape Town after his parents died. In 1923 La Guma married a childhood sweetheart, Wilhelmina (Minnie) Alexander, the daughter of a carpenter who was active in the African Political Organisation. In Minnie, La Guma found a lifelong companion who supported his political activities despite his frequent absences from home, the economic sacrifices and the personal risks involved. Of their marriage a son, Alexander, the celebrated novelist, and a daughter, Joan, were born. Arrested with the Declaration of a State of Emergency that followed the Sharpevillle shootings in 1960 and detained for three months his health failed rapidly after this. Suffering a cerebral thrombosis a few months after his release from prison he died a few months later of a fatal heart attack at Groote Schuur Hospital.(1)
• Johannesburg-Delagoa Bay (Lourenco Marques, now Maputo) rail link inaugurated (1)
• Pondoland, the northern part of the Eastern Cape along the coast, fell under British control (1) (5)
• The Glen Grey Act (No. 25 of 1894) was passed. Under the Act, which regulated black land and labour, the alienation and transfer of land was to be approved by the Governor. Subletting or subdivision of the land was prohibited and the principle of ‘one man one plot’ was to be applied, thus the rest of the people who were not allocated land were forced to go and find work elsewhere. Although declared in the Glen Grey District, it was immediately extended to the Transkeian districts of Butterworth, Idutywa, Ngqamakwe and Tsomo by Proclamation No. 352 of 1894 (1) (5)

1895:

• Southern Bechuanaland passed into the hands of the Cape Colony. The Act of Annexation made special provision that no lands reserved for the use of Africans in the territory were to be alienated (1) (5)
• Law No. 21 of 1895 prohibited farmers from employing more than 5 African householders on one farm without government permission. However, this proved to be ineffective as Land Companies repeatedly broke the law (1)
• British South Africa Company territory south of the Zambezi was consolidated as Rhodesia (4)
• Italian troops marched into Ethiopia (4)
• Britain annexed Tongaland (4)
• East African Protectorate (later Kenya) was created on dissolution of the British East Africa Compnay (4)
• Lord Salisbury (Conservative) began 3rd term as British Prime Minister (4)
• First public motion picture was shown in Paris by Louis and Auguste Lumiere (4)
• The railway between Pretoria and Delagoa Bay was completed (4)
• First traffic on newly completed Durban-Johannesburg rail link completed (5)
• London School of Economics and Political Science was founded (4)
• Oscar Wilde brought an unsuccessful libel action against Marquess of Queensbury and in a sensational trial was found guilty of homosexual offences (4)
• Bavarian physicist Wilhelm Rontgen discovered X-rays (4)
• In Italy Guglielmo Maroni invented wireless telegraphy transmission (4)
• Sir Hercules Robinson (later Lord Rosmead) became High Commissioner and Governor of the Cape Colony (4)
• Dr. L.S. Jameson raised a force of Bechuanaland police and volunteers, the Jameson Raiders, and invaded the Transvaal but was defeated in 1896 near Krugersdorp (1) (4) (5)

1896:

• Dr. L.S. Jameson was captured by the Boers and handed to the British for trial (4)
• J.G. Sprigg became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony after indignation at the Jameson Raid led to the fall of the Rhodes government (4) (5)
• Rinderpest, the highly contagious and usually fatal disease of catlle, invaded South Africa (4) (5)
• Goods train crashed into dynamite train in the Braamfontein goods yard. Eighty died in the resultant explosion which rocked Johannesburg (4)
• The railway linking Pretoria to Durban was completed (4)
• Edward Alfred Jennings, a Briton living in South Africa, invented the wireless independently of Marconi (4)
• The Ndebele and Mashona rebelled against the British South Africa Company (4)
• Mark Twain arrived in Durban for a two month tour of South Africa (4)
• French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in uranium (4)
• M.T. Steyn became President of the O.F.S. (4)
• Chamberlain invited President Paul Kruger to London to discuss the safety of the Transvaal (1)
• Ethiopia, under Emperor Menelik II, defeated invading Italian army in the Battle of Adwa (1)
• Lumière brothers' demonstrated projected moving photographic images in Alexandria (1)

1897:

• January - J.G. Kotze, the Chief Justice, challenged the legality of the Volksraad (1)
• February - President Paul Kruger obtained special right to dismiss judges who claimed testing right. Kruger regarded Chief Justice Kotze's stand as an infringement of the authority of the Volksraad (1)
• President Kruger visited Bloemfontein and a new agreement was concluded between the Transvaal and O.F.S. (4)
• Sir Alfred Milner (later Lord Milner) became Governor and High Commissioner of the Cape Colony (4) (5)
• William McKinley (Republican) became U.S. President (4)
• Harry Escombe became Prime Minister of Natal and was succeeded in the same year by Sir Henry Binns (4)
• British scientist Joseph John Thomson discovered the electron, the first sub atomic particle to be identified (4)
• The first car arrived in South Africa (4)

1898:

• W.P. Schreiner became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (4)
• Sir William Butler became Commander In Chief of the British forces in South Africa (4)
• U.S.A went to war with Spain; peace was reached in the same year (4)
• After a lengthy correspondence President Paul Kruger dismissed Chief Justice Kotze (1)
• May - Paul Kruger was sworn in as President of the South African Republic (Transvaal) for his 4th term after a crushing victory in the election (1) (5)
• September - The Orange Free State President, Dr Marthinus Theunis Steyn visited Pretoria, resulting in a treaty between his province and the Transvaal (1)
• Voortrekker commandos under Joubert isolated the Venda chiefdoms and attacked them one by one resulting in their defeat. Some of the Venda people were driven across the Limpopo River and their territory was incorporated into the Transvaal (1)

1899:

• Lord Miler, Governor of the Cape, obtained the recall of Sir William Butler (4)
• Sir Redvers Buller assumed command of British troops in South Africa. The Boers took the initiative, invaded the Cape Colony and Natal and inflicted a number of defeats on the British forces, culminating in 'Black Week' in November (4)
• A.H. Hime became Prime Minister of Natal (4)
• Enoch Santonga wrote 'Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (God Bless Africa) (4)
• The Mount Nelson Hotel opened in Cape Town (4)
• The new 'Kildonan Castle' steamed out of Southampton, carrying 3000 troops to the S.A. Front (4)
• Lord Milner used the Uitlander movement as means of denouncing the Kruger administration (1)
• May - Lord Milner recommended British intervention to Chamberlain (1)
• May-June - A conference was held in Bloemfontein. Both President Paul Kruger and Lord Milner were invited by President Steyn to attend. Milner insisted immediate steps needed to be taken to grant the Uitlanders a vote on a basis of five year residency. Kruger was not willing to fix the residential qualification to less than seven years. The conference didn't reach a conclusion (1)
• September - Paul Kruger decided, with support from Jan Smuts, that it would be better to take military action. This led to the dispatch of an ultimatum to Britain on the 9th of September 1899 demanding the withdrawal of British troops from the Transvaal border and from 11 October a state of war existed between the two countries. The O.F.S was automatically drawn into the conflict (1) (4)
• The Second Anglo Boer War occurred and became known as the most destructive modern armed conflict in South Africa’s history (1) (5)

1900:

• Field Marshall Lord Roberts arrived in South Africa as Commander In Chief. Kimberley was relieved and Roberts entered Bloemfontein (4)
• The Orange Free State was annexed by Britain and became the Orange River Colony (4)
• Pretoria was occupied (4)
• Roberts returned to England and Kitchener launched his 'scorched earth' strategy (4)
• The British established refugee camps which later became concentration camps (4)
• The Labour Party was founded in Britain (4)
• The Boxer Rebellion began in China (4)
• J.G. Sprigg became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony for the 4th time (4)
• 7 May - President Paul Kruger addressed the Volksraad for the last time before being forced to travel on the Delagoa line to Machadodorp where he lived on his train carriage (1)
• 11 September - Accompanied by his private secretary Paul Kruger crossed the Komatipoort border (1)
• 19 October - Paul Kruger boarded the Dutch cruiser, De Gelderland, that was diverted from sea by Queen Wilhelmina of Holland (1)
• 22 November - Paul Kruger reached Marseilles and embarked on a voyage to create enthusiasm for the Boer cause with some success. However, not one Government did anything concrete for the Boers (1)
• President Paul Kruger went into exile in Europe (4)

20th Century

1901:

• The positions of British High Commissioner for South Africa and Governor of the Cape Colony were separated. Lord Milner continued as High Commissioner, undertaking the administration of the former Boer Republics, and Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson became Governor of the Cape Colony (4)
• Queen Victoria died after a 63 year reign, the longest in British history. She was succeeded by Edward VII (4)
• U.S. President William McKinley was assassinated and succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) (4)
• Boer commandos invaded the Cape Colony (4)
• Boxing became a legal sport in England (4)
• Hemlines crept up the ankle (4)
• Japanese-American chemist Satori Kato of Chicago invented the first 'soluble' instant coffee (4)
• H.E. McCallum became Governor of Natal (4)
• Plague killed hundreds in South Africa (4)
• Emily Hobhouse visited the concentration camps and returned to stir the British conscience (4)
• July' - President Paul Kruger's wife, Gezina Susanna Frederika Wilhelmina, died in Pretoria (1)

1902:

• The Boer War ended with the Treaty of Vereeniging being signed 31st May (4) (5)
• Transvaal and Orange Free State reverted to colonial status (5)
• An Archives branch of the Department of the Colonial Secretary was established with the purpose of taking intellectual and physical control of the archival records of the former Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (1)
• Financially unsuccessful visit to Europe by the three Boer Generals, Christiaan de Wet, Jacobus de la Rey and Louis Botha, who sought assistance for citizens of the former republics who lost everything in the war (4)
• Cecil John Rhodes died at the age of 49 (4) (5)
• The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria and Italy was renewed for another six years (4)
• Arthur James Balfour (Conservative) became British Prime Minister (4)
• Charles Mambretti of Cape Town imported the country's first motorcycle (4)
• Turn-ups on men's trousers made their first appearance (4)
• The 'Rand Daily Mail' rose from the ashes of the old 'Standard and Digger's News', The editor was Anglo-Boer War correspondent Edgar Wallace (4)
• Kipling published his 'Just So Stories' (4)

1903:

• Lord Milner created his own Legislative Assembly in the Transvaal (4)
• The Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, made the first manned flight in a petrol engined aircraft at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, U.S.A. (4)
• Activists of the Women's Social and Political Union smashed windows and threw firebombs in London. The Suffragists were jailed and went on hunger strikes (4)
• The first motion picture to tell a story – 'The Great Train Robbery' was directed and shown by Edwin Porter in New Jersey, U.S.A. It ran for 12 minutes (4)
• Pius X (St. Pius) became Pope, succeeding Leo XIII (4)
• Britain set a 20 mph speed limit for motor cars (4)
• G.M Sutton became Prime Minister of Natal (4)
• The Tivoli theatre opened in Cape Town (4)
• Inter-Colonial Council of four (later 12) nominees and 14 officials came into being (4)
• S.A.'s first serious motor accident – the Johannesburg express hit a car at Maitland level crossing, near Cape Town (4)
• There were over 1 000 rickshas in Durban (4)
• Fietas, Johannesburg - 5 stands were transferred to Indians (1)
• October - President Paul Kruger moved to warmer climate of Montreux, Switzerland (1) (5)

1904:

• Fietas, Johannesburg - The 'Coolie Location' was struck by bubonic plague (1)
• 20 March - Fietas, Johannesburg - The mixed population was evacuated and the area burned to the ground (1)
• July - Fietas, Johannesburg - Most of the evacuees started moving back into the urban centre, mostly into the 'Malay Location', one of the view(sic) areas for legal 'non white' occupation (1)
• 24 May - President Paul Kruger established himself in a villa at Clarens on lake Geneva (1)
• 14 July - Paul Kruger died from cardiac failure after a period of illness. His body was brought back to South Africa and lay in state in Cape Town and Pretoria before being buried next to his wife, Gezina Susanna Frederika Wilhelmina Du Plessis, in Hero's Acre in Pretoria (1) (4) (5)
• High Commissioner Milner got Transvaal gold mines going with the help of Chinese labour. Mass meetings were held in England in protest (4) (5)
• Dr. L.S. Jameson became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (4)
• The Trans-Siberian railway linked Moscov and Vladivostok and was the longest in the world (4)
• A woman was arrested in New York for smoking in public (4)
• Massive floods damaged Cape Town and Bloemfontein (4)
• Deneys Reitz returned to South Africa (4)
• The 13 000 ton Union Castle mailship 'Armadale Castle' entered Durban harbour, the first Royal Mail Steamer to cross the bar (4)
• Rhodes University evolved from senior classes of St. Andrew's College and admitted 50 undergraduates (4)

1904-1907:

• Fietas, Johannesburg - 48 stands were transferred to Indians (1)

1904-1934:

• Fietas, Johannesburg - Indians increasingly became stand holders (1)

1905:

• 9th August - Moses Mauane Kotane was born at Tamposstad in the Rustenburg district of the western Transvaal. He came from a devoutly Christian peasant family of Tswana origin. Largely self taught he received only a few years of formal schooling but became an insatiable reader. Later, as a young worker he enrolled in a night school in Ferreirastown, Johannesburg where he became known for his ability to master the most abstruse political writings. Starting to work at 17 in Krugersdorp, Kotane was alternately a photographer's assistant, domestic servant, miner, and bakery worker. Charged with treason in December 1956 he remained a defendant in the Treason Trial until charges against him were dropped in November 1958. During the 1960 State of Emergency he was detained for four months and in late 1962 he was placed under 24 hour house arrest. In 1969 he suffered a stroke and went for treatment in Moscow where he remained until his death in 1978 (1)
• 'Bloody Sunday' launched a Russian revolution when Czar's troops fired on demonstrating workers. Seventy killed and 240 wounded. Order restored the following year (4)
• Lord Milner left South Africa and was succeeded by the Earl of Selborne as High Commissioner and Governor of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony (4) (5)
• The Cullinan Diamond – at more than 3 000 carats the largest yet found, was discovered at the Premier Mine, Transvaal (4) (5)
• Sir Hnery Campbell-Bannerman (Liberal) became British Prime Minister (4)
• Japan defeated Russia in the naval battle of Tsushima Strait (4)
• Einstein produced history's most famous equation (energy = mass x speed of light squared, or E= mc2) (4)
• The Second Language Movement gained momentum and was reborn in South Africa (4) (5)
• Count de Revertera drove from Johannesburg to Cape Town in 11 days (4)
• C.J. Smythe became Prime Minister of Natal (4)
• Het Volk was formerly established (4)

1906:

• The British Government granted responsible government to the Transvaal (4)
• World's first radio broadcast of music and voice. Signal picked up by ships several hundred kilometres away from transmitter at Brant Rock, Massachusetts (4)
• Earthquake and resulting fires kill more than 450 people in San Francisco (4)
• Paul Roos's rugby team became the first to wear the Springbok emblem when they played in Britain (4)
• Electric trams replaced horse drawn trams in Johannesburg (4)
• The first issue of the 'Sunday Times' newspaper appeared (4)
• The Carlton Hotel opened in Johannesburg (4)
• Sydney Grundy's 'The Degenerates' opened in Cape Town with Lily Langtry in the lead (4)
• A London hairdresser introduced the permanent wave. It took 8-12 hours to be done (4)
• F.R. Moor became Prime Minister of Natal (4)
• Botha formed administration (5)

1907:

• The Orange River Colony received responsible government (4) (5)
• In the Transvaal an elective Legislative Assembly of 69 members was constituted and the country was granted Responsible Government status (4) (5)
• In the Transvaal the coalition between Het Volk and the English Nationalists was victorious and Louis Botha became Prime Minister. In the Orange River Colony Abraham Fischer became Prime Minister (4)
• The Transvaal government sent almost 50 000 Chinese back to China (4) (5)
• Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scouts movement in Britain (4)
• M. Nathan became Governor of Natal (4)
• Percy FitzPatrick's 'Jock of the Bushveld' was published and became a best seller (4)
• Andrew Jeptha of South Africa became the first coloured man to hold a British boxing title (4)
• Colonial Conference was held in London (4)
• First oil company, Vacuum Oil, and first clothing company established (in Cape Town) (5)

1908:

• John X. Merriman became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (4)
• First sitting of National Convention, in Durban, to create basis for unification of colonies and to pave constitutional path to Union (4)
• British explorer Ernest Shackelton got to within 160 km of the South Pole (4)
• Henry Ford produced the Model T (4)
• South Africa's first motor show was held at the Wanderer's, Johannesburg (4)
• South Africa competed in the Olympic Games, in London, and Durban sprinter Reggie Walker won a gold medal (4)
• Herbert Henry Asquith (Liberal) became British Prime Minister (4)

1909:

• Nation Convention that had it's first sitting in Durban in 1908 met in Cape Town and Bloemfontein (5)
• British Parliament pass South Africa Act (5)
• William Howard Taft (Republican) became U.S. President (4)
• Bakelite was invented by Belgian-American chemist L.H. Baekeland. It is the world's first polymer (4)
• American zoologist T.H. Morgan began research into genetics at Columbia University (4)
• American explorer R.E. Peary reached the North Pole (4)
• First crossing of the English Channel in a monoplane was made French engineer Louis Bleriot in 37 minutes from Calais to Dover (4)
• The Royal Hotel in Durban was rebuilt (4)
• Visiting Frenchman Albert Kimmerling made South Africa's first powered flight over Nahoon racecourse, East London (4) (5)
• 5 September - Fietas, Johannesburg: Dr. Yusuf Dadoo was born (1)
• White Sands (Witsand) was proclaimed a township (2)

1910:

• Lord Methuen became Governor of Natal (4)
• The Union of South Africa was established and became effective 31st May. Herbert Gladstone became High Commissioner and Governor-General. In the first general election, Louis Botha's National Party won 67 seats against 59 of L.S. Jameson's Unionist Party of South Africa (4) (5)
• Union population estimated at 5.8 million (including 1.2 million whites) (5)
• Louis Botha became Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa (4)
• King Edward VII died and was succeeded by his son, George V (4)
• Halley's Comet appeared (4)
• South Africa's car population numbered 2 000 (4)
• The South African Railways and Harbours Administration was established (4)
• John Buchan's 'Prester John' was published (4)

1911:

• South African National Party (in later years S.A.P.) formally established, comprising Het Volk, the Orangia-Unie, the South African Party of the Cape (formerly the Afrikaner Bond), Transvaal English speaking Nationalist's formerly absorbed by Het Volk, and some Natalians. Ranged against this Government party was the Unionist Party, comprising former Progressive parties of the various provinces and the rest of the Natalians (4)
• Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole (4)
• Winston Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in Britain (4)
• Italy declared war on Turkey (4)
• Russian Prime Minister Petr Stolypin was assassinated (4)
• First wholly South African built aircraft was flown by John Weston at Kimberley (4)
• Postal agency established in White Sands (Witsand) (2)
• First airmail (experimental) flight, between Kenilworth and Muizenberg in the Cape Peninsula (5)

1912:

• The first Balkan War began as Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro joined forces against Turkey. An armistice ended the war (4)
• Treaty of Lausanne was signed between Italy and France (4)
• The South African Defence Force Act was signed and the Union got it's own defence force, commanded by General Christiaan Beyers (4) (5)
• Louis Botha formed a new government excluding General J.B.M. Hertzog who delivered a speech which caused a South African Cabinet split the following year. This led to the founding of the National Party (4) (5)
• South Africa Native National Congress (SANNC) formed and was later renamed to African National Congress (ANC) (5)
• R.F. Scott reached the South Pole but died on his return journey (4)
• The SS Titanic sank on her maiden voyage, drowning 1 513 (4)
• The South African Native National Congress (forerunner of the A.N.C.) was formed (4)
• South African runners Kenneth McArthur and Christopher Gitsham won gold and silver medals at the Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden (4)
• First successful parachute jump from an aircraft was made by U.S. Captain Albert Berry (4)
• Land Bank established (5)

1913:

• Hertzog and supporters resigned from the South African Party (5)
• Miner's strike, violence on the Witwatersrand (5)
• Indian protest demonstrations in Natal (5)
• Thousands marched in Transvaal (5)
• Native's Land Act passed, reserving 'traditional' territories (homelands) (5)
• Mohandas Gandhi launched a passive resistance movement (4)
• Imperial troops mobilised against workers in second Rand Strike. Trade unions were recognised after a judicial inquiry (4)
• The Natives Land Act was passed to deal with black ownership and occupation of land on the basis of reserving areas for blacks only (4)
• London Peace Treaty ended the second Balkan War (4)
• British suffragist Emily Davison was killed when she ran in front of the King's horse at the Epsom Derby (4)
• 'African Mirror' an actuality newsreel, was launched (4)
• First definitive issue Union stamps, showing a profile of George V, were printed in London (4)
• I.W. Schlesinger created the conglomerate which later became African Consolidated Theatres (4)
• Woodrow Wilson (Democrat) became U.S. President (4)

1914:

• 28 June - Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia, by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the radical Serbian nationalist group, The Black Hand. This triggered the outbreak of the First World War (1) (4)
• 29 June - Secretary of the Austro-Hungarian Legation at Belgrade sent a dispatch to Vienna accusing Serbian complicity in the assassination (1)
• 20 July - Austria-Hungary sent troops to the Serbian frontier (1)
• 25 July - Serbia ordered mobilisation of troops. Russia arranged for troops to be stationed on Russo-Austrian frontier (1)
• 28 July - Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia and Serbia (1) (4)
• 29 July - Great Britain warned Germany that it cannot remain neutral. Austrians bombarded Serbian capital Belgrade. German patrols crossed the French border (1)
• 1 August - France ordered the mobilisation of troops. Germany declared war on Russia. Italy announced neutrality. Belgium announces neutrality (1)
• 3 August - Germany declared war on Russia and France and occupied Luxembourg. Great Britain gave order for troops to mobilise (1) (4)
• 4 August - Germany declared war on Belgium. United States declared neutrality. Great Britain declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary (1) (4)
• France declared war on Austria-Hungary (4)
• 6 August - Royal Navy cruiser HMS Amphion was sunk by German mines in the North Sea, causing the death of 150 men and the first British casualties of war (1)
• 7 August - First members of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) landed in France (1)
• 20 August - Brussels was evacuated as Germans occupied the city (1)
• 23 August - Japan declared war on Germany. Germany invaded France (1)
• 26 August - The Battle of Le Cateau, northern France, BEF suffered 7,812 casualties and was forced to retreat (1)
• 26–30 August - The Battle of Tannenberg took place in Prussia between the Russian Second Army and the German Eight Army and saw the Russians being defeated but they forced the Germans out of Poland. It resulted in the destruction of the Russian Second and First Army, rendering Russia ineffective on Germany’s eastern front until the spring of 1915. This left Germany free to move it's troops to concentrate on the western front (1) (4)
• Turkey joined the war on Germany's side and closed the Dardenelles Strait (4)
• 6 September - The first Battle of the Marne, Paris. France involved more than two million soldiers, lasting six days, in which British and French troops succeeded in halting the German advance on Paris, at the cost of 13,000 British, 250,000 French and 250,000 German casualties. It put an end to Germany’s Schlieffen Plan whereby the defeat of France via an invasion of Belgium was envisaged. German troops had succeeded in advancing within thirty miles of Paris. 600 Paris taxi cabs were recruited to drive 6 000 French troops from the capital to the frontline. By 11 September all the divisions of the German army deployed in the battle retreated. This was the first important victory for the Allied Forces and led to a four year war of attrition (1) (4)
• 16 October - The British Indian Expeditionary Force sailed from Bombay to the Persian Gulf in preparation for the defence of Mesopotamia (1)
• 19 October - First Battle of Ypres, Belgium, began on 19 October and ended on 22 November. This was the last battle fought between the Allied Forces and Germany in the race to the sea. The British Expeditionary Force, under the command of Field Marshall John French, reinforced French–Belgian Troops at Ypres. German troops had occupied Antwerp and prepared to attack the Allied troops and take the city of Ypres. The Germans were beaten back and the onset of the Belgian winter forced them to withdraw. The German army lost 134 000 soldiers, the Belgian army lost 21 500 soldiers, while the BEF lost 7 900 men, 29 000 wounded and 17 800 missing (1)
• 29 October - Turkey entered the war on Germany's side and closed the Dardenelles Strait (1) (4)
• Russia declared war on Turkey (4)
• England and France declared war on Turkey (4)
• Zeppelins carried out the first air raids on Britain (4)
• 22 November - Trenches were established along the entire Western Front (1)
• 23 November - The British entered Basra, securing oil supplies in the Middle East needed to supply most of the Royal Navy (1)
• 8 December - The Battle of the Falkland Islands. A Royal Navy task force sank three German cruisers that were victorious at the Battle of Coronel (Chile) in November. Only the SMS Dresden escaped (1)
• 16 December - The German First High Sea fleet bombarded Hartlepool, Whitby and Scarborough, killing 137 civilians and proving that the British mainland was susceptible to attack (1)
• 25 December - Soldiers on both sides of the Western front declared a Christmas truce (1)
• At the request of the British Government, South African troops under Louis Botha invaded German South West Africa. A rebellion against this by pro-German Boers took place in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State (4)
• General de la Rey died in a shooting incident on the Rand (4)
• Foster Gang committed suicide in a cave after being trapped by police (4)
• Rebel leader Christiaan de Wet was captured (4)
• Strikes in the coal mines of Natal and among railway workers culminated in a major strike on the Rand. The Minister of Defence, J.C. Smuts, called out commandos and the strike collapsed. He banished 9 of the leaders. Jopie Fourie was executed (4)
• The Kimberley Mine, or Big Hole, was closed to further digging (4)
• The Indian Relief Act and a Smuts-Gandhi agreement ended the S.A passive resistance campaign. Gandhi returned to India (4)
• Benedict XV became Pope (4)
• Sydney Charles Buxton became High Commissioner and Governor- General of the Union of South Africa (4)
• First Charlie Chapman films appeared (4)
• U.S.A officially opened the Panama Canal to traffic (4)
• More violence on the Witwatersrand and in other industrial areas. Martial law declared (5)
• SANNC delegation visited London to protest Native's Land Act (5)
• Hertzog launched (first) National Party (5)
• Botha Government declared was on Germany. Boer groups under Generals De Wet, Beyers and others rebelled against the decision. Botha suppressed insurrection (5)

1914-1918:

• What is known as the Great War broke out in Europe. European powers conscripted large amounts of soldiers from their colonies in Africa. The returning soldiers were trained in combat and were confident in their abilities to gain independence. The end of the Great War in Europe marked the beginnings of many liberation movements on the African continent (1)

1915:

• 1 January - Battle of Artois and Champagne in France began (1)
• 31 January - The German Army used poison gas for the first time in an attack on the Russian position west of Warsaw, Poland. The 18 000 gas shells were rendered ineffective as a result of the subzero temperatures (1)
• 3 February - The Turkish army launched an unsuccessful attack against British controlled Suez Canal; used to ferry troops from India, Australia and New Zealand to the Western Front (1)
• 18 February - Germany began a U-Boat campaign, attacking merchant and passenger shipping around the British Isles (1)
• 10-13 March - Battle of Neuve Chapelle in which Britain and Germany suffered heavy losses. After three days of fighting the British suffered 11 000 casualties and the Germans 10 000 casualties (1)
• 22 April - The Armenian Genocide began: 250 Armenian intellectuals were rounded up and arrested in Turkey (1)
• 22 May - Forced deportations of Armenians for the next two years led to the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians due to starvation, thirst and murder by Turkish troops (1)
• 22 April-22 May - The Second Battle of Ypres began in which the first use of poison gas by the German Army on the Western Front resulted in 58 000 British casualties and 38 000 German casualties (1)
• 25 April - 70 000 Allied troops, including 15 000 Australians and New Zealanders, landed at Gallipoli Peninsula near Constantinople. The aim was to unblock the Dardenelles Strait between Gallipoli and Constantinople to gain access to Russia through the Black Sea. The Gallipoli Campaign ended in failure as the Turks succeeded in defending the peninsula (1) (4)
• 7 May - Germans sank the British ocean liner Lusitania which brought Germany and the U.S.A to the brink of war because of the loss of American passengers (1) (4)
• 4 August - Germany captured Warsaw and drove Russians 290 km beyond Warsaw. Some 2 million Russians were killed, wounded or taken prisoner (1) (4)
• 25 September - Battle of Loos between the British and German armies took place. The British used poison gas for the first time. They succeeded in capturing Loos but the Germans regrouped and when the British relaunched their offensive they were decimated by German machine gunners. The British suffered a heavy casualty of 50 000 men (1)
• 3 October - Anglo-French army landed at Salonika, Greece (1)
• Italy turned on her former ally, Austria (4)
• Forces under Botha and Smuts occupied German South West Africa (now Namibia) (5)
• Germans surrender unconditionally to Union forces in South West Africa (4)
• Professor Hugo Junkers in Germany designed the first fighter aeroplane (4)
• 19 December - Months of fighting between Turkish and Allied troops led to a deadlock. The Turks successfully prevented a breakthrough, inflicting 250 000 casualties on the British forces. The British Navy began the evacuation of 83 000 soldiers from the Gallipoli Peninsula (1)
• Sir Douglas Haig replaced Sir John French as Commander of the British expeditionary Force in Europe (1)
• The Cape Coloured Corps was formed (4)
• Nasionale Pers founded in Cape Town. It's newspaper, Die Burger, was the voice of the new National Party (4)
• Henry Herbert Asquith headed a British Coalition Government (4)

1916:

• Union expeditionary force dispatched to German East Africa (5)
• First South African troops reached Nairobi. General Smuts was appointed Commander-In-Chief of the Imperial Army in East Africa (4)
• Battle of Verdun between Germany and France (4)
• 140 day Battle of the Somme involved 3 million men on a 33 km front. Allied armies lost 794 000 men and the Central Powers lost 539 000 (4)
• The South African Brigade lost thousands at Delville Wood (4)
• Liberal leader David Lloyd George headed a Coalition Government in Britain (4)
• The Easter Rebellion in Dublin by the Irish Republican Brotherhood was suppressed by the British (4)
• The first woman member of the U.S. Congress was elected, Miss Jeanette Rankin of Montana (4)
• Einstein's General Theory of Relativity was published (4)
• Huisgenoot magazine was launched (4)
• Margaret Sanger, authoress of Family Limitation, was jailed after opening a birth control clinic in Brookly, New York – convicted for creating a 'public nuisance' (4)

1917:

• The United States declared war on Germany (4)
• German civilians starved after Britain's blockade prevented food and supplies from entering Germany by sea (4)
• China declared war on Germany and Austria (4)
• In the Middle East, Jerusalem was captured from the Turks when the Allies won the Battle of Gaza (4)
• In Russia, Czar Nicholas II abdicated (4)
• Russia was declared a republic by Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky (4)
• The Kerensky government was overthrown in the October Revolution. Lenin became Chairman, Trotsky became Commissar of Foreign Affairs and Stalin became Commissar of Nationalities (4)
• Russia signed an armistice with Germany and withdrew from the war (4)
• Finland declared it's independence from Russia and a Finnish Republic was proclaimed (4)
• Freud wrote the book Introduction to Psychoanalysis (4)

1918:

• U.S. President Wilson proposed the Fourteen Points, precurser of the League of Nations (4)
• The German armies advanced in France but were halted and then defeated after massive counter offensive by British, French and American forces (4)
• Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated (4)
• Austro-Hungarian Emperor Karl abdicated and Austria became a republic (4)
• Poland became a republic (4)
• Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by order of new Russian regime. Some evidence suggests that Anastasia may have survived (4)
• Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia gained their independence (4)
• An armistice was signed between Germany and Allies on 11th November, formally ending the First World War (4) (5)
• Von Lettow-Vorbeck surrendered at Abercorn, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), 2 weeks after Armistice in Europe (4)
• Statistics of war casualties were published: 8.5 million killed, 19.5 million wounded, 6.5 million prisoners and missing. South African losses totalled 12 000. Total shipping losses were 15 million tons, 9 million of which were British (4)
• Cornelis Langenhoven wrote 'Die Stem van Suid Afrika'. (It was accepted as the official national anthem 40 years later) (4)
• Spanish Influenza swept the world, killing nearly 150 000 people in South Africa (4) (5)
• The U.S. Post Office burnt issues of an American newspaper, Little Review, containing instalments of James Joyce's Ulysses (4)
• Afrikaner Broederbond formed (5)

1919:

• A conference of 32 nations (including 5 British Dominions) convened in Paris to draft the treaty ending the First World War (4)
• The Peace Treaty of Versailles was signed. Key figures in it's drafting were Georges Clemenceau of France (Chairman of the conference), David Lloyd George of Britain and Woodrow Wilson of the United States. Botha and Smuts signed on behalf of the Union. As a result, Germany was told to surrender most of her wartime equipment, her army was limited to 100 000 men and much of her territory was relinquished. A harsh programme of reparation was instituted (4) (5)
• Louis Botha died and was succeeded as Prime Minister of the Union by General J.C. Smuts (4)
• Race riots in Chicago left 15 whites and 236 blacks dead (4)
• The German Worker's Party was formed in Germany. It became the National Socialist (Nazi) Party in the following year (4)
• The first non stop Atlantic flight (Newfoundland to Ireland) was made by British air officers J. Alcock and A. Whitten-Brown in 16 hours 27 minutes (4)
• South African Aerial Transports, run by Major Allister Miller, was the first 'airline' to operate in South Africa (4)
• An 18th amendment was made to the U.S. Constitution, forbidding the sale and manufacture of alcohol. Prohibition became effective the following year (4)

1920:

• The League of Nations was formally constituted and the venue changed from Paris to Geneva. It consists of 42 members. Mesopotamia and Palestine became British mandates, South West Africa mandated to South Africa (4)
• The British Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act and Northern and Southern Ireland each had their own parliament (4)
• Gandhi emerged as India's leader in it's struggle for independence (4)
• The Russian civil war ended (4)
• The 19th Amendment gave American women the right to vote (4)
• Rent control was introduced in the Union (4)
• World's first broadcasting station began operating in East Pittsburgh, U.S.A. (4)
• Pierre van Ryneveld and Quintin Brand made the first flight from England to South Africa and were knighted (4) (5)
• Olive Schreiner died in Wynberg, Cape Town (4)
• Scott Fitzgerald published his first novel, This Side of Paradise (4)
• Irish Republican Army was formed to oppose British rule (4)
• Prince Arthur of Connaught became High Commissioner and Governor-General of the Union of South Africa (4)
• Black workers strike on Witwatersrand (5)

1921:

• At Bulhoek near Cradock, 163 members of the 'Israelites' religious sect died when police action to evict them from their illegal settlement turned into a massacre (4)
• Hitler's Storm Troops began to terrorise opponents (4)
• South West Africa was granted a nominated Advisory Council with Germans and South Africans represented equally (4)
• Winston Churchill became British Colonial Secretary (4)
• Washington Naval Conference: the U.S.A., Britain, France, Japan and Italy decided to limit arms expansion (4)
• Warren Gamaliel Harding (Republican) became U.S. President (4)
• Smuts resisted National Party challenge at the polls after bringing Unionists into his SA Party (5)
• Depression: Kimberley mines closed (5)

1922:

• Mussolini's Blackshirts marched to and occupied Rome. Fascist government was formed in Italy. Mussolini was appointed Prime Minister and was known as Il Duce (4)
• Egypt gained independence from British rule. Kingdom of Egypt was proclaimed. Sultan Ahmen Fuad assumed the title of King (4)
• Ireland was torn by civil war. Irish Free State was constituted (4)
• Gandhi was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment after his first civil disobedience campaign against British rule in India (4)
• Labour trouble on the Rand escalated into a full scale revolt. General Smuts took personal control: 230 people died before order was restored (4) (5)
• Southern Rhodesia chose responsible government under British rule rather than join the Union of South Africa (4) (5)
• Insulin was first used in the treatment of diabetes (4)
• Pharoah Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered at Luxor, Egypt by English Egyptologists George Molyneux, Earl of Carnarvon, and Howard Carter (4)
• Pope Bendecdict XV died and was succeeded by Pope Pius XI (4)
• Andrew Bonar Law (Conservative) became British Prime Minister (4)
• British Broadcasting Corporation was established (4)
• First Reader's Digest appeared in the U.S.A with articles of 'lasting interest condensed from books and other magazines' into a pocket sized monthly. It was published by De Witt Wallace and Lila Acheson Wallace (4)
• Escom founded (5)

1923:

• Russia became the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), consisting of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Ukraine, White Russia and Transcaucasia. The U.S.A refused recognition (4)
• Nazi leader Adolf Hitler attempted to overthrow the Bavarian Government in Munich but failed. He was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment but served only 1 year during which time he wrote Mein Kamf (4)
• Mussolini established a one party fascist government in Italy (4)
• The centres of Tokyo and Yokohama were destroyed by an earthquake which killed 120 000 people. Two million were left homeless (4)
• The first English F.A. Cup final was played at Wembley Stadium in London. The match was won by Bolton Wanderers (4)
• French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr Valley in Germany following German default on coal deliveries promised at Versailles in 1919. The occupation lasted until 1925 and added to economic disruption in Germany (4)
• The Ottoman Empire ended after Turkey became a republic under the leadership of General Mustafa Kemal 'Atatürk ' who had destroyed the political power of the Muslim leaders of the old empire (4)
• Calvin Coolidge (Republican) became U.S. President (4)
• Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) became British Prime Minister (4)
• Southern Rhodesia was formerly annexed by Britain as a self governing colony (4)
• Union Parliament passed the Natives (Urban Areas) Act, imposing segregation in towns (4) (5)
• South African Native National Council (SANNC) changed it's name to the African National Congress (ANC) (5)
• Platinum discovered in northern Transvaal (5)
• First radio broadcast (5)
• German nationals in South West Africa became British subjects. German remained an official language (4)

1924:

• James Ramsay MacDonald (Labour) became British Prime Minister in January and was replaced in November by Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) (4)
• Smuts's government fell and was replaced by a Nationalist-Labour coalition. General J.B.M. Hertzog became Prime Minister. Hertzog's National Party and Cresswell's Labour Party negotiated a pact and won the general election. Hertzog formed his Government (4) (5)
• The Industrial Conciliation Act established machinery in South Africa for negotiation between employers and trade unions (4)
• Regular radio broadcasts began in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban (4)
• Lenin died, aged 53, and Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honour (4)
• French poet André Breton published his 'Surrealist Manifesto' (4)
• In this year more than half the cars in the world were Model T Fords (4)
• The Earl of Athlone became High Commissioner and Governor-General of the Union (4)

1925:

• Afrikaans replaced Dutch as an official language of the Union (4) (5)
• Paul von Hindenburg was elected President of Germany (4)
• The Prince of Wales toured South Africa (4) (5)
• South Africa's first radio sports commentary was broadcast from Newlands rugby ground (4)
• Cosmic radiation was identified by American R.A. Millikin (4)
• A French team of motorists reached Cape Town from Algiers – the first to cross Africa by car (4)
• The Locarno Pact was signed in Switzerland by the principal Western nations including Germany. It provided guarantees against violation of European frontiers (4)
• Contract bridge was invented by U.S railway heir Harold van der Bilt while on a Caribbean cruise (4)
• Charlie Chaplin's 'The Gold Rush' was released in the U.S.A. (4)
• The massive Empire Exhibition was held at Wembley, London (4)
• The teaching of Darwin's theory of human evolution was banned in Tennessee, U.S.A. (4)

1926:

• Post Office, telephone and telegraph agency in White Sands (Witsand) (2)
• Josef Stalin began his 27 year leadership of the Soviet Union (4)
• The South African government formally announced the need for a new national flag (4)
• More than 25 000 men took part in the Grasfontein diamond rush (4)
• First liquid fuel rocket was launched by U.S physicist Robert Goddard in Massachusetts, U.S.A. (4)
• English writer A.A. Milne's first juvenile book, 'Winie the Pooh', was published (4)
• Italian born Rudolph Valentino, silent screen heartthrob, died of peritonitis in a New York hospital. His death caused worldwide hysteria, several suicides and riots at his lying-in-state which attracted an 11 block long queue (4)
• Olympic champion from New York, Gertrude Ederle, became the first woman to swim the English Channel (4)
• First blue jeans were introduced by the H.D. Lee Company in the U.S.A. They had slide fasteners (4)
• Herman Charles Bosman was condemned to death for shooting his step brother (4)
• Imperial Conference granted dominions equal status with Britain in Commonwealth (5)
• First motor powered mailship, Carnarvon Castle, arrived in Table Bay (5)

1927:

• American Charles Lindbergh accomplished the first non stop transatlantic flight in his monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis, in 37 hours (4)
• The last Model T Ford was manufactured (4)
• First tourist cars entered the Kruger National Park. Tourists could carry firearms and sleep out in the bush (4)
• The Carnegie Corporation of New York agreed to fund an investigation into the 'Poor White' problem in South Africa (4) (5)
• Oil was discovered in Iraq by prospectors (4)
• Harry and Somah Herber opened their shop, Greatermans, in Brakpan, Johannesburg (4)
• 'Talkies' – shorts shown after the silent feature film – were shown in Cape Town by Kinemas S.A. (4)
• The Schlesinger Organisation formed African Broadcasting Corporation in Johannesburg (4) (Ed. - My 1st cousin twice removed/my grand uncle, Arthur Swemmer, worked for them)
• Sam Cohen and Michael Miller opened the first O.K. Bazaars in Eloff Street, Johannesburg (4)
• Diamonds were discovered in Namaqualand (5)

1928:

• 27th August - Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi was born into the Zulu royal family. His mother, Constance kaDinuzulu, Princess of the Zulus was the daughter of King Dinizulu and granddaughter of Cetshwayo kaMpande, King of the Zulus. His grandfather, Myamana Buthelezi, was Prime Minister to King Cetshwayo. As the firstborn son he was first in line to the Buthelezi chieftainship. From 1934 to 1943 he was a pupil at the Impumalanga Primary School. He went on to study at Adams College in Amanzimtoti where he matriculated and then he attended the University of Fort Hare. In 1951 he found clerical work in the Department of Bantu Administration. The following year he married Irene Mzila, a nurse, and they had three sons and four daughters. In 1953 he returned home to become Chief of the Buthelezi clan. Though his subjects did not refute this status, the government only recognised him as Chief in 1957. Until then he was seen as Acting Chief. After the 1994 elections he served as Minister of Home Affairs for two terms. In 1998, when President Nelson Mandela was in Washington to receive a Congressional Order, he served as Acting President. In this capacity he authorised South Africa’s military intervention into Lesotho to restore the ill fated elected Government. On 14 April 2004 his party’s performance in the general election waned dramatically. His tenuous and conflictual relationship with the South African Government deteriorated further and he was not included in the Cabinet of President Mbeki’s second term of office (1)
• Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovered (at St. Mary's Hospital, London) antibacterial properties of penicillin, thus launching the 'antibiotic' revolution in medicine (4)
• Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek was elected President of China after conquering Peking (4)
• Kellog-Brand Pact, denouncing war and providing for peaceful settlements of disputes, was signed in Paris by 65 countries (4)
• The South African Iron and Steel Industrial Corporation was established (4) (5)
• South Africa's new flag was flown for the first time, alongside the Union Jack (4)
• Amelia Earhart, of the U.S.A, became the first woman to cross the Atlantic when she flew solo from Newfoundland to Wales (4)
• German dirigible Graf Zeppelin arrived in New York from Germany thus completing it's first commercial flight (4)
• D.H. Lawrence (U.K.) published his 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' privately in Florence, Italy. The book was banned in Britain (4)
• The Oxford English Dictionary was published in 12 volumes after 44 years of research, mostly by Scottish editor-in-chief James A.H. Murray and his family (4)
• Mickey Mouse was born (4)
• Rugby test matches were broadcast for the first time in South Africa (4)

1929:

• The freehold portion of Port Beaufort, Eastern Cape, South Africa, was eventually resurrected and granted to Alfred John Barry (2)
• National Party won the general election (5)
• The Wall Street stock market crashed, heralding the Great Depression (4) (5)
• British Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald began his 2nd term of office (4)
• Graf Zeppelin made it's first around-the-world flight in 21 days (4)
• Herbert Clark Hoover (Republican) became U.S. President (4)
• Deneys Reitz's journal Commando was published and became a best seller (4)
• Hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart disease were linked for the 1st time by Harvard physician Samuel Levine (4)
• German film producer Louis Blattner designed the world's 1st tape recorder, the Blattnerphone (4)
• German novelist Erich Maria Remarque published All Quiet On The Western Front (4)
• First crease resistant cotton fabric was introduced by Tootals of St. Helen's, England (4)
• A small Government subsidy allowed Major Allister Miller to float Union Airways, a regular airmail-passenger service (4)
• 22nd April - Satyandranath “Mac” Maharaj was born, the fourth of eight children to Mr and Mrs NR Maharaj of Newcastle, Natal. He matriculated at St Oswald's School and enrolled for a BA degree at the University of Natal, Durban, as a part time student. After the 1994 elections Maharaj was appointed to the Cabinet where he served as Minister of Transport until the 1999 elections. Maharaj resigned from active politics in 1999 and is now active in the business world (1)

1930:

• A general world depression set in. International trade declined, production dropped, unemployment rose (4)
• Statesman Ras Tafari succeeded Empress Zanditu as Emperor of Ethiopia. He adopted the name Haile Selassi I (4)
• Constantinople was renamed Istanbul by Turkish President Mustafa Kemal 'Atatürk' (4)
• In India, Mahatma Gandhi led a civil disobedience campaign, seeking independence from British rule (4)
• South Africa's white women were given the vote (4) (5)
• The planet Pluto was discovered by astronomer C.W. Toombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, U.S.A. (4)
• British aviatrix Amy Johnson became the 1st woman to fly solo from London to Australia (4)
• British airship R101 crashed and burned at Beauvais in France, killing 54 (4)
• African Film Productions produced it's 1st 'talkies' (4)

1931:

• Spain's Alfonso XIII was forced into exile after Republican forces won an election. A Spanish Republic was constituted (4)
• Britain's financial crisis forced the resignation of Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government. Ramsay MacDonald formed the coalition National Government (4)
• Atomic energy production was pioneered by Columbia University physicist Harold Urey. He and his associates announced their discovery of heavy water (4)
• First photographic exposure meter was invented by William Nelson Goodwin, jr, of the Weston Electrical Instrument Corporation at Newark, New Jersey (4)
• New York's Empire State Building opened: the tallest building in the world (4)
• Vitamin A was isolated by Swiss chemist Paul Karrer (4)
• Japan invaded Manchuria, so launching the Sino-Japanese war (4)
• Britain came off the gold standard and Jan Smuts wired the South African parliament to follow suit. After initial opposition from Hertzog, South Africa followed suit (4)
• Sound recording engineer John Hecht produced the first records for the Singer Gramophone Company in Johannesburg (4)
• Ellis Park became venue of South Africa's tennis championship (4)
• Maize exports earned only 523 000 for South Africa against 3 520 00 in 1925 (4)
• The Earl of Clarendon became Governor-General of the Union (4)
• Statute of Westminster conferred full legislative freedom (within the Constitution) on the Union Parliament (5)

1932:

• English physicist John Cockroft and his associate Ernest Walton split the atom for the first time (4)
• English physicist James Chadwick discovered the neutron (4)
• Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was established to Bedouin king of Hejaz, Abdul-Aziz ibn-Saud (4)
• Former Labour Party MP, Sir Oswald Mosley, founded British Union of Fascists (4)
• Sydney, Australia, completed it's Harbour Bridge to connect the city with it's suburban areas. It is the world's largest single span bridge (4)
• Sixty countries attended the Disarmament Conference in Geneva. U.S.A and U.S.S.R are were both present (4)
• The Bantu World, a black Johannesburg daily paper, was established (4)
• The Depression reached it's depth in South Africa – 188 000 whites registered for work at labour bureaus. Black unemployment was also critical (4)
• Imperial Airways began it's regular service between London and Cape Town (4)
• Amy Johnson set a new London-Cape Town-London air record (4)
• Gerry Bouwer in his Terraplane car set the final record for beating the Union express train on the Cape Town-Johannesburg run (4)
• The old Tivoli in Cape Town was demolished (4)
• South Africa abandoned the gold standard (5)
• Regular airmail service and wireless telegraphy between South Africa and United Kingdom was inaugurated (5)

1933:

• The National Party (Hertzog) and the South African Party (Smuts) formed a coalition. Dr. D.F. Malan refused to join the coalition (4) (5)
• U.S pioneer radio inventor, Edwin H. Armstrong, perfected frequency modulation (FM), providing static free radio reception (4)
• Nazi leader Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and his regime assumed dictatorial powers (4)
• Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat) began the 1st of his 3 terms as U.S. President and launched his New Deal (4)
• Japan withdrew from the League of Nations (4)
• 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution repeals prohibition (4)
• The Great Drought: South Africa prayed for rain (4)
• Afrikaans Bible published (5)

1934:

• Hertzog and Smuts formed the United Party from the fusion between National and SA Parties (4) (5)
• D.F. Malan formed 'purified' National Party (5)
• Government took over Union Airways which later became South African Airways (SAA) (5)
• Volkskas Bank founded (5)
• Germany's Von Hindenburg and Chancellor Adolf Hitler assumed the presidency. He now had complete dictatorial powers (4)
• Austrian Nazis shot Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss (4)
• Gandhi suspended civil disobedience campaign in India (4)
• First practical radar tests were conducted at Kiel Harbour by German Navy signals Chief Rudolf Kuhnold (4)
• The first steel rolled off ISCOR's production line (4)
• U.S men's underwear sales slumped after film goers saw Clark Gable remove his shirt in the film 'It Happened One Night' to reveal his vestless torso (4)
• Gangsters Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker died in a gun batter after a 2 year career in which they killed 12 people in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Iowa (4)

1935:

• Germany repudiated the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty (4)
• Britain signed naval treaty with Germany in which Germany undertook to not expand her navy to a size larger than 35% of the Royal Navy (4)
• German Jews were deprived of citizen's rights. Intercourse between 'Aryans' and Jews became a political offence (4)
• Italian troops invaded Abyssinia (4)
• Stanley Baldwin became Prime Minister in Britain's coalition government (4)
• English physicist Robert Watt devised radar equipment to detect aircraft (4)
• Persia changed it's name to Iran by order of Reza Shah Pahlavi, ruler since 1925 (4)
• Sir Malcolm Campbell drove his 'Bluebird' at a speed of 486.4km per hour at Daytona Beach, Florida (4)
• Nylon was developed by U.S chemist Wallace Carothers (4)

1936:

• King George V of Britain died after nearly 26 years of rule and was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII, who abdicated in December to marry American divorcee Wallace Simpson. His brother, the Duke of York, succeeded him as George VI (4)
• Germany reoccupied the Rhineland, violating the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles (4)
• Italians occupied Abyssinian city of Addis Ababa (4)
• Civil war erupted in Spain when right wing army led by Francisco Franco and Emilio Mola revolted against the left wing populist government under Manuel Azana (4)
• Hitler and Mussolini signed the Berlin-Rome Axis (4)
• The United Party under Hertzog placed black people on a separate voter's roll (4) (5)
• Native Trust and Land Act allocated more reserved land to blacks (5)
• Sir Patrick Duncan became the first South African to be appointed Governor-General of the Union (4)
• The South African Broadcasting Company was established (4) (5)
• World's first television service was inaugurated by the British Broadcasting Corporation (4)
• England's Penguin Books Ltd. Began a publishing revolution by selling paperback editions of literary works at 6d a copy (4)
• Beginning of the modern computer age (4)
• English mathematician, Alan Turing, published a paper 'On Computable Numbers' (4)
• In Germany designer-engineer, Konrad Zuse, began to build a programmable calculator (4)
• Eugene Marais shot himself (4)
• In America, Dale Carnegie published his 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' (4)
• Dr. Robert Broom found fossil remains of Australopithecine creatures, among the most primitive of early human beings, at Sterkfontein near Krugersdorp (4)

1937:

• Imperial Airways flying boat service was inaugurated (5)
• Irish Free State adopted a new constitution and became the Republic of Eire (4)
• San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge was completed, linking the city with Marin County (4)
• German airship Hindenburg was destroyed by fire at Lakehurst, New Jersey (4)
• Japanese forces invaded China. World opinion was roused against Japan when million of Chinese civilians died in the conflict (4)
• George Gershwin, American composer, died (4)
• U.S aviatrix Amelia Earhart disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean (4)
• Xerography was pioneered by U.S law student Chester Carlson who dry-copying process would revolutionise mass reproduction of documents (4)
• Neville Chamberlain (Conservative) became British Prime Minister, leading a coalition government (4)
• The song Sarie Marais first appeared in print (4)
• The SABC began presenting programmes in Afrikaans (4)
• The Johannesburg stock market boomed but 25 000 men were still on poor relief or subscribed work (4)
• Die Transvaler was founded with Hendrik Verwoed as editor (4)
• A contract was awarded for reclamation of land in on Cape Town's foreshore (4)
• Philip Nel's Springboks returned from their tour of Australia and New Zealand as world rugby champions (4)
• In England, Frank Whittle developed the jet (gas turbine) aircraft engine (4)

1938:

• The United Party won the general election (5)
• Voortrekker centenary celebrations (5)
• Adolf Hitler assumed command of Germany's armed forces and occupied Austria (4)
• British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said 'I believe it is peace for our time – peace with honour' in a speech on his return to England after signing the Munich Agreement by which Italy, Britain and France agree to German occupation of the Sudetenland (4)
• The Ossewa Brandwas was founded in the Orange Free State during centenary celebrations of the Great Trek (4)
• Die Stem was sung together with God Save The King at the opening of Parliament (4)
• Hungarian chemist George Biro and his brother Ladislao designed the first ball point pen (4)
• First nuclear fusion of uranium was accomplished by German physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Stassman (4)
• American Howard Hughes set a new around-the-world record flying a twin engine Lockheed from California to California in 3 days, 19 hours and 14 and a half minutes (4)
• The Volkswagen (people's car), with an air cooled rear engine, was assembled for the first time in Germany. Austrian automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche has been commissioned to design the car by Adolf Hitler (4)
• Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full length animated cartoon feature film to be shown on the American circuits (4)
• Prof. J.L.B. Smith of Rhodes University identified a recently caught coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct for many millions of years (4)

1939:

• Spanish civil war ended with victory for right wing forces led by Francisco Franco (4)
• Spain left the League of Nations (4)
• Germany and Russia invaded Poland which was divided between the 2 powers (4)
• Britain and France declared war on Germany (4)
• Hertzog's policy of neutrality rejected by Parliament. The Union of South Africa declared war on Germany 6 September after a vote in Parliament (4) (5)
• General J.C. Smuts became Prime Minister in place of General Hertzog (4) (5)
• Pius XII became Pope (4)
• Swiss chemist Paul Müller developed the insecticide DDT (4)
• First commercial transatlantic passenger air service began as 22 passengers and 12 crew members took off from Port Washington, New York, for Marseilles via the Azores and Lisbon aboard the Pan American Airways Yankee Clipper, a Boeing aircraft (4)
• Gone With The Wind with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh had it's world premiere in Atlantis (4)
• Germany flew the 1st jet aircraft, a Heinkel HE178 (4)

1939 - 1945:

• The second world war in Europe brought an increased demand for independence from African states. European colonial powers were weak from the war and American fear of Soviet influence in Africa created a global political climate in favour of decolonisation (1)

1940:

• Alfred Xuma elected ANC president (5)
• South Africa's Active Citizen Force received volunteers for service 'anywhere in Africa' (5)
• German armies overran Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Rumania and invaded France. British forces were evacuated from Dunkirk (4)
• Neville Chamberlain was succeeded by Winston Churchill as head of an all party coalition government in England. He told the House of Commons, 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat' (4)
• French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned and was succeeded by First World War hero Marshal Petain who concluded an armistice with Germany after German troops occupied Paris. Petain set up a government at Vichy, the southern part of France that remained technically independent while Germany occupied the rest (4)
• Italy entered the war (4)
• South Africa declared war on Italy 12 June, dispatched troops and aircraft to East Africa (5)
• The Battle of Britain – German attempts to bomb England into submission were successfully resisted by the Royal Air Force (4)
• Japan joined the Axis and signed a 10 year military and economic agreement. Hungary and Rumania joined the Axis later in the same year (4)
• The world's largest passenger liner was completed in Britain and went into service as a troop ship. It went into commercial service for the Cunard Line after the war as SS Queen Elizabeth (4)
• World's first electron microscope was demonstrated at the R.C.A. Laboratories in Camden, New Jersey (4)
• The Lascaux Caves, containing wall drawings showing how man lived nearly 16 000 years ago, were discovered by schoolboys near Perigueux, France (4)
• The Rh factor in blood (named after the Rhesus monkeys used in research) was discovered by haematology pioneer Karl Landsteiner and his colleague Alexander Wiener at the Rockefeller Institute, New York (4)
• The first nylon stockings went on sale in the U.S.A. (4)

1941:

• South African forces helped defeat Italians in East Africa (5)
• First South African Division was incorporated into British Eighth Army and took part in North African (Western Desert) 'Crusader' offensive (5)
• South Africa declared war on Japan 8 Deceember (5)
• African Mineworkers Union formed (5)
• Fortress Commander H.B. Klopper surrendered Tobruk (4)
• Germans besieged Stalingrad and Russian armies trapped them in a counter offensive. Russia lost 750 000 troops, the Germans 400 000, the Rumanians, Italians and Hungarians 450 000 in the fighting on the Stalingrad front (4)
• Ossewa Brandwag members were arrested and interned at Koffiefontein (4)
• Battle of Alamein in Egypt. British defeated the Germans (4)
• World's first controlled, self sustaining nuclear chain reaction was achieved at the University of Chicago's Stagg Field by a small team of physicists calling themselves the Manhattan Engineering District (4)
• The 26 Allied countries pledged themselves not to make separate peace treaties with the enemy (4)
• Deneys Reitz became South African High Commissioner in London (4)
• The first 'golden record' was presented to U.S musician Glen Miller whose 1941 hit Chattanooga Choo Choo had been sprayed with gold by U.S.A company RCA-Victor after the record had sold more than 1 million copies (4)
• Oxfam was founded by Oxford University classical scholar, Gilbert Murray, to combat world famine (4)

1942:

• 12th April - Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (Msholozi – his praise name) was born at Nkandla in northern Natal, now KwaZulu-Natal. He is the first born of five children of his father Nobhekisisa Zuma and his second wife, Geinamazwi. His mother had three sons with his father, Jacob being the eldest. His father, a policeman, constructed the middle name Gedleyihlekisa from a Zulu phrase, which translated into English reads, “I cannot keep quiet when someone pretends to love me with a deceitful smile.” His father’s first wife had four sons and three daughters. On 18 December 2007, Zuma was elected as President of the ANC at the party’s 52nd national conference in Polokwane, Limpopo, a position from which he resigned on 14th February 2018 (1)
• 1st and 2nd South African Divisions retreated with 8th Army in North Africa. Over 11 000 men of 2nd Division taken prisoner at Tobruk (5)
• South African forces helped occupy Madagascar (June) (5)
• 1st South African Division took part in 8th Army's Alamein Offensive (5)

1943:

• Port Beaufort (Eastern Cape, South Africa) proclaimed a township (2)
• Parliament approved volunteer military service outside Africa (5)
• 6th South African Armoured Division sent to Middle East for training (5)
• United Party won general election (5)
• German and Italian forces were defeated in Northern Africa (4)
• Fascist leader Benito Mussolini was deposed (4)
• Italy surrendered and joined the war against Germany under new leader Marshal Pietro Badoglio (4)
• U.S microbiologists Selman Waksman and A. Schatz discovered streptomycin (4)
• United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was established by an agreement signed in Washington (4)
• Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto: 5 000 Jews were killed and 20 000 were deported to death camps such as Auschwitz and Belsen (4)
• Hallucinogenic effects of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) were discovered accidentally be Swiss chemist Albert Hofman (4)
• In the U.S.A mathematician Howard Aiken's computer (The Harvard Mark I) was switched on at IBM headquarters. It was later re-assembled at Harvard University (4)
• The Rt Hon. N.J de Wet became Officer Administering the Government, declining the title of Governor-General of the Union (4)

1944:

• During April, Allies dropped 81 400 tons of bombs on Germany and occupied Europe (4)
• First V-1 and V-2 rockets were launched on Britain by the Germans (4)
• American and British forces captured Rome (4)
• D-Day – U.S, British and Allied forces landed in Normandy with 76 000 troops, over 700 ships and 4 000 landing craft and liberated Antwerp, Brussels and Paris (4)
• French leader Charles de Gaulle set up a provisional government in Paris (4)
• Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected for the 4th time as U.S. President (4)
• 6th South African Division took part in Allied campaigns in Italy and recorded notable successes at Cellano, Florence, Monte Stanco and Monte Salvaro (5)

1945:

• Harry S. Truman (Democrat) became U.S. President (4)
• Benito Mussolini was executed by Italian partisans (4)
• Adolf Hitler committed suicide in the ruins of Berlin and Germany surrendered (4)
• VE (Victory in Europe) Day was celebrated on 8 May (4)
• At the Potsdam Conference Truman (USA), Stalin (USSR) and Churchill and Atlee (UK) met to settle Europe's future (4)
• U.S bombers dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered and VJ (Victory over Japan) Day was celebrated on 14 August (4)
• It was revealed that Nazi genocide killed an estimated 14 million 'racial inferiors' including Poles, Slavs, Gypsies and nearly 6 million Jews (4)
• In Britain the Labour Party headed by Clement Atlee defeated Churchill's Conservative Party in the general election (4)
• United Nations Organisation was formally constituted (4)
• Vietnam (part of French Indo-China) became independent (4)
• In the U.K. George Orwell published his anti communist fable Animal Farm (4)
• The Scientific Research Council was created in South Africa (4)
• Major G.B van Zyl became Governor-General of the Union (4)
• South African forces helped bring Italian campaigns to successful conclusion (5)
• The year marked the beginning of rapid industrial expansion in South Africa (5)

1946:

• United Nations General Assembly held it's first session in London. Trygve Lie (Norwegian) was elected Secretary-General. New York became the UN's permanent headquarters (4)
• Peace conference of 21 nations was held in Paris (4)
• Verdict of Nuremburg Tribunal. Von Ribbentrop, Goering and 10 other Nazis were sentenced to death. Hess and Funk were sentenced to life imprisonment. Goering committed suicide the evening before his execution (4)
• Communist regimes governed Albania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia (4)
• Winston Churchill first used the phrase 'Iron Curtain' in a speech at Fulton, Montana (4)
• King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy abdicated in favour of his son, Umberto II who left Italy after a referendum favoured a republic (4)
• A National Health Service Bill was enacted, making medical services free to all Britons (4)
• New York psychiatrist Benjamin Spock published his The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (4)
• The two piece bikini swimsuit was designed by French couturier Louis Read. It was modelled 4 days after the U.S atomic bomb test on the island of Bikini (4)
• Black miners went on strike on the Witwatersrand (5)

1947:

• United Nations Organisation approved a plan for the partition of Palestine (4)
• India became independent and divided into the 2 dominions of India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim). Millions died in faction fighting (4)
• Ceylon (Sri Lanka) became independent from Britain within the Commonwealth (4)
• A shepherd boy discovered the Dead Sea scrolls in an earthernware jar in a cave north west of the Dead Sea at Qumran, Jordan (4)
• King George VI and Queen Elizabeth toured South Africa with Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret (4) (5)
• South Africa annexed Marion and Prince Edward Islands (4) (5)
• Princess Elizabeth of England married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh (4)
• The Mau Mau terrorist movement began it's activities in Kenya (4)
• The New Look, designed by Paris couturier Christian Dior, lowered skirt lengths to 30 cm from the floor and unpadded shoulders (4)
• Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl crossed 7 170 km of open Pacific in 101 days on a balsa raft named Kon-Tiki (4)
• The State subsidised National Theatre Organisation was formed (4)
• Lourenço Marques Radio was taken over by John Davenport and Colonel R.L. Meyer. This successful commercial service was beamed into South Africa until 1972 (4)
• First commercial microwave oven was introduced by Raytheon Company of Waltham, Massachusetts (4)

1948:

• Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, aged 78, was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic in India (4)
• British Mandate in Palestine expired and Jews proclaimed the State of Israel. Arab-Israeli war began (4)
• Harry S. Truman (Democrat) was re-elected U.S. President (4)
• The transistor was developed at Bell Telephone Laboratory. It replaced the glass vacuum tube pioneered by Bell Laboratory's physicist H.D. Arnold in 1912 (4)
• Honda motorcycle was introduced by Japanese entrepreneur Soichiro Honda (4)
• United Nations established the World Health Organisation with headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland (4)
• Alan Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country was published (4)
• First long playing record, turning at a rate of 33 1/3 revolutions a minute instead of 78 rpm, was introduced by CBS engineer Peter Goldmark in New York (4)
• Prince Edward Island was annexed by South Africa (4)
• Olympic Games held for the 1st time since 1936 in London (4)
• Crisis in Bechuanaland (Botswana) when Seretse Khama married an English girl (4)
• The National Party in South Africa rose to power, paving the way for the Apartheid regime and its legislations to be implemented in South Africa (1) (4) (5)
• D.F. Malan became Prime Minister (4) (5)

1949:

• Communist forces under Mao Tse-tung seized power in China. President Chiang Kai-shek withdrew to Formosa (Taiwan). Mao Tse-tung proclaimed the People's Republic of China (4)
• North Atlantic Treaty signed. Belgium, Canada, Britain, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the U.S.A pledged mutual assistance against aggression within the North Atlantic area, and co-operation in military training, strategic planning and arms production (4)
• West Germany became the German Federal Republic with Konrad Adenauer as it's Chancellor and Bonn as it's capital (4)
• Eire became a republic and left the Commonwealth (4)
• The South African Atomic Energy Board was constituted (4)
• The Voortrekker Monument was inaugurated (4)
• Antibiotic chloramphenicol was introduced by U.S firm Parke, Davis under name Chloromycetin and was hailed as the first major breakthrough in the fight against typhoid fever (4)
• U.S chemical engineer Robert Boyer introduced the first edible vegetable protein fibre made from spun soy isolate (4)
• Dancers Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin toured South Africa (4)
• D.F. Malan attended Dominion premiers's conference in London (5)
• Zulu mobs attacked Indians in Durban (5)
• Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act passed (5)
• James Moroka replaced Alfred Xuma as ANC President (5)
• South Africa's currency devalued (5)
• 12th April - Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan was born in Durban, Natal, now KwaZulu-Natal. He matriculated from Sastri College, Durban in 1967. His latest appointment, in 2018, was as South Africa’s Minister of Public Enterprises with a political authority [referred to officially as the Shareholder Representative] of six State Owned Companies. These are: Transnet (rail, freight, ports and engineering), Eskom (electricity utility), Denel (advanced manufacturing and arms industry), SA Express (one of two national airlines), Alexkor (a diamond miner) and the South African Forestry Company Limited (timber and forestry) (1)

1950:

• U.S.S.R announced it had the atomic bomb (4)
• U.S. Atomic Commission began development of the hydrogen bomb (4)
• Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea (4)
• South Africa sent their 2nd Air Force Squadron 'the Flying Cheetahs' to Korea (4)
• There were race riots in Johannesburg as black people opposed the new government's apartheid programme (4)
• George Bernard Shaw, British playwright, died in England, aged 94 (4)
• Jamie Uys produced the 1st Afrikaans film in colour 'Daar doer in die Bosveld' (4)
• South Africa's Victor Toweel defeated Manuel Ortiz for the world bantamweight title (4)
• (4)
• Parliament passed Suppression of Communism Act, Population Registration Act, Immorality Act, Group Areas Act (5)
• The right of the Apellate Division to appeal to Privy Council abolished (5)
• Bilingual and commercial Springbok Radio inaugurated (4) (5)
• J.C. Smuts died at his home in Irene, aged 80. He was succeeded as Leader of the Opposition by J.G.N. Strauss (4) (5)

1951:

• Britain's Labour Party, under Clement Attlee, was defeated at the polls and Winston Churchill returned as Prime Minister aged 77 (4)
• In Iran, nationalist leader Muhammad Mosadeq became premier and nationalised Iran's oil industry (4)
• British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, recruited as spies for the Russians in the 1930s, fled to the U.S.S.R. (4)
• Electricity was produced by atomic energy in the U.S.A. (Arcon, Idaho) (4)
• Herman Charles Bosman died in Pieterburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng) (4)
• The first commercial television transmission in colour began in New York (4)
• The Catcher in the Rye by U.S novelist J.D. Salinger was published (4)
• Dr. E.G. Jansen appointed Governor-General of the Union (4) (5)
• Parliament passed Separate Representation of Voters Act, Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act and the Bantu Authorities Act which was largely on the initiative of H.F. Verwoerd, Malan's Minister of Native Affairs (4) (5)
• Group Areas Act came into force (5)
• South Africa withdrew temporarily from the United Nations (5)
• South Africa's Mandate in South West Africa (Namibia) confirmed by International Court of Justice at The Hague (5)
• War veterans's Torch Commando demonstrated in support of Coloured vote (5)
• First Free State gold mines began production. Other mines announced plans to extract uranium (5)
• 9th March - Helen Zille was born and attended school at St. Mary's Waverley in Johannesburg. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Witwatersrand. In 2006 she was elected Mayor of the City of Cape Town. In 2008 she was awarded the Mayor of the Year Award for her efforts to eradicate drugs and violence and to improve service delivery. On 5 May 2009 she became Premier of the Western Cape. She is married to Professor John Maree and together they have two sons, Paul and Thomas (1)
• Libya became the first of the colonised states in Africa to gain its independence (1)

1952:

• King George VI of England died of lung cancer and was succeeded by his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II (4)
• During August 16 000 people escaped from East to West Berlin (4)
• In Egypt, army officers led by General Mohammed Neguib and Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser seized power. King Farouk was forced to abdicate (4)
• A state of emergency was declared in Kenya as the Mau Mau crisis escalated (4)
• In a speech at Boksburg, Verwoerd for the first time mentioned complete independence for the black homelands: 'If they want it, they can have it' (4)
• The High Court of Parliament Act was passed. It set aside the entrenchment of the Coloured Vote in the Act of Union. The High Court Act was later declared invalid by the Appeal Court (4)
• The English translation of Die Stem was formally approved (4)
• Mycenean texts of 1450 B.C were deciphered by English archaeologist Michael Ventris (4)
• John Cobb was killed establishing water speed record of 244.8 km per hour at Loch Ness, Scotland (4)
• In the U.S.A. Ernest Hemingway published his The Old Man and the Sea (4)
• In London, Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap was performed for the first time. It would still be playing when Miss Christie died in 1976 (4)
• U.S.A exploded it's 1st hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean (4)
• Tercentenary Festival marked the the founding of the European Settlement in South Africa (4)
• 17th November - President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa was born in Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng). He was the second of the three children of Samuel Ramaphosa', a retired policeman and Erdmuth Tharaga. He grew up in the South Western Native Township (Soweto), attending a local primary school and Sekano-Ntoane High School, Soweto. In 1971 he matriculated from Mphaphuli High School in Sibasa, Limpopo. In 1972 he registered at the University of the North (Turfloop) for a BProc degree. In September 2017 he headed the unsuccessful South African bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in London. On 14th February 2018 he became President of the Republic of South Africa when President Jacob Zuma resigned. He is married to Dr. Tshepo Motsepe and they have four children (1)
• Egypt gained its independence through a revolution by the Free Officers Movement. This was the first native Egyptian regime since the Fatimids were defeated in 1171 CE (1)
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1953:

• The Korean War ended with the signing of a peace treaty at Panmunjan (4)
• The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was created (4)
• Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican) became U.S. President (4)
• Iran's Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi regained power through a coup engineered and financed by the U.S.A to prevent a Soviet takeover (4)
• Former resistance leader Josip Tito became the first president of Yugoslavia (4)
• Queen Elizabeth II was crowned (4)
• Edmund Hillary of New Zealand Sherpa Tenzing Norgay of Nepal reached the summit of Mount Everest (4)
• Dag Hammarskjöld (Swedish) became 2nd Secretary-General of the United Nations Organisation (4)
• Egypt became a republic under the leadership of General Mohammed Neguib (4)
• U.S genetic researcher James Watson and English geneticist Frances Crick produced a model for the structure of DNA (Deoxyribose nucleic acid), the key to gene replication (4)
• British novelish Ian Fleming wrote his 1st James Bond novel, Casino Royale (4)
• Joseph Stalin died and was succeeded by G. Malenkov as Chairman of the Council of Ministers in the U.S.S.R. N. Krushev was appointed 1st Secretary of the Central Committee (4)
• The strong possibility that excessive cigarette smoking contributes to lung cancer was expressed in several U.S medical journal reports (4)
• Bertha Solomon steered the Matrimonial Affairs Bill through Parliament (4)
• 19th September - Jessie Yasmin Duarte was born one of nine siblings in Newclare, Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng) to Julie and Ebrahim Dangor. She went to school in Coronationville, Johannesburg, and completed her Standard Ten (Grade 12) at the Coronationville Secondary School, starting her professional career as a Management Accountant. Upon her return from her term of office as Ambassador in Mozambique she was deployed as Chief Operations Officer in the Presidency, South African Government until she resigned in April 2010 (1)

1954:

• D.F. Malan retired and was succeeded by South African Prime Minister J.G.Strijdom (4)
• The Natives' Resettlement Act launched the process leading to Soweto and other large black townships being established outside the 'Bantu' areas (4)
• World's first nuclear power station began producing electricity for Soviet agriculture and industry at Obninsk, 90 km from Moscow (4)
• Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser overthrew the regime of General Mohammed Neguib and became premier and head of state of Egypt (4)
• Communist forces in Indo-China captured the towns of Hanoi and Dien Bien Phu from the French. Under an armistice, the French recognised the independence of Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam (4)
• South-East Asian Defence Treaty signed by Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and the U.S.A. (4)
• Dr. Kwame Nkrumah became the first Prime Minister of Ghana (4)
• The solar battery was developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories, making it possible to convert sunlight directly into electric power (4)
• Bloemfontein-born J.R.R. Tolkien published his Lord of the Rings (4)
• U.K medical student Roger Bannister ran the mile in 3 mins 59.4 secs to break the 4 minute barrier (4)
• 1st November - The Algerian War for Independence from France began (1)
• 3 July – Mamokgalake Choene was banned until 25 May 1962 at Delville Trust Farm (1)

1955:

• British Prime Minister Winston Churchill resigned at the age of 80 and was succeeded by Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden (Conservative) (4)
• West Germany became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (4)
• U.S.S.R created the Warsaw Pact as a counter to NATO (4)
• Nikolai Bulganin succeeded Malenkov as premier of Russia (4)
• First British fluoridation of community drinking water began at Anglesey, Wales (4)
• U.S physician Jonas Salk developed an anti-poliomyelitis vaccine at Pittsburgh University (4)
• Sasol (South African Coal, Oil & Gas Corporation) started production (4)
• Disneyland opened at Anaheim, 40 km south of Los Angeles, California (4)
• 7 February – Chief Dhlamini was banned from ___ until ___ at ___ (1)

1956:

• The Suez Canal was seized by Egypt. British, French and Israeli forces invaded Egyptian territory. Egypt blocked the canal. Invading forces halted operations under world pressure (especially from the United States) (4)
• Britain imposed petrol rationing as a result of the Suez crisis (4)
• Soviet troops marched into Hungary after an anti-communist revolution had flared up. Martial law was set up and 150 000 refugees fled to the west (4)
• Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe (U.S.) presented their musical My Fair Lady in New York. It was based on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (4)
• Anglo American chairman Sir Ernest Oppenheimer arranged a R6 million loan for black township development (4)
• Bob van Niekerk, Willie Meissner and Verster de Wit built the prototype of the first S.A car – the Dart (4)
• Prince Rainier of Monaco married U.S film star Grace Kelly (4)
• Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes visited South Africa (4)
• Riotous Assemblies Act was passed in South Africa (4)
• Separate Representation of Voters Act removed coloured voters from the common roll (4)
• Sudan and Tunisia gained their independence (1)

1957:

• Russia launched Sputnik I, the world's first unmanned orbiting spacecraft (4)
• The Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community. Members were Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (4)
• Langenhoven's poem Die Stem van Suid-Afrika, set to the music of M.L de Villiers, was officially accepted as the South African national anthem (4)
• Ghana became the first African state south of the Sahara to attain independence. Kwame Nkrumah began his 15 year rule (4)
• British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned owing to ill health and was succeeded by Harold Macmillan (Conservative) (4)
• Israeli forces withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt reopened the Suez Canal (4)
• J.G.N. Strauss retired from politics and was as leader of the Opposition by Sir De Villiers Graaf (4)
• Major John Glenn (later an astronaut) set the speed record from California to New York in a jet. The journey was completed in less than 3 ½ hours (4)
• European Atomic Energy Committee (Euratom) was created by a treaty signed in Rome (4)
• U.S.A.'s Leonard Bernsein presented his musical West Side Story in New York. Music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (4)
• South African poet Roy Campbell died in a motor accident (4)

1958:

• J.G. Strijdom died and was succeeded as Prime Minister by Dr. H.F. Verwoerd (4)
• General Charles de Gaulle became President of France and formed a 'government of national safety' following the escalation of hostilities in Algeria (4)
• In. U.S.S.R., Nikita Krushev succeeded Nikolai Bulganin as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Bulganin was dismissed from the Communist Party (4)
• Boris Pasternak published his novel Dr. Zhivago (4)
• U.S.A launched Earth Satellite Explorer I at Cape Canaveral (4)
• The U.S nuclear submarine Nautilus completed the first undersea crossing of the North Pole (4)
• Pope Pius XII died and was succeeded by Pope John XXIII (4)
• South Africa's Gert Potgieter set a world record of 49.7 seconds for the 440 yard hurdles at the Commonwealth Games, Cardiff (4)
• The first parking meters were erected in London (4)

1959:

• The President of Cuba, Fulgencia Battista, fled to Florida, U.S.A as rebel leader Fidel Castro captured Santiago and Havana. Castro assumed premiership of Cuba (4)
• The hovercraft was pioneered by English engineer Christopher Cockerell. His SRN-1 crossed the English Channel on a cushion of air (4)
• Russian spacecraft Lunik III photographed the back of the moom (4)
• British palaeontologist Louis Leakey discovered skull fragments and crude stone tools in Tanganyika's Olduvai Gorge. He suggested that this man-ape lived at least 1.78 million years ago (4)
• India got their first TV and villagers travelled for hundreds of miles to visit 6 community centres at New Delhi (4)
• Gary Player won the British Open (4)
• 19 June – Petrus Beyleveld was banned until 30 November 1967 at 73 Greenside road, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)

1960:

• Anti Pass law demonstrations at Sharpeville led to the deaths of 67 blacks (4)
• Unsuccessful attempt on Dr. Verwoerd's life (4)
• Leonid Breshnev became President of the U.S.S.R. (4)
• British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan delivered his Winds of Change speech (4)
• South Africans voted for republican status (4)
• American scientist Theodore Maiman perfected the laser beam in Malibu, California (4)
• The Belgian Congo became independent. Moise Tshombe declared the secession of Katanga (4)
• The world's first woman Prime Minister was Mrs. Bandaranaike of Ceylon who succeeded her husband as Prime Minister (4)
• Pan Africanist and Africa National Congress activities prompted the introduction of the the Unlawful Organisations Bill (4)
• The Springboks made their last appearance at the Olympic Games (4)
• 435 men died when a mine shaft collapsed at the Clydesdale Colliery near Sasolburg (4)
• Princess Margaret of England married Anthony Armstrong-Jones (4)
• France exploded its first atomic bomb over the Sahara Desert in South West Algeria (4)
• The U.S.A launched Echo I, the world's communications satellite (4)
• The blue crane was adopted as South Africa's national bird (4)
• Lionel Bart wrote the musical Oliver which was produced at London's New Theatre (4)
• C.R. Swart became Governor-General of the Union, the last to hold this office (4)
• Albert Luthuli was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (4)
• This year is known as the “year of Africa”. Much of the former French colonial Empire fell apart and several British colonies gained their independence. This spelled independence for a large amount of African states. Mali, Senegal, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Benin, Gabon, Mauritania and Togo all gained their independence (1)
• Arrested with the Declaration of a State of Emergency that followed the Sharpevillle shootings in 1960 and detained for three months James (Jimmy) Arnold La Guma's health failed rapidly after this. Suffering a cerebral thrombosis a few months after his release from prison he died a few months later of a fatal heart attack at Groote Schuur Hospital.(1)

1961:

• South Africa became a Republic outside the Commonwealth. C.R. Swart was the first State President (4)
• J.F. Kennedy (Democrat) was inaugurated as the 35th President of the U.S.A. (4)
• East Germans built the Berlin Wall, sealing off East from West Berlin (4)
• United Nations troops occupied key points in Katanga (4)
• U.N. Secretaty-General Dag Hammarskjöld died in an aircraft accident and was succeeded by U. Thant (4)
• U.S.S.R sent the first man into space. Yuri Gagarin piloted the space capsule Vostok and circled the earth in 89.1 minutes at an altitude of 313 km (4)
• U.S.A followed suit when Alan B. Shepard accomplished the first U.S manned space flight (4)
• South Africa adopted decimal coinage (4)
• The population of Tristan Da Cunha island was evacuated after a volcanic eruption (4)
• FM radio transmission began from Johannesburg (4)
• German Nazi Adolf Eichmann, kidnapped by Israelis in South America, was tried in Israel for war crimes and sentenced to death (4)
• Phocomelia deformed 302 newborn infants in West Germany after the expectant mothers took the thalidomide drug (4)
• The Orient Express between Paris and Bucharest ran for the last time (4)
• The MPLA, FNLA and UNITA started rising in Angola (4)
• 24 February - Hilda Bernstein, born 15 May 1915, was banned until 22 February 1966 at 154 Regent street, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 2 September – Rissik Desai, born 10 April 1932, died 30 October 1997, was banned until 31 January 1968 at 7 Third Avenue, Claremont, Cape Town, Western Cape (1)
• 18 September – Ismail Cachalia, born 5 December 1908, died 8 August 2003, was banned until ___ at 11 Luttig street, Fordsburg, Johannesburg, Gautent (1)
• 20 October – Vincent Brutus, born 28 November 1924, was banned until 31 July 1970 at 15 A Park road, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• Tanganyika, what later became Tanzania, and Sierra Leone gained independence from the British Empire (1)

1962:

• 22 February – Ebrahim Desai was banned until 21 February 1967 at 38 Foundry road, Salt River, Cape Town, Western Cape (1)
• 12 November – Percy and Beryl Bunting were banned until 31 October 1967 at Middleberg, Kloof road, Clifton, Cape Town, Western Cape (1)
• After a brutal war Algeria gained its independence from France. Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda also became independent from Belgium and Britain (1)

1963:

• 18 January – William Bock, was banned until 31 October 1976 at 38 Duke street, Woodstock, Cape Town, Western Cape (1)
• 12 March – Fred Carneson, born 13 January 1920, died 8 September 2000, was banned until 29 February 1968 at 49 Belmont Avenue, Oranjezicht, Cape Town, Western Cape
• 5 September – Solwandle Ngudle, born 22 May 1922, died in detention (1)
• 12 October – Nontombi Dhlamini was banned until 31 October 1968 at 68 Nkosi road, Cato Manor, Benoni Area, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• 19 November – Yusuf Cachalia, born 15 January 1915, died 10 April 1995, was banned until 10 November 1978 at 56a Nuggett street, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 19 November – Amina Chachalia, born 1930, died 2013, was banned until 30 November 1973 at 2 Luttig street, Fordsburg, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 22 November – Mohamed Cajee, born 1937, was banned until 30 November 1968 at 13 Kholvad House, 27 Market street, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 20 December – Moses Bhengu was banned until 31 August 1982 at 1114 Nxele street, Sobantu Township, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• After more than a decade of various anti colonial campaigns, such as the Mau Mau Uprising, Kenya and Uganda gained their independence from Britain (1)
• The Organisation of African Unity was created. The aims of the organisation were to fight against colonialism, keep territorial integrity and better the lives of Africans in general. It was also an organisation aimed at creating broader unity within the African continent (1)

1964:

• 6 January – Temba Dhlamini, born 1927, died 1985, was banned until 31 December 1968 at 324e Kwamashu, Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• 17 January – Edmund Cindi was banned until 30 November 1968 at 54 Third street, Benoni Location, Benoni, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 26 January – James Tjita died in detention (1)
• 15 April – Karl Brecker was banned until 31 March 1969 at 338 Ascot road, Nancefield, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 29 July – McKenzie Brown was banned until 31 July 1974 at Shingewood, Howick road, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• 30 July – Jivan Desai was banned until 30 June 1969 at 133B Prince Edward street, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• 9 September – Suliman Saloojee, born 5 February 1931, died in detention (1)

1964-1968:

• Malawi, Botswana, Mauritius, Lesotho, Swaziland, Gambia, Zanzibar and Zambia gained their independence from Britain (1)

1965:

• 10 February – Johannes Dhladhla, born 1936, died 2016, was banned until 31 January 1970 at 8939B, Elizabethville, Orlando West, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 8 April – Fred Bosch was banned until 31 March 1970 at 16 Twelth street, Bishop Lavis, Cape Town, Western Cape (1)
• 3 May – Wilfred and Joseph Brutus was banned until 30 April 1970 at 6 Roy's Mansions, Burns Avenue, Wyneberg, Western Cape (1)
• 9 May – Ngeni Gaga and Pongoloshe Hoye died in detention (1)
• 5 July – Luzuko Denga was banned until 30 June 1970 at 1572 Zondi Location, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 19 July – Andrew Chamile was banned until 30 June 1970 at 281 Tabetha street, Western Township, Johannesburg, Gautent (1)
• 27 July – Norman Bromberger, born 2 December 1935, died 4 January 2019, banned until 31 July 1970 at 18 Prince Alfred street, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape (1)
• 6 August – Maggie Booysen was banned until 31 July 1970 at N.Y.84 No. 29 Gugulethu, Cape Town, Western Cape (1)
• 21 November – Iyavar Chetty was banned until 30 November 1970 at 3 Luxmi Court, Main Road, Tongaat, KwaZulu-Natal (1)

1966:

• 18 February – Bungo Cele was banned until 31 January 1971 at Block 342, Door no.8709, Bed no. 8711, Kwamashu, Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• 22 February – Joseph Buthelezi was banned until 31 January 1971 at F166 Kwamashu, Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• 24 February – Samuel Butelezi was banned until 31 January 1971 at J1097 Kwamashu, Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• 9 March – Jackson Cekiso, born 1959, was banned until 31 January 1968 at Mqonc Location, Engcobo, Eastern Cape (1)
• 18 April – Charles Channon was banned until 10 April 1971 at 5 Firs, 1544 Wilton Lane, Bryanston, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 10 May – Patric Bhala was banned until 30 April 1968 at 41 Jabavu street, New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape (1)
• 18 May – Churchill Cetu was banned until 31 May 1968 at Block 544, New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape
• 13 June – Charles Caleni was banned until 30 June 1968 at 264 Kagiso Township, Krugersdorp, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 23 June – Sampuka Dawuse was banned until 30 June 1968 at Ngqwara, Mqanduli, Eastern Cape (1)
• 26 June – Alcott Blaauw was banned until 31 May 1969 at 8 Raglan road, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape (1)
• 26 June – Sikuleme Bono was banned until 30 June 1968 at Ncora Location, Cofimvaba, Eastern Cape (1)
• 4 July – Chitibunga Bloyi, was banned until 30 June 1968 at Baziya Location, Umtata, Eastern Cape (1)
• 5 July – Nokosi Bungalipeli was banned until 30 June 1968 at Ngqwara Location, Mqanduli, Eastern Cape (1)
• 12 July -John Coangae was banned until 31 July 1968 at 320B, Kroonstad Location, Eastern Cape (1)
• 18 July – Nomvu Booi was banned until 30 June 1968 at Ntshantshongo Location, Willowvale, Eastern Cape (1)
• 9 September – Bellington Mampe died in detention (1)
• 9 October – James Hamakwayo and Hangula Shonyeka died in detention (1)
• 24 October – Vuyisile Bles was banned until 31 October 1968 at Mtyintyini, Mbizana Location, Glen Grey, Eastern Cape (1)
• 26 October – William Bili was banned until 30 September 1968 at Qokolweni Location, Umtata, Eastern Cape (1)
• 19 November – Leong Yun Pin died in detention (1)

1967:

• 5 January – Ah Yan died in detention (1)
• 22 February – Thembile Bishoti was banned until 28 February 1969 at Mdantsane Township, East London, Eastern Cape (1)
• 28 April – Dawood Cajee, born 1899 was banned until 31 January 1974 at 139 Renek street, Schweizer-Reneke, North West Province (1)
• 3 May – Maboyisana Cuba was banned until 30 April 1969 at Zimbane Location, Umtata, Eastern Cape (1)
• 18 May – Robin Cranko was banned until 31 May 1972 at 2 Dana Courst, Ley street, Victory Park, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 9 August – Thembekile Boyce was banned until 31 July 1969 at Mhlangala Administrative Area, Mount Frere, Eastern Cape (1)
• 9 September – Alpheus Madiba died in detention (1)

1968:

• 20 February – Nicholas Bonayele was banned until 31 January 1970 at Ntselamanzi Location, Alice, Eastern Cape (1)
• 31 March – Richard Canca, born 1924, was banned from ___ until 31 March 1968 at Idutywa, Eastern Cape (1)
• 27 May – Hamilton Buthelezi was banned until 31 May 1970 at 52 Madadeni Location, Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• 31 May – James Calata, born 22 July 1895, died 16 June 1983, was banned from ___ until 31 May 1968 at 73 Makikeng street, Cradock, Eastern Cape (1)
• 11 September – Jundea Tubukwa died in detention (1)
• 31 December – Sonny Bhugwan was banned until 31 December 1973 at 32 Sydenham road, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (1)

1969:

• Masango Mayekiso died in detention (1)
• 4 February – Nicodemus Kgoathe died in detention (1)
• 28 February – Solomon Modipane died in detention (1)
• 10 March – James Lenkoe died in detention (1)
• 10 March – Jackson Busakwe was banned until 31 March 1971 at 76 Zokufa street, New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape (1)
• 31 March – Thamsanqa Bonga was banned from ___ until 31 March 1969 at 145B Zola, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 1 June – Caleb Mayekiso died in detention (1)
• 17 June – Michael Shivute died in detention (1)
• 10 September – Jacob Monnakgotla died in detention (1)
• 27 September – Abdullah Haron, born 8 February 1924, died in detention (1)
• 31 October – Tanana Beto, born 1921 was banned until 31 October 1971 in Maqashu, Glen Grey, Eastern Cape (1)
• 1 December – Achmad Cassiem, born 12 December 1945 was banned until 31 March 1986 at Downwood road, Hanover Park, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape (1)

1970:

• 23 April – Stephen Dlamini, born 1912, died 1994, was banned until 10 April 1980 at 2 Bantu Township, Bulwer, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• 14 October – Fanie Booysen was banned until 30 November 1972 at Dimbaza, King Williams Town, Eastern Cape (1)

1971:

• 21 January – Mthayeni Cutshela died in detention (1)
• 14 May – Lionel Davis, born 21 June 1936, was banned until 30 May 1976 at 56A Jordaan street, Manenburg, Athlone, Cape Town, Western Cape (1)
• 1 July – Malunga Bolosha was banned until 31 July 1973 at Roxeni Location, Alice, Eastern Cape (1)
• 9 September – Baba Bolo was banned until 30 September 1973 at Ngwenya, Middledrift, Eastern Cape (1)
• 27 September – Xhamela Cetyiwe was banned until 30 September 1973 at Egozo Location, Engcobo, Eastern Cape (1)
• 27 October – Ahmed Timol died in detention (1)
• 3 March – Stephen Biko, born 18 December 1946, died 12 September 1977, was banned until 28 February 1978 in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (1)

1972:

• 21 August – Mabibi Dayeni, born 1936, was banned until 31 August 1974 at Ngqoko Location, Lady Frere, Eastern Cape (1)
• Johannes Dangala was banned until 30 November 1974 at Mdantsane Township, Eastl London, Eastern Cape (1)

1973:

• 2 March – Sathasivan Cooper, born 1950, was banned until 28 February 1978 at Himalaya House, Warwich Avenue, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal
• 21 April – Joseph Booi was banned until 30 April 1975 at Mdantsane, East London, Easteren Cape (1)
• 27 July – Neville Curtis, born 16 October 1947, died 15 February 2007, was banned until 31 March 1978 at 100 Belvedere road, Cape Town, Western Cape (1)
• 2 September – Sipho Butelezi was banned until 31 July 1978 at 1366 Matadeni, New Castle, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• 20 November – Saravanan Chetty, born 1929, died 2000, was banned until 31 December 1985 at 36 Kingston road, New Holms, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• 6 December – Philehlupheka Buthelezi was banned until 30 September 1978 at Caluza road, Edendale, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal (1)

1974:

• 1 February – Halton Cheadle, born 30 July 1949, was banned until 31 January 1979 at 113 Northlynn Flats, Somtseu road, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• Don Davis, Reverend, was banned until 30 April 1979 at 103 Sixth street, Elsies River, Belville, Cape Town, Western Cape (1)

1975:

• 18 September – Siegfried Bhengu banned until 30 September 1984 at 32 Sydenham road, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• 19 September – Ravabalan Cooper was banned until 31 October 1978 at 603 Himalya House, Warwich Avenue, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (1)

1976:

• 19 March – Joseph Mdluli, born 1925, died in detention (1)
• 31 March – Twalimfene Joyi died in detention (1)
• 25 July – William Tshwane died in detention (1)
• 5 August – Mapetla Mohapi, born 2 September 1947, died in detention (1)
• 2 September – Luke Mazwembe died in detention (1)
• 25 September – Dumisani Mbatha died in detention (1)
• 28 September – Fenuel Mogatusi died in detention (1)
• 5 October – Jacob Mashabane died in detention (1)
• 9 October – Edward Mzolo died in detention (1)
• 18 November – John Copelyn was banned until 31 October 1981 at Waverley road, Hilary, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (1)
• 19 November – Ernest Mamashila died in detention (1)
• 23 November – Jean Bundlender was banned until 31 October 1981 at 20 Cook street, Observatory, Cape Town, Western Cape (1)
• 26 November – Thola Mosala died in detention (1)
• 11 December – Wellington Tshazibane died in detention (1)
• 15 December – George Botha died in detention (1)

1977:

• 8 January – Lawrence Ndzanga died in detention (1)
• 20 January – Elmon Malele died in detention (1)
• 15 February – Matthews Mabelane died in detention (1)
• 22 February – Samuel Malinga died in detention (1)
• 26 March – Aaron Khoza died in detention (1)
• 31 May – David de Beer was banned from ___ until 31 May 1977 at Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 9 July – Rose Segwale died in detention (1)
• 1 August – Elijah Loza, born 1918, and Phakamile Mabija died in detention (1)
• 3 August – Hoosen Haffejee, born 6 November 1950, died in detention (1)
• 12 September – Stephen Biko, born 18 December 1946, and Bayempini Mbizi died in detention (1)
• 19 October – Brian Brown, born 15 October 1938, banned until 1 March 1982 at 133 14th street, Parkhurst, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 7 November – Sipho Malaza died in detention (1)
• 20 December – Mzukisi Nobhadula died in detention (1)

1978:

• 5 January – Amina Desai, born 1920, died 2009, was banned until 31 January 1983 at 12 Harold street, Roodeport, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 10 July – Lungile Tabalaza died in detention (1)

1979:

• 16 November – Edward Daniels was banned until 30 November 1984 at Deo Crashier, Station road, Athlone,/165 11th Avenue, Kensington, Cape Town, Western Cape (1)
• 14 December – Bonisile Ckisani was banned until 30 June 1986 at A126, Wesleyan street, Walmer, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape (1)

1980:

• 27 February – Tozamile Botha, born 15 June 1950, was banned until 31 January 1983 at 33 Mankayi street, Zwide Location, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape (1)
• September – Mashwabada Mayatula, born 1921, died in detention (1)
• 10 September – Saul Ndzumo died in detention (1)
• 20 December – Sifundile Matalazi died in detention (1)

1981:

• 29 June – Michael Boraine was banned until 30 June 2986 at 12A Alfred, Observatory, Cape Town, Western Cape (1)
• 30 June – Azhar Cachalia, born 26 June 1956, was banned until 30 June 1986 at 1475 Dellair street, Actonville, Benoni, Gauteng (1)
• 30 June – Firoz Cachalia, born 22 July 1958, was banned until 30 June 1986 at 1475 Dellair street, Actonville, Benoni, Gauteng (1)
• 17 September – Manana Mgqweto died in detention (1)
• 12 November – Tshifhiwa Muofhe died in detention (1)

1982:

• Joseph Mavi, born 1938, died in detention (1)
• 5 February – Neil Aggett, born 6 October 1953, died in detention (1)
• 7 April – Keith Coleman was banned until 31 March 1984 at 5 Clarewood Mansion, 32 Webb street, Yeoville, Johannesburg, Gauteng (1)
• 8 August – Ernest Dipale died in detention (1)

1983:

• 8 March – Tembuyise Mndawe died in detention (1)
• 5 July – Paris Malatji died in detention (1)
• 19 September – Yusuf Dadoo, born 5 September 1909, died 19 September, was banned from ___ until ___ at ___ (1)

1984:

• 20 January – Samuel Tshikudo died in detention (1)
• June – Mxolisi Sipele died in detention (1)
• 25 August – Ephraim Mthethwa died in detention (1)
• 29 September - Jacob Moleleke died in detention (1)

1985:

• 27 June – Matthew Goniwe, born 27 December 1947, and Sparrow Mkonto, born 24 December 1951, died in detention (1)
• 5 July – Johannes Spogter died in detention
• 16 August – Sonnyboy Mokoena died in detention (1)
• 24 September – Batandwa Ndondo died in detention (1)

1986:

• 1 April – Joel Phoshoko died in detention (1)
• 11 April – Peter (Petrus) Nchabeleng died in detention (1)
• 12 April – Eric Ngomane died in detention (1)
• 23 December – Simon Marule, born 1930, died in detention (1)
• SADF raided ANC bases in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana (5)
• Eminent Persons Group visited South Africa for talks on Souths Africa's political future (5)
• Mixed Marriages Act and Section 16 of the Immorality Act repealed, 'pass laws' abolished (5)
• Mozambique's President Samora Machel killed in air crash in eastern Transvaal (5)
• Lesotho's Chief Jonathan deposed (5)

1987:

• 26 March – Benedict Mashoke died in detention (1)
• 24 July – Mxolisi Mntonga died in detention (1)
• 29 July – Nobandla Bani died in detention (1)
• 22 October – Xoliso Jacobs died in detention (1)
• General election for (white) House of Assembly: the NP won comfortably but the Conservative Party formed the official Oppostion (5)
• Sanctions campaign against South Africa intensified (5)
• KwaZulu/Natal 'Indaba' regional constitutional proposals were published (5)

1988:

• 12 January – Sithembele Zokwe died in detention (1)
• 26 August – Alfred Makaleng died in detention (1)
• Talks to end the Angolan War and to launch a Namibian Independence process were held in Brazzaville, London, Cairo and elsewhere (5)
• Regional Services Councils were launched (5)
• Numerous extra-parliamentary opposition groups were restricted (5)
• Economic reform (including privatisation and deregulation) featured prominently in the government's programme (5)
• Sanctions campaign continued to gain momentum (5)

1989:

• P.W. Botha suffered a mild stroke and was succeeded as NP leader by F.W. De Klerk who became President-Designate (5)
• SWAPO incursions threatened Namibian independence but representatives of South Africa, Angola and Cuba (with U.S and the Soviet Union in observer/advisory role) restored the initiative (5)
• De Klerk held talks with U.K. Prime Minister Thatcher and 3 European leaders (5)
• Geneeral election was scheduled for 6 September (5)

1990:

• South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) was formed (1)
• Mr. Piet Clase, Minister of Education for whites, announced that the regime had decided to abandon the principle of segregated state education. From January 1991, white state schools would be allowed to accept black children, provided that a majority of the parents of such schools gave their consent (1)
• Patricia De Lille appointed Foreign Secretary and Relief and Aid secretary of the PAC (political party) (1)
• Lindiwe Sisulu returned to South Africa and began work as Personal Assistant to Dr Jacob Zuma (1)
• Ruth Mompati was part of a delegation that opened talks with the South African Government (1)
• Baleka Kgositsile returned to South Africa after which she was elected Secretary General at the first national conference of the ANC Women's League (1)
• Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi returned from exile at the request of CPSA. She resumed work as Personal Assistant to Joe Slovo and Chris Hani (1)
• Barbara Hogan released from prison (1)
• Gill Marcus returned from exile and took up her post in the ANC's Department of Information and Publicity (1)
• 15 January - Accedes to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (1)
• 25 January - Extracts of a document written by Nelson Mandela in anticipation of a meeting with President P.W. Botha at the beginning of 1989 was published by a Cape Town newspaper (1)
• 30 January – Clayton Sithole died in detention (1)
• 2 February - President F. W. de Klerk made a speech at the opening of Parliament announcing, among other measures, the lifting of a 30 year ban on the ANC, the PAC and other anti apartheid organisations, the suspension of the death sentence until further review, the release of some political prisoners and the partial lifting of restrictions on the media and on some detainees (1)
• 5 February - The extreme right reacted with anger to the reforms by Mr. de Klerk. One black (person) was killed in the town of Klerksdorp and the United Kingdom Embassy in Pretoria was attacked (1)
• 11 February - Nelson Mandela, leader of the ANC, freed after twenty seven years in prison (1)
• 20 February - Commission of Inquiry into the death of Clayton Sizwe Sithole. Mandate: To investigate the circumstances surrounding the death in detention of Clayton Sizwe Sithole on 30 January 1990. Chair: GOLDSTONE, R.J. Ref: S297/143 (E) (1)
• 21 February - The Star newspaper reported that Defense Minister, Magnus A. Malan, knew as early as 1987 of a secret "hit squad" made up of police officers which was used to kill opponents of apartheid. The allegations pose a growing embarrassment to Mr. de Klerk, who faced demands for the dismissal of the Defense Minister. In a related development, the activities of the Civil Cooperation Bureau, the military unit involved in the assassinations, were suspended pending the outcome of a judicial inquiry. The Minister also revealed that Anton Lubowski, the SWAPO white official killed by assassins in Windhoek last September, was an agent of the South African Defence Force (1)
• 24 February - More than 100 000 persons attended a rally in Durban addressed by Nelson Mandela who urged his followers to end the factional warfare that had taken more than 2 500 lives in the last five years in the Natal region (1)
• 27 February - Nelson Mandela met ANC officials in Lusaka (1)
• March – Zuleika Christopher, born 1924, died March 1922, was banned from ___ until ___ at ___ (1)
• 2 March - The African National Congress (ANC) elected Nelson Mandela as Deputy President of the organisation and announced its decision to move its headquarters from Lusaka to Johannesburg as soon as possible (1)
• 4 March - Several hundred political prisoners began a hunger strike on Robben Island, the country's highest security prison, to demand that President de Klerk release them under a general amnesty (1)
• Military officers headed by Brig. Oupa Gqozo overthrew the leader of the "independent homeland" of Ciskei, Lennox L. Sebe, while he was in Hong Kong. Brig. Gqozo and three other officers formed an Executive Committee to run the administration with civilian help, "until a society based on democratic principles can be established". South African authorities sent troops at the request of Brig. Gqozo to restore order (1)
• 5 March - According to US Business in South Africa 1990, published by the Investor Responsibility Research Centre (IRRC), despite the fact that 201 USA companies had disinvested from South Africa since 1 January 1984, 123 remained there together with 177 from the UK and 142 from the FRG (1)
• 14 March - In an exclusive interview with "The Herald", the ANC military commander Joe Modise stated that the organisation could consider the suspension of the armed struggle but not the laying down of arms to facilitate negotiations (1)
• 16 March - It was announced that talks between Government officials and an ANC delegation led by Nelson Mandela would open in Cape Town on 11 April. The talks were intended to discuss obstacles to the process of negotiations (1)
• 20 March - Independence of Namibia. After 75 years under South African control, Namibia became independent and Mr. Sam Nujoma, leader of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO), was sworn in as the country's first President by the United Nations' Secretary-General, Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar (1)
• 22 March - After a meeting in Cape Town with President de Klerk, the Secretary of State James Baker 3rd said Mr. de Klerk had told him that his Government was engaged in an "irreversible process that we (the South African Government) will follow to its logical conclusion." (1)
• 26 March – Lucas Tlhotlhomisang died in detention (1)
• 31 March - The ANC decided not to hold talks with the South African government scheduled for 11 April, due to the killing of defenceless demonstrators in Sebokeng. Meeting between Nelson Mandela and Chief Buthelezi of the Inkatha Freedom Party was also called off (1)
• 4 April - Signs bilateral monetary agreement with the government of Namibia (1)
• 5 April - The Venda homeland fell in a military coup d'etat. Apparently bloodless, it was the second in five weeks after the one in Ciskei. Coup leader Colonel Gabriel Ramushwana announced that he would manage the area's affairs until it was reincorporated into South Africa (1)
• 5 April - At an informal meeting in Cape Town, President F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela agreed to reschedule formal talks between the Government and the African National Congress (ANC). The talks will be held from 2 to 4 May (1)
• 6 April - Signs agreement with Togo regarding wildlife management in the Keran National Park (1)
• 14 April - Nelson Mandela admitted that members of the ANC had tortured dissident guerillas but said the officials involved had been punished and any further torture had been banned (1)
• 18 April - In a parliamentary speech President de Klerk ruled out any possibility of black majority rule. On the same date he also announced the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry, led by Justice Richard Goldstone, into the police killing of 17 peaceful demonstrators at the township of Sebokeng (1)
• 20 April - Stating that the arms would be used in a white "counter revolution", members of a far right group stole from Air Force Headquarters in Pretoria a small arsenal, including machine guns and R1 and R4 rifles (1)
• 25 April - Testifying before the Harms Commission which was taking testimony at the South African Embassy in London, former police captain Dirk Coetzee, now a member of the ANC, said that he oversaw the 1981 killing by the secret police of black activist Sizwe Kindile and of the human rights lawyer Griffiths Mxenge (1)
• 27 April - Senior ANC leaders such as Joe Slovo, Thabo Mbeki and others, returned to South African after a quarter of a century in exile (1)
• May - Government admited to failure of its 'homeland' policy and that those 'homelands' will be reintegrated into South Africa.
• 2 May - 4 May - The Groote Schuur talks took place between the South African government and the ANC. They reached agreement on conditions for full scale negotiations on ending political conflict in South Africa and both sides expressed hopes for peace and for an end to apartheid (1)
• 4 May - At the end of their talks the ANC and the South African Government issued a joint statement entitled "the Groote Shuur Minute", according to which a working group was established to address the issue of the release of political prisoners. The Group was scheduled to complete its work before 21 May. In addition, temporary immunity from prosecution would be considered for selected members of the ANC and the Government would seek to modify its security legislation to adapt it to the new situation developing in South Africa, and it would work towards the lifting of the state of emergency. Both parties pledged once again to try and put an end to the "existing climate of violence and intimidation" and reiterated their "commitment to stability and to a peaceful process of negotiations". Efficient channels of communication would be established between the Government and the ANC (1)
• 6 May - P.W. Botha resigned from the National Party in protest against President F.W. de Klerk's reform proposals (1)
• 8 May - President F.W. de Klerk toured nine European countries (1)
• 9 May - Nelson Mandela begian a six nation African tour (1)
• 16 May - Government officials announced plans to abolish racial segregation in state hospitals. Some state funded hospitals wee reserved for whites only while others were divided into sections for blacks and whites. A small percentage were integrated. Most of the white population will feel little immediate effect from the measure as almost 90 per cent of them use private hospitals and clinics which are generally too expensive for blacks (1)
• 17 May - An Anti Apartheid Movement Rally was held in London in protest against the visit to the United Kingdom of President de Klerk. Among the speakers at the rally were Lt. Gregory Rockman, the former officer of the South African Police, who was dismissed after speaking out against the brutality of the apartheid security forces. Lt. Rockman is now the National President of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Unions, which organises black policemen and prison wardens (1)
• 18 May - South Africa:signed agreement with Namibia concerning the appointment of representatives and privileges and immunities for representatives and their staff (1)
• 18 May - Five prison guards declared that they would continue their sit-in at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany until more than 600 colleagues were reinstated. The five were among 650 prison guards who were suspended without pay in March after they joined the "illegal" Police and Prison Civil Rights Union. Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee announced that 400 of the guards could resume work but that the prison service would continue to bar unionisation in the police force (1)
• 21 May - The Government's Custom and Excise office announced that South Africa's trade surplus widened to R969 million in April from R872 million a year earlier.
• 1 June – Donald Madisha died in detention (1)
• 2 June - ANC Deputy President Mr. Nelson Mandela and State President F.W. de Klerk held discussions in Pretoria on the progress which had been made in the implementation of the Groote Schuur Minute and on the need to use effective mechanisms to reduce the level of police violence in the country (1)
• 4 June - Nelson Mandela left South Africa for a thirteen nation international tour (1)
• 5 June - The Chairman of the Venda Council for National Unity, Colonel Gabriel Ramushwana, announced the lifting of the state of emergency and the unconditional release of all political prisoners in Venda (1)
• 6 June - Police detained three whites for questioning in connection with a hand grenade attack on 24 May against the Melrose House Museum near Pretoria. One of the three is said to be a member of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement. Police were still seeking right wing extremist Piet "Skiet" (Shoot) Rudolph who claimed responsibility for the attack and who warned the media that this was the first step in a white backlash against President de Klerk's reforms (1)
• 7 June - In a statement to a joint session of Parliament, President F. W. de Klerk announced that the four year old state of emergency would be lifted at midnight on 8 June in three of South Africa's four provinces with the exception of Natal and the homeland of Kwazulu. The security forces would be expanded in Natal he said, "to maintain order and stability". He also announced the release of 48 political prisoners (1)
• 9 June - 19 June - A United Nations team led by Mr. Abdulrahim A. Farah, Under Secretary General, visited South Africa to meet representatives of the Government, political parties and organisations to gather factual information on recent measures taken and proposals made for bringing about an end to the apartheid system. [The text of its report was annexed to the first report of the Secretary General on progress made in the implementation of the Declaration on Apartheid and its Destructive Consequences in Southern Africa, A/44/960.] (1)
• 19 June - South Africa signed trade agreement with the government of the Republic of Malawi (1)
• 19 June - Mr. Farah stressed at a press conference in Pretoria the need for a series of confidence building measures that could reduce the political violence and increase the level of trust and understanding among all parties and between the people and the Government (1)
• 19 June - Upon the departure of the United Nations team from South Africa, Under Secretary General, Abdulrahim Farah at a press conference in Pretoria said that the important policy initiatives announced by President de Klerk were warmly welcomed by all the organisations that met with the team. Stating the concern of many in South Africa over the alarming degree of violence in parts of the country, he expressed the need for a series of confidence building measures that could reduce the political violence and increase the level of trust and understanding among all parties and between the people and the Government. He reiterated the United Nations support for an end to the apartheid system through negotiations (1)
• 20 June - Second Public Security Amendment, Decree No 10: Prohibited any demonstration or gathering of people without the written consent of the magistrate of that district. Commenced: 20 June 1990 (1)
• 22 June - Offices of the Minister of National (Black) Education, Stoffel van der Merwe, and that of Deputy Consitutional Development Minister, Rolf Meyer, were bombed by white far right wing members (1)
• 22 June - Nelson Mandela addressed the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid in New York, saying that nothing which had happened in South Africa called for a revision of the position that the Organisation had taken in its struggle against apartheid. He urged the United Nations to do everything in its power to maintain the consensus it had achieved when it adopted the Declaration on Apartheid and its Destructive Consequences in Southern Africa in December 1989 (1)
• 2 July - A week long labour stayaway, organized by the ANC and its allies, begins in protest against factional black violence in Natal (1)
• 8 July - Thousands of Alexandra township residents attended the funeral of activist Meshack Kunene. He was killed by security police on 30 June during a welcome rally for the ANC Secretary General, Mr. Alfred Nzo (1)
• 14 July - Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, leader of the Zulu Inkatha Movement, announced the transformation of the Movement into a multiracial political party (1)
• 16 July - The ANC sent a report on police violence to President F. W. de Klerk and demanded an end to "the shocking inhumanity" of police action in rural areas. The report was based on about 50 statements to lawyers by victims of police action in the farming towns of Ashton, Montague and Roberston. ANC leader Walter Sisulu had already accused the Government of failing to restrain the police after young activist Meshack Kunene was shot to death on June 30 in the Alexandra township (1)
• 25 July - Senior ANC member Sathyandranath 'Mac' Maharaj and over forty other members of the ANC and the SACP were detained for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government (Operation Vula) (1)
• August - Trade agreement between Hungary and SA (1)
• 6 August - African government and the ANC, according to which the latter agreed to suspend the armed struggle (1)
• 7 August - The ANC and the South African Government issued a joint declaration (the "Pretoria Minute") at the conclusion of 15 hours of talks. The ANC announced that it would immediately suspend all armed actions while the Government undertook to consider lifting the state of emergency in Natal "as early as possible" and to continue reviewing the security legislation and its application "in order to ensure free political activity". The final report of the Joint Working Group on political offences was accepted by both parties. Both sides pledged to redouble efforts to reduce the level of violence in the country (1)
• 10 August - Signed trade agreement with Hungary (1)
• 16 August - President F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela held emergency talks in Pretoria as violence spread to Soweto. Fighting started there when Zulu migrant workers armed with axes and spears attacked passengers at a train station (1)
• 23 August - Co-leader of the Democratic Party, Zach de Beer, said he believed that police, in particular young officers, may not have been impartial in the township conflict (1)
• 24 August - More than five hundred people die in eleven days of fighting between township residents and migrant Zulu workers in the PWV region, and the government declares a State of Emergency in this region (1)
• 27 August - At a fourday Conference on "Anatomy of Hate", organised in Oslo by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity and the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Nelson Mandela accused the South African Police of encouraging factional fighting around Johannesburg and denounced the "inability of the Government to put an end to this carnage by restraining the police force." At a mass funeral held at Jabulani Stadium in Soweto and attended by some 6,000 people, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that a delegation of churchmen would meet President de Klerk to convey to him that there was overwhelming evidence that the police had favoured Inkatha in the recent conflict (1)
• 31 August - The Special Committee against Apartheid issued a statement expressing deep concern at the deterioration of the situation in South Africa, the continued detention of Mac Maharaj and the arrest of leaders of COSATU. It indicated that "it considered it imperative that the South African authorities adopted effective measures to ensure the impartiality of the police in this situation". It also made "an urgent appeal to the parties concerned to seek a mechanism that will stop this senseless violence and will enhance the possibility of a future national reconciliation (1)
• September - Commission of Inquiry into Certain Alleged Murders. Mandate: To inquire into and to report on certain alleged murders and other unlawful acts of violence committed in the Republic of South Africa (including self-governing territories). If such murders and acts of violence are found to have occurred, to investigate what bodies and organisations were responsible for these acts. The mandate was extended to include an investigation into and report on the allegation that one Anton Lubowski was a paid agent of the SADF: Military Intelligence Section. Chair: HARMSE, L.T.C. Ref: RP 108-90 (A); RP 109-90 (E); S297/151 (A); S297/152 (E) (1)
• September - The Goldstone Commission of Inquiry was established to investigate the Sebokeng massacre of 26 March in which at least eleven people were killed during a protest march by township residents (1)
• The government launched Operation Iron Fist to curb township violence (1)
• President F.W. de Klerk paid a three day visit to the United States of America (1)
• 1 September - The report of the inquiry led by Justice Richard Goldstone into the shooting by the police of 18 demonstrators in the township of Sebokeng on 26 March 1990 was made public. The report criticised the actions of the police, saying that they had used force which was "quite immoderate and disproportionate to any lawful object sought to be attained" (1)
• 7 September - Dr. Zach de Beer was elected as leader of the Democratic Party (1)
• 9 September - Signed co-operation agreement with Cote d'Ivoire regarding the technical management of the Abokouamekro Game Park (1)
• 11 September - A delegation of officials of the African National Congress (ANC), the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) met with President de Klerk to discuss the issue of violence. After the meeting, ANC Deputy President Nelson Mandela, who led the delegation, warned that "the failure of action on the part of the Government threatened the peace process" (1)
• 14 September - Nelson Mandela said after meeting President de Klerk that the Government was convinced that there was "some hidden hand" behind the violence in the townships (1)
• 24 September - Winnie Mandela was formally charged with four counts of kidnapping and assault and will stand trial with seven others in the events surrounding the murder of Stompie Moeketsi in December 1988 (1)
• October - Trade agreement between Romania and SA (1)
• 8 October - Signed agreement with the government of the Democratic Republic of Madagascar regarding merchant shipping and related maritime matters (1)
• 8 October - A joint statement was issued following a meeting by President de Klerk and Nelson Mandela to discuss the recent violence. The statement acknowledged that there were "different current perceptions concerning the causes and handling of this violence". In a separate statement, President de Klerk announced that 20 000 exiles would be allowed to return to South Africa (1)
• 15 October - The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act was repealed (1)

1994:

• South Africa had it's first democratic elections thereby ending white minority rule and becoming the last nation in Africa to throw off its colonial shackles. The first president of the new Republic, Nelson Mandela, Nobel Laureate, was elected (1)

21st Century

1998-2003:

• The Great War of Africa was one of the largest interstate conflicts after the second world war in Europe. It involved eight African nations and a variety of different militias. The conflict began as an internal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo but came to involve a host of various countries and militias. It is estimated that between 3 and 6 million people perished (1)

2000:

• Mamphela Rampele joined the World Bank in Washington as Managing Director responsible for Human Development (1)

2001:

• The Organisation of African Unity was disbanded in favour of the African Union as the OAU was seem as largely ineffectual and as a “dictators club”. The AU launched in 2002 in South Africa the objects of which were to continue to advance the development of the continent and to achieve unity and solidarity amongst African states (1)
• Sonia Bunting died, born 9 December 1922, banned dates unknown (1)
• July - Programme of action for a multi pronged strategy to eradicate poverty and place African countries on a path of sustainable growth and development was adopted by the OAU and endorsed by a number of developed countries and organisations (1)

2002:

• April - First three Boeremag members arrested, including kingpin Michael du Toit. Coup plan Document 12 revealed (1)
• 15 September - A truck belonging to Boeremag member Lets Pretorius was found in Linchburg with weapons and other supplies. Pretorius was arrested and charged (1)
• 20 September - Boeremag members Dirk Hanekom and Henk van Zyl arrested in Memel. Only Hanekom was charged (1)
• October - A group of Boeremag members went into hiding and planned bomb attacks for the end of the month (1)
• 30 October - Bombings in Soweto and Bronkhorstspruit. Boeremag claimed responsibility (1)
• 4 November - Alleged Boeremag leader, Tom Vorster, arrested in Pretoria (1)
• 22 November - Grand Central Airport bombed by the Boeremag (1)
• 28 November - MC Mitchell's Bridge on border of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape bombed by the Boeremag (1)

2003:

• Brigitte Mabandla became Minister of Housing (1)
• Ruth Mompati became Mayor of Vryburg in the North West Province (1)
• Lindiwe Sisulu became Deputy Minister of Home Affairs (1)
• Phyllis received a struggle (special) pension and continued writing. Her most recent publication was Footsteps in Grey Street (1)
• 1 December - World Aids Day. Currently, of the more than 50 million people living with

2007:

• 18th December - Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (Msholozi – his praise name) was elected President of the Republic of South Africa, a position from which resigned on 14th February 2018 (1)

2008:

• 18 June – Brian Bunting died, born 9 April 1920, banned dates unknown (1)
• Helen Zille received the Mayor of the Year Award (Cape Town) for her efforts to eradicate drugs and violence and to improve service delivery (1)

2009:

• 5th May - Helen Zille was elected as Premier of the Western Cape (1)

2011:

• South Sudan became independent after a lengthy and bloody civil war (1)

2013:

• 31 January – Amina Cachalia died, born 28 June 1930, banned dates unknown (1)

2014:

• West Africa began to experience the largest outbreak of Ebola in history with multiple countries being affected by the epidemic (1)

2015:

• 30 October – Sarah Carneson, born 17 June 1916, died 30 October 2015, banned from ___ until ___ at ___ (1)

2017:

• September - Deputy President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa headed the unsuccessful South African bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in London. On 14th February 2018 he became President of the Republic of South Africa when President Jacob Zuma resigned (1)

2018:

• 14th February - Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (Msholozi – his praise name) resigned as President of South Africa and was replaced by Deputy President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa (1)
• Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan was elected as South Africa’s Minister of Public Enterprises with a political authority [referred to officially as the Shareholder Representative] of six State Owned Companies. These are: Transnet (rail, freight, ports and engineering), Eskom (electricity utility), Denel (advanced manufacturing and arms industry), SA Express (one of two national airlines), Alexkor (a diamond miner) and the South African Forestry Company Limited (timber and forestry) (1)

2020:

• Achmat Dangor, born 1948, died 6 September 2020, was banned from ___ until ___ at ___ (1)

Sources:

South African History Online (1)
TRC Final Report: Volume 4, Chapter 7, Subsection 11 (1)

South Africa - History of Families of Witsand (White Sands) and Port Beaufort (2)

CECIL RHODES, a biography authored by William Plomer, published by AfricaSouth Papterbacks in 1933, 1984, copyrighted (3)

Reader's Digest, South Africa's Yesterdays, published by Reader's Digest Association of South Africa 1981, copyrighted (4)

The South African Family Encyclopaedia, written and compiled by Peter Joyce, published by Struik Publishers 1989, copyrighted (5)

The Diary of Henry Francis Finn, compiled from original sources and edited by James Stuart and D. Malcolm, published by Shuter and Shooter, Pietermaritzburg, 1950 - https://webcms.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/183/... (6)

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