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General Knowledge :: HISTORICAL EVENTS BY COUNTRY :: SOUTH AFRICA

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South Africa

South Africa: Historical Dates

About ad 100s	Bantu-speaking people migrated into South Africa from the north, displacing or absorbing tribes of Khoisan hunter-gatherers.
1488	Portuguese sailors rounded the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape quickly became an important station for European ships en route to Asia.
1652	Dutch settlers founded a colony at Cape Town. The colony soon began expanding north and east.
1814	The Dutch ceded the Cape Colony to Britain toward the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
1835	Thousands of Boers began leaving the Cape Colony on the Great Trek and settled in the Natal area. The exodus continued into the early 1840s.
1843	Britain declared Natal a crown colony. Many Afrikaners began moving north to the Transvaal region.
1852	The Transvaal region became independent. The Orange Free State became an independent republic two years later.
1867	Diamonds were discovered near Kimberley. Mineral deposits transformed South Africa's economy in the late 19th century.
1879	British forces defeated the Zulu.
1886	Large gold deposits were discovered in the Witwatersrand, near Johannesburg.
1899-1902	Britain annexed the Transvaal region (the South African Republic) and the Orange Free State after bitter fighting during the Boer War.
1910	The Union of South Africa was founded as a dominion of Britain.
1914-1918	South African troops seized the German colony of South-West Africa during World War I. South Africa occupied this area under a United Nations mandate after the war.
1931	South Africa gained full autonomy as a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
1948	The National Party instituted a policy of racial segregation called apartheid.
1960	69 blacks were killed in Sharpeville when police opened fire on a crowd of antiapartheid demonstrators. The African National Congress (ANC) and other opposition groups were banned.
1961	South Africa became a republic.
1976	Riots protesting apartheid in the black township of Soweto were brutally crushed by the government.
1984	Widespread protests against apartheid began throughout South Africa.
1988	South Africa agreed to allow South West Africa to become an independent country, which it did in 1990 as Nimibia.
1989	F. W. de Klerk became president.
1990	Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in prison, and the ANC was legalized.
1991	Apartheid laws were abolished, and South Africa began preparing for multiracial elections.
1993	Mandela and de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their leadership towards a democratic South Africa.
1994	Mandela led the ANC to victory in South Africa's first free elections and became president.
1996-1998	The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established to uncover injustices committed under apartheid, heard testimony from hundreds of perpetrators and victims of political violence.
1999	Mandela retired and Thabo Mbeki was elected president of South Africa.