Thursday 18 June 1795 : First Boer revolt against the Dutch East India Company (V O C) – Republic of Swellendam formed.
September 1795 : J. H. Craig appointed Governor
Wednesday 16 September 1795 : First British occupation of the Cape on behalf of the Prince of Orange. Slaves outnumber European settlers at this time
1796 : Pieter Pienaar murdered by Jager Afrikaner at Hantam. Afrikaner becomes frontier leader
Tuesday 23 May 1797 : Duke (Graaf) van MaCartney appointed Governor
1798 : First Post Office
1798 : Liquidation of Dutch East India Company (VOC)
1798 : First mosque in southern Africa established in Dorp Street by Tuan Guru
Thursday 22 November 1798 : Lt Gov Dundas appointed Governor
1799 : Third Frontier War between the Xhosa and whites
1799 : Fort Frederick built in Algoa Bay by British soldiers
1799 : First London Missionary Society (LMS) station – to Xam – on Zak River
1799 : Eastern Cape Khoekhoe revolt
Wednesday 18 December 1799 : Sir G. Young appointed Governor
1800 : Succession of frontier wars erupt as Xhosa resist colony’s eastward expansion
1800 : Official expedition of Truter, Somerville, Barrow and Daniell, with missionaries Jan Matthys Kok and William Edwards, reaches Dithakong
1800 : First printing press in Cape Town
1800 : Government Gazette started
1801 : William Anderson established mission at Aakaap and then Klaarwater (later Griquatown)
1801 : Khoisan spelling book printed by LMS
Monday 20 April 1801 : Lt Gov Dundas appointed Governor
Thursday 18 February 1802 : Jan Willem Janssens appointed Governor under Batavian (Bataafsck) Government??
Tuesday 01 March 1803 : Batavian Republic (Netherlands) takes over the Cape from Britain
1804 : Heinrich Lichtenstein travels to Dithakong
1804 : Uitenhage founded
Thursday 10 January 1805 : British retake Cape following outbreak of Napoleonic Wars
1806 : LMS station at Warmbad, Great Namaqualand
1806 : First regular inland postal service
Friday 10 January 1806 : Sir David Baird appointed Governor
Saturday 17 January 1807 : Lt Gen Grey appointed Governor
Friday 22 May 1807 : Du Pre, Duke (Graaf) of Caledon appointed Governor
1808 : Clanwilliam founded
1809 : Severe drought in eastern frontier
1809 : Gola’s Xhosa community settles at Pramberg
1810 : Montshiwa of Rolong born
1811 : Fourth Frontier War between Xhosa and whites
1811 : William John Burchell travels in the interior
1811 : Dutch Reformed Church congregation founded in Caledon
1811 : Regular circuit courts introduced
1811 : Caledon and George founded
Friday 05 July 1811 : Lt Gen Grey appointed Governor
Friday 06 September 1811 : Sir John Francis Cradock appointed Governor
1812 : Cradock and Grahamstown founded
1812 : Molehabangwe of Tlhaping died; succeeded by son Mothibi
1813 : Dutch Reformed Church congregation founded in George (seceded from Swellendam)
1813 : Revd John Campbell conducts mission inspection in the interior
1813 : Adam Kok’s people assert the name Griqua
1813 : Court proceedings opened to the public
Saturday 20 February 1813 : British Governor introduces a policy of Anglisising which leads to a Boere Rebellion
Tuesday 02 November 1813 : Lord Charles Henry Somerset appointed Governor
1814 : Mail packet service started between Britain and the Cape of Good Hope
1814 : Lord Charles Henry Somerset (1767-1831), first British governor of the Cape Colony
1814 : The Cape Colony is formally ceded to Britain
1815 : Slagter’s Nek Rebellion
1816 : Missionaries Read and Hamilton, with Hendriks, Kakkerlak and Sedras establish Kuruman Mission (LMS)
1816 : Wesleyan Mission to Nama at Leliefontein
1817 : Dutch Reformed Church congregation founded in Uitenhage
1817 : Approximately 200 Scottish artisan immigrants brought to Cape by Benjamin Moodie
1818 : Beaufort West founded
1818 : Dutch Reformed Church congregation founded in Cradock
1818 : Settlement of land beyond Orange River
1819 : Dutch Reformed Church congregations founded in Beaufort West and Somerset West
1820 : Andries Waterboer elected Griqua Captain at Griquatown
1820 : Approximately 5000 British settlers arrive in Algoa Bay as part of the 1820 Settlers immigration scheme and are settled in the Eastern Cape
1820 : James Read produces first book in Setswana
1820 : Port Elizabeth named by Sir Rufane Donkin
1820 : Worcester founded
1821 : Dutch Reformed Church congregation founded in Worcester
1821 : Robert Moffat, in Namaqualand from 1817, moves to Kuruman
1822 : English becomes the official language of the Cape Colony
1823 : Approximately 146 Irish settlers brought to the Cape by John Ingram
1823 : Difaqane (1820’s) Battle of Dithakong – Manthatisi repulsed by Tlhaping with help from Griquas. Tswana to north and east heavily disrupted by Difaqane raids
1824 : First Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church
1824 : Mission station at Lovedale founded
1824 : Bergenaar rebellion
1824 : Construction of road through Fransch Hoek Pass
1824 : The Zulu chief Shaka “granted, made over and sold” Port Natal to Farewell and his companions
1824 : First lighthouse opened
1824 : George Thompson travels inland – naming Augrabies Falls “Cataract of King George”
1825 : First steamship in Table Bay
1825 : Depreciated Rix dollar converted into British sterling
1825 : Dutch Reformed Church congregation founded in Somerset East
1825 : The Jubilee Park Cemetery in Uitenhage in use circa 1825
1825 : The Anglican St. Mary’s Collegiate Church started in Port Elizabeth
Monday 10 October 1825 : Birth of Paul Kruger, President of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek
Sunday 16 October 1825 : Christening date of [P1423] Martha Jacoba SMIT
Wednesday 28 December 1825 : Birth date of [P1581] Hendrik Erasmus SMIT
1826 : Adam Kok II establishes Philippolis Griqua Captaincy
1826 : Dutch Reformed Church congregations founded in Clanwilliam, Colesberg, Durbanville and Tijgerberg
1828 : Union Chapel (London Missionary Society – i.e. Congregational) in Port Elizabeth founded
1828 : St. Mary’s Cemetery started in Port Elizabeth
1830 : Road over Sir Lowry’s Pass opened
1830 : Full civil privileges granted to Roman Catholics in the Cape
1830 : Colesberg founded
1830 : Moffat’s printing press transported to Kuruman by ox wagon
1831 : First issue of Grahamstown Journal
1831 : Dutch Reformed Church congregation founded in Albany
1831 : First publication of De Zuid Afrikaan (ons Land)
1833 : Slavery is abolished throughout the British Dominions
1833 : Dutch Reformed Church parish in Piquetberg
1833 : Approximately 750 juveniles brought to the Cape as apprentices
1834 : Berlin Mission Society establishes station at Bethulie, and out-station among Korana at Pniel in 1845
1834 : “Kommissie” treks from Cape begins
1834 : King William’s Town founded
1834 : The Anglican St. John’s Church is built in Bathurst
1834 : Port Natal renamed Durban
1834 : Andrew Smith with artist Charles Davidson Bell travel to the interior
Monday 01 December 1834 : Slaves officially freed but apprenticed for 4 years
1835 : Louis Trichardt, Hans van Rensburg and Andries Potgieter trek north
1836 : James Alexander travels through Namaqualand
1836 : Potgieter’s trekkers defeat Ndebele at the Battle of Vegkop
1836 : The Great Trek has reached the Transvaal and the Free State areas
Friday 02 December 1836 : First Voortrekker-government established under Gerrit Maritz
1837 : Louis Trichardt arrives in Lourenco Marques
1837 : Andries Potgieter and Piet Uys, helped by Rolong and Griqua tribes, defeat Ndebele at Mosega
1837 : Piet Retief publishes his “Manifesto”
1837 : Separate administrative districts granted to Port Elizabeth, Cradock and Colesburg
1838 : Pietermaritzburg founded in 1838
1838 : Russell Road (Hyman’s kloof) Cemetery established in Port Elizabeth
1838 : The Great Trek
February 1838 : Piet Retief and his people are murdered by Dingaan’s soldiers at Dingaan’s kraal
Sunday 16 December 1838 : Battle of Blood River fought. Victory by Boers against the Zulus
Saturday 22 December 1838 : Potchefstroom established
1839 : Founding of Republiek Natalia
1839 : First issue of Grahamstown Journal
1839 : Dutch Reformed Church congregations founded in Bredasdorp and Riversdale
1840 : The Anglican St. Katherine’s Church is founded in Uitenhage
1840 : Expansion of commercial wool farmers in Karoo transforms colonial economy. Pedi migrate to work on Cape farms
1840 : Dutch Reformed Church congregation founded in Wellington
Friday 16 October 1840 : Potchefstroom, Winburg and Natalia unifies as a single Boerestaat
1841 : Missionary David Livingstone arrives in South Africa – proceeds to Kuruman before journeying through Central Africa
1841 : Methodist Church founded in Port Elizabeth
1841 : Trekkers council set up in Potchefstroom
1842 : War between the British and the Boers in Natal
1842 : Dutch Reformed Church parish founded in Prince Albert
1842 : Dick King’s ride from Durban to Grahamstown
1843 : Dutch Reformed Church parish founded in Richmond
1843 : Natal annexed as a British Colony
1844 : Access to land is changed from leasehold to free hold
1844 : Hendrik Potgieter settles at Delagoa Bay
1844 : April – Boers from Natal settle at Potchefstroom, after crossing the Drakensberg Mountains
1844 : Victoria West established
1845 : Mothibi of Tlhaping dies
1845 : Dutch Reformed Church congregation founded at Mossel Bay (seceded from George)
1845 : Ohrigstad founded
1845 : Natal becomes autonomous district of Cape Colony
1845 : Battle of Zwartkoppies
1846 : Bloemfontein founded
1846 : Seventh Frontier War between Xhosa and whites. This war was also known as the War of the Axe
1846 : Approximately 103 settlers arrive in Port Elizabeth from war-torn Buenos Aires, Argentina
1846 : Orange River Sovereignty
1846 : Dutch Reformed Church parish founded in Burgersdorp
1847 : Districts of Victoria East and British Kaffraria annexed as part of the Cape Colony
1847 : East London founded
1847 : Rhenish Missionary Christoph Alheit moves to Schietfontein (Carnarvon)
1847 : Colonial boundary extended to Orange River
1847 : Sugar cane plantations started in Natal
1847 : Opening of Montagu Pass
1847 : Dutch Reformed Church parish founded in Calvinia
1848 : Dutch Reformed Church parish founded in Napier
1848 : Battle of Boomplaats
1848 : Orange River Sovereignty
1848 : Soutpansberg (later Schoemansdal) founded
Thursday 03 February 1848 : Freestate annexed by British under Sir Harry Smith
Thursday 23 March 1848 : Approximately 163 German settlers, known as the Bergthiel Settlers, arrive in Natal
1849 : Circa 1849 the first Jewish Congregation founded in Cape Town
1849 : The Byrne Settlers arrive in Natal
1850 : Eighth Frontier War
1850 : First Afrikaans book written by an imam (Muslim prayer leader) of slave descent
1850 : Wesleyan Settlers arrive in Natal
1850 : Dutch Reformed Church parish founded in Namaqualand
1851 : Sugar first produced from cane in Natal
1851 : Dutch Reformed Church congregation founded in Knysna
1852 : Copper mining begins at Springbokfontein (Namaqualand) – migrant labour on small scale
1852 : Wreck of the Birkenhead
1852 : The Transvaal Republic established
1852 : The New Church (Congregational / Presbyterian) established in Port Elizabeth
1852 : Dutch Reformed Church parish founded in Middelburg
Saturday 17 January 1852 : Founding of the Transvaal Republic after the signing of the Sand River Convention
Tuesday 16 March 1852 : Reconciliation between Andries Pretorius and Hendrik Potgieter
1853 : Hopetown established
1853 : Nicholas Waterboer succeeds as Griqua Captain
1853 : Dutch Reformed Church congregation founded in Oudtshoorn
1853 : Settlement of Queenstown and Seymour
1853 : Union Steamship Line founded
1854 : First elected parliament of Cape Colony
1854 : George Grey (1812-1898), Portuguese-born British colonial governor
1854 : Boers defeat Ndebele at Makapansgat
1854 : Freestate Vierkleur hoisted for the first time in Bloemfontein
1854 : Dutch Reformed Church parishes established in Montagu and Queenstown
Thursday 23 February 1854 : The Republic of the Orange Free State came into being after the signing of the Bloemfontein Convention
1855 : 20 miners arrive to work in the Namaqualand copper mines
1855 : Pretoria is founded
1856 : Dutch Reformed Church parish founded in Murraysburg
1856 : The Anglican St. Paul’s Church in Port Elizabeth is founded
1856 : Natal becomes a separate colony
1856 : Self-destruction of Xhosa tribe by cattle-killing
1856 : Approximately 700 juveniles arrive from Holland
1856 : Approximately 3000 Crimean War veterans (German Legionnaires) settled in Kaffraria, later joined by 2700 German civilians
Wednesday 17 December 1856 : Founding of the Boererepubliek Lydenburg
1857 : Moffat completes Old Testament Bible translation into Setswana
1857 : First mail contract with Union Steamship Company for regular mail service between Britain and South Africa
1857 : Xhosa enter Karoo following Eastern Cape Cattle Killing
1857 : Transvaal Vierkleur hoisted for the first time
1857 : Assisted immigration schemes bring about 12 000 settlers
1857 : Approximately 157 Irish girls arrive on the ship Lady Kennaway, settle in British Kaffraria
1857 : First Legislative Council in Natal
Tuesday 06 January 1857 : Induction of M W Pretorius, first President of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek
1858 : Circa 1858, Jewish congregation founded in Port Elizabeth
1858 : The Anglican Holy Trinity Church is built in Port Elizabeth
1858 : War between Orange Free State and Basotho tribe
1859 : Dopper Church leaves the Dutch Reformed Church
1859 : First railway in South Africa commenced in Cape Colony
1860 : Circa 1860, the first Baptist Church is started in Port Elizabeth
1860 : Boer republics north of the Vaal unite South African Republic, Pretoria is chosen as capital
1860 : Work began on Table Bay Docks
1860 : The Catholic St. Augustine’s Church is established in Port Elizabeth
1860 : Between 1860 and 1911 about 52 000 Indians arrive and about 50% stay
1860 : Indians arrive in Natal to work on sugar cane farms as indentured labourers
1860 : Start of penny post in Cape Town
1860 : First telegraph service in South Africa, between Cape Town and Simonstown
1861 : Griqua trek under Adam Kok III from Philippolis to Nomansland
1862 : First railway opened in the Cape
1863 : The Hill Presbyterian Church is founded in Port Elizabeth
1863 : North End Cemetery established in Port Elizabeth
1864 : St. George’s Cemetery established in Port Elizabeth
1865 : War between Orange Free State and Basothos
1865 : Economic depression throughout South Africa
1865 : Albania Settlement Scheme
1866 : India stops sending Indian labourers to Natal
Sunday 21 April 1867 : 25 carat diamond found near Hopetown
1868 : Korana War along Orange River
1869 : Gold and diamond rush starts
1869 : The Star of South Africa diamond discovered
1869 : Railway from Port Nolloth to O’Kiep
1870 : Galeshewe of Tlhaping born
1870 : Opening of Cape Town Docks
1870 : St. Peter’s Anglican Church started in Port Elizabeth
1870 : Xam prisoners at Cape Town interviewed by Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd
1871 : Discovery of diamonds on the farm Vooruitzicht, later to become New Rush and then renamed Kimberley.
1871 : Gold discovered in Eastern Transvaal
1871 : Britain annexes the diamond fields of Kimberley and Griqualand West
1871 : First mail from Cape Town to the diamond fields
1873 : Gold discovered in Lydenburg district of Transvaal
1873 : Griqualand West proclaimed as a British colony
1873 : Approximately 3 300 men, women and children arrive as agricultural settlers or labourers for public works
1874 : Railway line opened from Port Elizabeth to Uitenhage
1874 : College founded at Stellenbosch (later Victoria College, today University of Stellenbosch)
1875 : Black Flag Rebellion by white diggers at Kimberley
Saturday 14 August 1875 : formation of the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners at the home of Gideon Malherbe in Paarl
1876 : First railway line in Natal
1877 : “Native Locations” for Tswana established in Griqualand West
1877 : Ninth Frontier War
Thursday 12 April 1877 : Shepstone annexes the ZAR (Transvaal) for Britain
Thursday 10 May 1877 : Paul Kruger leads a deputation to Britain to demand the freedom of the ZAR
1878 : Telegraph service between Natal and Transvaal
1878 : Walvis Bay proclaimed British territory
1878 : Griqualand West Rebellion and Korana War coincide with similar conflicts elsewhere in South Africa
Tuesday 14 May 1878 : Paul Kruger leads second deputation to Britain to demand the freedom of the ZAR
Monday 01 September 1879 : Zulu War starts, battles at Isandhlwana, Rorke’s Drift and Ulundi
1880 : Formation of the first branch of the Afrikaner Bond
1880 : Griqualand West annexed to Cape Colony
1880 : Formation of De Beers Company
1880 : First legislative Council in Transvaal
December 1880 : First shot fired in the Eerste Vryheidsoorlog (First South African War of Independence)
1881 : Tswana-Kora wars with white mercenary involvement
1881 : Britain recognizes South African Republic (ZAR)
1881 : Signing of peace Agreement between ZAR and Britain
Friday 28 January 1881 : Battle of Laing’s Nek
Sunday 27 February 1881 : Boers defeat Britain at Battle of Majuba
Monday 21 March 1881 : Declaration of peace with Britain at the house of O’Neill in Northern Natal
1882 : Stellaland and Goshen mercenary republics
1882 : Abraham September (freed slave) begins Orange River irrigation
1882 : South End Cemetery in Port Elizabeth started
1882 : Use of Dutch recognized in Cape Parliament
1882 : Approximately 4645 settlers arrive
Tuesday 09 May 1882 : Induction of Paul Kruger as President of ZAR
1883 : Germans occupy South West Africa and German East Africa
1883 : Rev Gwayi Tyamzashe, last black man to hold a claim in Kimberley mines, loses his claim
1884 : The Anglican St. Cuthbert’s Church built in Port Elizabeth
1884 : Barberton goldfields opened
1884 : Warren takes over Stellaland and Goshen, establishes Crown Colony of British Bechuanaland and Bechuanaland Protectorate
Saturday 16 August 1884 : Formation of the Republic of Vryheid in Natal
1885 : Railway line from Cape Town reaches Kimberley
1886 : Discovery of gold bearing rock at Ferreira’s camp, later to become Johannesburg
Thursday 02 June 1887 : Pres Paul Kruger authorises the construction of the railway line to Delagoabay
Thursday 22 September 1887 : Death date of [P1235] Geertruyda Anna Magdalena Maria STRYDOM
1888 : British South Africa Company founded
1888 : Rudd concession’ signed by Lobengula
1888 : Cecil John Rhodes amalgamates Kimberley mining companies as De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd
1890 : Pioneer Column of Rhodes British South Africa Company departs from Kimberley to occupy Rhodesia
1890 : Railway line reaches from Cape to Bloemfontein
1890 : First railway line in Transvaal, from Johannesburg to Boksburg
December 1891 : Inauguration of the Paardekraal Monument
1892 : Railway line to Johannesburg completed with connections from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London
1894 : Glen Grey Act passed in Cape to control African labour and land
Friday 02 November 1894 : Railway line between Lourenco Marques and Johannesburg opened
Monday 16 December 1895 : Railway line opened between Durban and Johannesburg
Sunday 29 December 1895 : Jameson led a force of about 500 men in a raid into the Transvaal. It was resisted by the Boers and on Jan 2, 1896, at Doornkop, Jameson surrendered
1896 : Rinderpest epidemic spreads through Africa and causes big loss of cattle
1896 : Bechuanaland Campaign/Galeshewe’s War begins at Phokwane and spreads to Langeberg
1897 : Zululand incorporated into Natal
1897 : Railway line opened between Cape Town and Bulawayo
Thursday 18 March 1897 : 5000 Boers decide to resist the British Annexation.
1899 : Battle of Dundee
1899 : Anglo-Boer War. (Second S.A. War of Independence) Over 25 000 died in the worlds first concentration camps
1899 : Imperial Penny Postage adopted by Cape Colony
Thursday 12 October 1899 : First shot of the Second Vryheidsoorlog – by Coetzee at Kraaipanstasie
Friday 13 October 1899 : Boers invade Natal
Saturday 14 October 1899 : Sieges of Mafikeng and Kimberley started
Friday 20 October 1899 : Battle of Talana
Saturday 21 October 1899 : Battle of Elandslaagte
Monday 30 October 1899 : Siege of Ladysmith started
Thursday 23 November 1899 : Battle of Belmont
Saturday 25 November 1899 : Battle of Graspan (Enslin)
Tuesday 28 November 1899 : Battle of Modder River (Tweeriviere)
Friday 08 December 1899 : Battle of Lombard’s Kop
Sunday 10 December 1899 : Battle of Stormberg
Monday 11 December 1899 : Battle of Magersfontein
Friday 15 December 1899 : Battle of Colenso
1900 : Sir Alfred Milner, the governor of the Cape Colony
1900 : Amalgamation of Union and Castle Steamship Lines
1900 : July / August – Burning of farms (scorched earth) policy authorized
Saturday 06 January 1900 : Boers attack Ladysmith
Thursday 25 January 1900 : Battle of Spioen Kop
Wednesday 07 February 1900 : Battle of Vaal Krantz
Thursday 15 February 1900 : Relief of Kimberley
Sunday 18 February 1900 : Battle at Paardeberg first great British victory of the war
Wednesday 28 February 1900 : Ladysmith relieved
Wednesday 07 March 1900 : Battle of Poplar Grove
Tuesday 13 March 1900 : Bloemfontein captured
Saturday 14 April 1900 : First Boer Prisoners of War arrive in St. Helena
Monday 11 June 1900 : Battle of Diamond Hill
1901 : 200 teachers arrive from England to teach in the British concentration camps, followed by 100 teachers from Canada, New Zealand and Australia
1901 : Bubonic plague in Cape Town
Saturday 31 May 1902 : Treaty of Vereeniging signed, ending Anglo-Boer War
1904 : Chinese labourers recruited for the Transvaal mines
1907 : Asiatic Registration Act passed in Transvaal, Indians oppose it
1908 : Second Asiatic Registration Act passed in Transvaal, beginning of passive resistance campaigns
1909 : S.S. Waratah lost between Durban and Cape Town
1910 : Louis Botha serves as first Prime Minister of South Africa
1910 : Laying of foundation stone of Union Buildings in Pretoria
Tuesday 31 May 1910 : Union of South Africa established by joining the British colonies and the Boer republics
Sunday 07 May 1911 : Census of population taken
1913 : Miners’ strikes and riots on Witwatersrand. Indian riots in Natal
1913 : March of Natal Indians into Transvaal
1913 : Natives Land Act restricts black ownership of land
1913 : December – consecration of the Vrouemonument
Sunday 20 December 1914 : Cmnt Jopie Fourie executed by firing squad
1915 : South West Africa and South Africa linked by railway line
1915 : Afrikaans becomes the second official language, after English
Saturday 20 May 1916 : First publication of the Huisgenoot
1918 : Spanish Influenza Epidemic “Black October”
1919 : Jan Christiaan Smuts (1870-1950) Prime minister of South Africa
May 1919 : first publication of the Landbou Weekblad
Wednesday 03 September 1919 : Gen Hertzog leads Freedom deputation to Versailles to demand restoration of the Boer- republics
Monday 10 November 1919 : Afrikaans used for the first time in Church
1921 : Diamond mines closed down in Kimberley, economic depression
Saturday 15 April 1922 : Birth date of [P759] Pieter Du Toit MALAN
Friday 22 September 1922 : Birth date of [P474] Wilhelmina Christina DU_VENAGE
Wednesday 04 October 1922 : Inauguration of Witwatersrand University
1923 : Platinum discovered in Waterberg district of Transvaal
1924 : Hertzog, James Barry Munnik (1866-1942), Prime minister of South Africa
Tuesday 17 June 1924 : General elections
1925 : South Africa reverts to gold standard
1925 : Recognition of Afrikaans as an official language of the Union
1930 : White women receive the vote
1932 : Wireless telephone communication established with Britain in February
1932 : Airmail service between South Africa and Britain started in January
1933 : Afrikaans Bible issued
1933 : South Africa House opened in London
1934 : Union Airways acquired by Government
Saturday 01 August 1936 : South African Broadcasting Corporation established
1939 : Jan Christiaan Smuts’ second term as Prime minister of South Africa
1939 : World War II
1941 : South African Forces arrive in Egypt in April
1941 : South African Forces take Mega in Southern Abyssinia
November 1941 : Heroic stand by South African Forces at Sidi Resegh
1944 : The black-out in Cape Town is suspended
1944 : 6th South African Armoured Division leads 8th Army offensive in Italy. South Africans were the first to enter Florence
1945 : South African Forces capture Monte Sole and Monte Caprara, which were barring entering into Bologna. Announcement made that as from the beginning of the war until 5 March 1945, more than 1 500 South African soldiers were decorated, 2386 were
Tuesday 17 April 1945 : 34 people killed and 90 injured in explosion of the Grand Magazine in Pretoria
1948 : Daniel Francois Malan (1874-1959) prime minister of South Africa
1948 : National Party elected to Government. Known as the beginning of apartheid era
December 1949 : consecration of the Voortekkermonument
1958 : Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (1901-1966), prime minister of South Africa
Monday 21 March 1960 : Sharpeville Massacre, police opened fire on a crowd protesting against apartheid
Wednesday 31 May 1961 : South Africa leaves the Commonwealth and becomes a Republic
1965 : Rhodesian Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI)
1969 : Armstrong becomes first man to step on the moon
1975 : South African Forces in Angola
1976 : The homelands of Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei are separated from South Africa and established as independent states
1984 : Coloureds and Asians given the vote
1990 : The start of repealing apartheid laws
1994 : Previous homelands re-incorporated into South Africa
Wednesday 27 April 1994 : First democratic general elections. ANC elected to power. Government of National Unity under President Nelson Mandela
Friday 02 July 1999 : Second democratic general elections. ANC elected to power under Thabo Mbeki