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1620 Two officers of the British East India Company
attempt to claim the Table Mountain region (in present-day South Africa) for England
, but fail.
1784 Huge locust
swarm
in South Africa
1836 Boer
s in South Africa begin the Great Trek across the Orange River.
1842 In South Africa, hunter Dick King rides into British military base in Grahamstown to warn that Boer
s have besieged Durban. He had left 11 days earlier. British army dispatches a relief for
1867 South African diamond
fields discovered
1871 British occupy the Klipdrift in South Africa, ending the Klipdrift Republic
1882 Zulu
king Cetshwayo returns to South Africa
1894 The Owl Club of Cape Town
, South Africa has its first formal meeting.
1898 The Sabi Game Reserve in South Africa, the first officially designated game reserve
1899 Second Boer War
begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom
and the Boers of the Transvaal
and Orange Free State
erupts.
1900 United Kingdom
forces fighting Boers in South Africa ask for reinforcements.
in 1900]]
1900 British
troops are defeated by Boer
s at Ladysmith, South Africa.
1900 Second Boer War: In South Africa, 20,000 British
troops invade the Orange Free State.
1900 Second Boer War: Battle of Hart's Hill - In South Africa the Boer
s and British
troops battle.
1900 Boer War: In South Africa, British
military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General
Piet Cronje.
1900 Boer War: British
soldiers take Pretoria
, South Africa.
1902 Second Boer War
: South African Boers win their last battle over British
forces, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.
1905 The Cullinan Diamond is found near Pretoria
, South Africa at the Premier Mine.
1909 Representatives from England
, Australia
and South Africa meet at Lords and form the Imperial Cricket Conference.
1910 Louis Botha and James Hertzog (James Barry Munnik Hertzog) found South Africa Party.
1913 Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of India
n miners in South Africa.
1914 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returns to India
from South Africa to spearhead the Indian independence movement.
1914 South African troops open hostilities in German South-West Africa (today Namibia
) with an assault on the Ramansdrift police station.
1927 A diamond
rush in South Africa includes trained athletes that have been hired by major companies to stake claims
1938 Coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct, caught off the coast of South Africa near Chalumna River
1939 World War II: South Africa declares war on Germany
.
1949 Beginning of Apartheid - The ''South African Citizenship Act'' suspends the granting of citizenship to British Commonwealth
immigrants after five years and imposes a ban on mixed marriages
1950 Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
1960 March 21 — Apartheid: Massacre in Sharpeville, South Africa: Afrikaner police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.
1960 April 16 — Gunman David Pratt attacks South African Prime Minister Henrik Verwoerd in Johannesburg
, wounding him seriously.
1960 October 5 — White South Africans vote to make the country a republi
1960 A mine collapses at Coalbrook, South Africa, killing 437.
1960 British Prime Minister
Harold Macmillan
makes the Wind of Change speech to the South African Parliament in Cape Town
(although he had first made the speech, to little publicity, in Accra
, Gold Coast - now Ghana
- on January 10 the same year).
1961 South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations
.
1961 South Africa officially leaves the Commonwealth of Nations
.
1962 The South African government arrests Nelson Mandela
in Howick, and charges him with incitement to rebellion.
1962 Apartheid: The United Nations
General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's racist
apartheid policies, and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.
1964 Nelson Mandela
and seven others are sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa, and sent to the Robben Island prison.
1966 In Cape Town
, the South African architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas during a parliamentary meeting.
1966 The United Nations
takes Namibia
from South Africa.
1966 South Africa does not join the trade embargo against Rhodesia
.
1968 The D'Oliveira Affair - The Marylebone Cricket Club tour of South Africa is cancelled when the South Africans refuse to accept the presence of Basil D'Oliveira, a Cape Coloured, in the side.
1970 The UN General Assembly supports the isolation of South Africa due to its apartheid policies.
1976 The Soweto riots in South Africa mark the beginning of the end of apartheid.
1977 Steve Biko suffers a massive head injury in police custody in South Africa.
1980 A mine lift cage at the Vaal Reef gold mine in South Africa falls 1.2 miles, killing 23.
1980 Apartheid: The African National Congress
in South Africa publishes a statement by their imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela
which says in part 'UNITE! MOBILISE! FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID!'
1981 South African troops invade Angola
.
1981 South Africa grants "homeland" Ciskei independence (not recognized outside South Africa).
1985 Nelson Mandela
rejects an offer of freedom from the South African
government.
1985 South Africa ends its ban on interracial marriages.
1986 Desmond Tutu becomes the first black to lead the Anglican Church
in South Africa.
1989 After a stroke
, P.W. Botha resigns his party's leadership and the presidency of South Africa.
1989 South African President F.W. de Klerk announces the scrapping of the Separate Amenities Act.
1990 Apartheid: In South Africa, President F.W. de Klerk allows the African National Congress
to legally function again and promises to free Nelson Mandela
.
1990 South African President F.W. de Klerk announces that Nelson Mandela
will be released the next day.
1990 Nelson Mandela
is released from Victor Verster Prison, near Cape Town
, South Africa.
1990 After 75 years of South African rule, Namibia
becomes independent.
1991 A fight and stampede at a pre-season exhibition match between South African football teams Chiefs and Pirates in the town of Orkney near Johannesburg
, South Africa leaves 42 dead.
1991 A curfew is imposed on black townships in South Africa after fighting between rival political gangs kills 49.
1991 Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required racial classification of all South Africans at birth.
1992 Singer Paul Simon is the first major artist to tour South Africa after the end of the cultural boycott.
1993 April 10 -ANC
activist Chris Hani is assassinated in South Africa.
1993 In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution
.
1994 South Africa cedes Walvis Bay to Namibia
.
1994 In South Africa, Zulu
s and African National Congress
supporters battle in central Johannesburg
, killing 18.
1994 South Africa holds its first fully multiracial elections.
1994 Nelson Mandela
is inaugurated as South Africa's first Black president
.
1998 Apartheid: In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.
2002 France
agrees to return the remains of Saartjie Baartman to South Africa.
2002 South African Mark Shuttleworth blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome; he had paid £15 million for the trip.
2003 The Cricket
World Cup ends as Australia
wins over India
in Centurion, South Africa.
2005 South Africa becomes the 5th country in the world where same-sex marriages are recognized.
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Timeline
