South African History Timeline (Part 3)

Events 401 - 600 of 639

• 1984-07-12 A car bomb set off by the military wing of the ANC, explodes in Durban South Africa killing 5 and injuring 27 people
• 1984-07-13 The last sitting of an all-white Parliament in South Africa
• 1984-08-22 The United Democratic Front, an internal coalition of anti-apartheid groups in South Africa, organizes a highly successful boycotts of the Colored and Indian elections to parliament

• 1984-09-03 South Africa adopts constitution

• 1984-12-10 South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu is presented with his Nobel Peace Prize

• 1985-04-30 Last edition of Brink Daily Mail and Sunday Express in South Africa
• 1985-07-09 South Africa police arrested Dutch ANC'er Klaas de Jong
• 1985-08-07 A delegation of the South African Council of Churches meets with President P. W. Botha, following calls by the church for urgent discussions on the causes of unrest, forced removals and the emergency regulations in the country
• 1985-08-13 South African Defence Force soldiers, travelling in a convoy of more than ten armoured vehicles, surrounded the Thaba-Juluba high school in Soweto and arrest 200 students during a clampdown on school boycotts
• 1985-08-14 Political violence by the youth begins after funeral of assassinated Victoria Mxenge, a civil rights lawyer, who was respected and liked by the Congress of South African Students
• 1985-08-15 P. W. Botha gives the "Rubicon" Speech in Durban, South Africa, disappointing many by refusing to consider immediate and major reforms in the country's apartheid system
• 1985-08-19 Following the Rubicon speech four days earlier, Archbishop Desmond Tutu snubs P. W. Botha's invitation to attend a meeting to discuss the role and actions of the police and security forces in South Africa
• 1985-08-23 South African attorney/UDF leader "Dulah" Omar arrested
• 1985-09-09 President Reagan orders sanctions against South Africa
• 1985-10-11 President Reagan bans import of South African Krugerrands to the USA
• 1985-12-01 South Africa's Cosatu union centre forms
• 1986-01-01 South African Government closes its borders with Lesotho, cutting off important food and fuel supplies, after Lesotho refuses to sign a non-aggression pact
• 1986-04-14 Desmond Tutu elected Anglican Archbishop of Capetown, South Africa
• 1986-05-16 South African President P. W. Botha sends Coetsee to visit Mandela
• 1986-05-18 South African army occupies Botswana, Zimbabwe & Zambia
• 1986-05-19 Anti-apartheid activist Hélène Pastoors sentenced to 10 yrs in South Africa
• 1986-05-23 US & Western Europe veto heavier sanctions against South Africa
• 1986-06-10 In South Africa, the three-year-old 'State of Emergency' is renewed for another twelve months, followed by an organized campaign of civil disobedience against it
• 1986-06-12 P. W. Botha declares South African national emergency
• 1986-06-13 US President Reagan criticizes South African state of emergency
• 1986-06-16 1 day general strike in South Africa
• 1986-06-18 US House of Representatives approves Bill to impose stricter sanctions on Apartheid South Africa
• 1986-06-27 South African Journalist and founder of the 'New Nation' newspaper, Zwelakhe Sisulu is abducted; he was released 721 days later on 2 December 1988
• 1986-06-28 West European leaders, meeting in the Netherlands, delay indefinitely imposing economic sanctions against South Africa
• 1986-06-29 Moses Mayekiso, former General Secretary of Metal and Allied Workers Union (MAWU) and member of South African Communist Party (SACP), detained for a second time, spends months in solitary confinement
• 1986-07-13 Zola Budd and Annette Cowley are banned from the Commonwealth Games, a direct consequence of Britain's refusal to support economic sanctions against the apartheid government of South Africa
• 1986-08-27 Protests erupt in Soweto, South Africa, against evictions carried out after an 11 week rent boycott
• 1986-09-16 Fire in Kinross gold mine, Transvaal South Africa, 177 killed
• 1986-10-21 IBM re-forms in South Africa
• 1986-10-25 International Red Cross ousted from South Africa
• 1986-12-11 South Africa censors press
• 1986-12-12 South African journalist and activist Zwelakhe Sisulu arrested at John Vorster Square
• 1987-06-22 The International Labour Organisation, meeting for its annual conference in Geneva, calls for international sanctions against South African minerals
• 1987-06-27 In South Africa, the Afrikaans Protestant Church, a breakaway faction of Dutch Reformed Church, is formed
• 1987-07-12 50 white South Africans meets ANCers in Dakar
• 1987-07-30 An ANC car bomb directed at the headquarters of the Wits Command in Johannesburg South Africa kills 1 person and injures 68
• 1987-08-09 The National Union of Mineworkers begin South Africa's longest wage strike
• 1987-08-31 South Africa's longest mine strike in history ends
• 1987-09-07 South Africa frees Dutch anthropologist/Anc'er Klaas de Young
• 1987-11-05 South Africa ANC-leader Govan Mbeki freed
• 1987-11-28 South African Airways Boeing 747 crashes into Indian Ocean, 159 die
• 1988-02-24 South African apartheid regime bans the UDF
• 1988-07-02 Lester Dumakude, commander of an Umkhonto we Sizwe special operations unit, detonate a car bomb by remote control outside Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa
• 1988-07-07 Five prominent anti-apartheid activists are released in Cape Town, South Africa after being detained for up to two years under the Internal Security Act
• 1988-07-28 Winnie Mandella's home in Soweto, South Africa, destroyed by arson
• 1988-08-08 Angola, Cuba and South Africa agree to a ceasefire in the Angolan Civil War
• 1988-08-31 Bomb attack on office of South Africa Council of Churches
• 1988-10-19 South African anti-apartheid leader Sisulu wins $100,000 Human Rights prize
• 1988-12-22 South Africa signs accord granting independence to South West Africa

• 1989-06-29 South Africa's National Party adopts five year programme of its objectives, including a political "reform" plan to give Black majority role in national and local government; ANC responds it would consider only a one-man, one-vote system
• 1989-07-05 South African President P. W. Botha visits ANC leader Nelson Mandela
• 1989-07-16 South Africa's largest labour federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, holds its third annual congress and intensifies its campaign against apartheid
• 1989-08-06 Twenty former South African political prisoners, in defiance of the restriction orders, launch a campaign against apartheid laws
• 1989-08-14 President P. W. Botha of South Africa resigns
• 1989-08-15 F. W. de Klerk becomes President of South Africa
• 1989-09-13 Archbishop Desmond Tutu leads biggest anti-apartheid protest march in South Africa
• 1989-10-15 South African President F. W. de Klerk frees ANC Founder Walter Sisulu and four other political prisoners
• 1989-11-16 South African President F. W. de Klerk announces scrapping of Separate Amenities Act
• 1990-01-18 South Africa says it is reconsidering ban on African National Congress
• 1990-02-02 South African President F. W. de Klerk promises to free Nelson Mandela & legalizes ANC & 60 other political organisations
• 1990-02-10 South African President F. W. de Klerk announces Nelson Mandela will be freed on February 11th
• 1990-02-11 Nelson Mandela is released after 27 years imprisonment in South Africa
• 1990-02-13 50 killed at Inkatha-UDF battle in Natal, South Africa
• 1990-03-21 Namibia becomes independent of South Africa, Sam Nujoma becomes president
• 1990-05-02 South Africa & African National Congress open talks to end apartheid
• 1990-05-06 Former president P. W. Botha quits South Africa's ruling National Party
• 1990-06-05 South African troops plunder Nelson Mandela's home
• 1990-06-07 South African President F. W. de Klerk lifts 4 year state of emergency
• 1990-06-22 Nelson Mandela addresses the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid in New York, saying that nothing has occurred in South Africa to reverse the ANC's position
• 1990-07-12 In Soweto, South Africa, Shanty town women strip to the waist and confront bulldozers sent by authorities to demolish their homes
• 1990-07-16 The ANC send a report on police violence to President F. W. de Klerk and demand an end to "the shocking inhumanity" of police action in rural areas of South Africa
• 1990-07-23 South Africa workers' union leader Billy Nair arrested
• 1990-07-29 South Africa Communist Party begins 1st legal conference
• 1990-08-15 At least 150 people die in clashes between the African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party, South Africa
• 1990-08-16 South African President F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela hold emergency talks in Pretoria about increasing violence in Soweto
• 1990-09-13 Commuter train at Johannesburg South Africa attacked, 36 die

• 1990-12-13 South African President F. W. de Klerk meets with Nelson Mandela to discuss the end of apartheid
• 1991-02-01 South African President F. W. de Klerk says he will repeal all apartheid laws
• 1991-04-15 Europe foreign ministers lift most remaining sanctions against South Africa
• 1991-06-17 South Africa abolishes last of its apartheid laws
• 1991-06-23 A peace summit, brokered by the clergy and business and attended by all major political parties, but boycotted by the Conservative Party, is held to end the violence in South Africa
• 1991-06-25 Japan lifts its call for voluntary restraint on expanding trade with South Africa

• 1991-06-25 Six persons are killed and eighteen injured when gunmen open fire on a crowded commuter train in Soweto, South Africa
• 1991-06-26 ANC leader Nelson Mandela addresses congress
• 1991-06-28 South Africa signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
• 1991-06-30 South Africa's Government repeals the 1913 Native Land Act, an important part of the system of Apartheid (Racially Based Land Measures Act)
• 1991-07-10 Foreign Minister R.F. Botha of South Africa signs accession to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty on behalf of South Africa
• 1991-08-04 The Greek cruise ship Oceanos sinks off the Wild Coast of South Africa
• 1991-09-05 Nelson Mandela chosen as president of African National Congress
• 1991-11-10 South Africa's 1st cricket international since 1970 - one-day v India
• 1992-03-17 South African President F. W. de Klerk wins a white only referendum
• 1992-03-17 South African referendum of white voters on an end to apartheid, over two-thirds vote for an end to the system
• 1992-06-17 Slaughtering by Inkhata-followers at Boipatong, South Africa, kills 42
• 1992-06-30 South African ANC President Nelson Mandela meets with UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali at Dakar
• 1992-07-03 South Africa's FIFA membership reinstated (expelled 1961); united non-racial FA, political prisoners released, free political parties
• 1992-07-13 The Tripartite Alliance, consisting of the African National Congress, South African Communist Party and Congress of South African Trade Union, outlines a mass action plan for August
• 1992-07-15 The Security Council of the UN examine violence in South Africa
• 1992-07-27 Nelson Mandela says a general strike will go ahead to protest for the removal of South African President F. W. de Klerk from power and for free elections
• 1992-08-23 Wilhelm Verwoerd, grandson of former South African Prime Minister, Hendrik Verwoerd, main architect of apartheid, joins the African National Congress
• 1993-03-21 South Africa White Wolves kill 5-year-old black girl
• 1993-05-07 South Africa agrees to multi-racial elections
• 1993-07-25 The St James' Church massacre in Kenilworth, Cape Town by Azanian Peoples' Liberation Army
• 1993-08-16 South Africa relinquishes sovereignty over Walvis Bay
• 1993-09-02 Day of Peace in South Africa
• 1993-10-08 UN lifts remaining economic sanctions against South Africa
• 1993-10-15 Nelson Mandela and South African President F. W. de Klerk awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
• 1993-11-18 Black and white leaders in South Africa approve new democratic constitution
• 1994-01-03 More than 7 million Black South Africans have their citizenship restored (announced on 15 December 1993 by parliament of President F. W. de Klerk, effective four months before first non-racial polls 27 April, 1994)
• 1994-01-07 South Africa beat Australia in the Sydney Test by 5 runs
• 1994-03-05 Largest milkshake made; 1,955 gallons of chocolate in Nelspruit, South Africa
• 1994-03-07 ANC chief Nelson Mandela rejects demand by white right-wingers for separate homeland in South Africa
• 1994-03-18 South Africa Goldstone committee reveals existence of secret police
• 1994-03-20 Zulu-king Goodwill Zwelithini founds realm in South Africa
• 1994-03-22 South African government and ANC take power in Ciskei homeland
• 1994-04-19 Inkatha ends boycott of South African multi-racial election
• 1994-04-25 Bomb attack on taxi stand in Johannesburg, South Africa kills 10
• 1994-04-26 1st day of voting in first ever multi-racial elections in South Africa, Dr Nomaza Paintin in NZ is 1st black South African to vote
• 1994-04-27 Freedom Day: day 2 of South Africa's 1st multi-racial elections and day most voted - some queuing for 10 hours
• 1994-04-29 Last day of voting in 1st multi-racial elections in South Africa
• 1994-05-06 Nelson Mandela and the ANC, finally confirmed winners in South Africa's first post apartheid election
• 1994-05-10 Nelson Mandela sworn in as South Africa's 1st black president
• 1994-05-11 6 white racists sentenced to death in South Africa
• 1994-06-23 South Africa reclaims its seat in United Nations
• 1994-08-15 South African President Nelson Mandela receives Anne Frank Penning
• 1994-10-01 South African President Nelson Mandela visits US
• 1994-10-06 Ben Mokoena becomes 1st black mayor of Middelburg, South Africa
• 1995-01-14 10,000 South Africans attend state funeral of Joe Slovo
• 1995-05-10 In South Africa, 104 miners killed in an elevator accident

• 1995-07-09 Former South African President F. W. de Klerk is implicated of knowing and condoning a 'dirty tricks' campaign that was waged against the ANC between 1990 and the 1994 election in a bid to destabilize the organization
• 1995-08-09 South Africa celebrates the first National Women's Day
• 1995-10-16 Allan Donald takes 8-71 as South Africa defeat Zimbabwe
• 1996-02-16 Gary Kirsten scores 188* for South Africa v UAE at Rawalpindi
• 1996-04-19 South Africa defeat Pakistan to win the Pepsi Cup in Sharjah
• 1996-05-08 South Africa's Constitutional Assembly adopts permanent post-apartheid constitution
• 1996-06-23 Archbishop Tutu retires as Archbishop of Cape Town and head of the Anglican Church in South Africa
• 1996-07-07 Nelson Mandela steps down as President of South Africa
• 1996-08-19 The major South African political parties begin their submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
• 1996-08-22 ANC makes its first submission to Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
• 1997-02-24 South Africa announces it is constructing largest modern day blimp
• 1997-12-31 South African & US surgeons separate Zambian Siamese twins joined at the head
• 1998-07-12 South African President Nelson Mandela accompanies Queen Elizabeth II on a coach drive through the streets of London
• 1998-07-14 Violence erupts in Richmond, South Africa, reflecting underlying political tensions between supporters of the ANC and Inkatha Freedom Party

• 1998-08-19 South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission chairperson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, releases documents revealing an alleged plot by Western countries to assassinate UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden
• 1998-08-21 P. W. Botha found guilty of contempt for repeatedly ignoring subpoenas to testify before South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• 1998-10-29 Apartheid: In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.

• 1999-06-22 Former Mpumalanga premier, Ndaweni Mahlangu causes a storm within political circles with his now infamous statement, "It is acceptable for politicians to lie", South Africa
• 1999-06-25 In his first state of the nation address, South African President Thabo Mbeki promises to tackle rampaging crime; the nation's murder rate is the third highest in the world and more than 49,000 cases of rape were reported in 1998

• 2000-06-23 The bulk ore carrier MV Treasure sinks off the western coast of South Africa, soiling more than 19 000 penguins; this resulted in the world's largest ever rescue of birds from an oiling event
• 2000-08-03 South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Amnesty Committee grants amnesty to Curnick Ndlovu, the KwaZulu-Natal leader of the African National Congress and United Democratic Front, for committing sabotage during December 1961 and June 1963 near Durban
• 2000-08-09 South African President Thabo Mbeki unveils the Women's Monument commemorating the role of women in the anti-apartheid struggle
• 2000-10-11 South African Cricket Board issues former captain Hansie Cronje with a life ban as a result of match-fixing allegations

• 2002-06-28 In South Africa, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the Treatment Action Campaign table a national HIV/AIDS treatment plan in the National Economic, Development and Labour Council
• 2002-07-09 The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The first chairman is Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa.
• 2002-08-26 Earth Summit 2002 begins in Johannesburg, South Africa
• 2004-07-17 Former South African President Nelson Mandela calls for commitment by the world to take action against AIDS
• 2006-11-30 South Africa's Civil Union Act of 2006 legalizes same-sex marriage, becomes fifth country in the world and first in Africa to do so
• 2008-08-15 Lee Berger and his nine-year-old son, Matthew, discover the two-million-year-old fossils of a new species of human ancestor (Australopithecus sediba) at Malapa Cave, South Africa
• 2008-09-21 President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa resigns from office, effective September 25

• 2009-05-27 South Africa enters the global recession; the first recession for South Africa in 17 years
• 2009-11-06 Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre in South Africa, designed by Peter Rich, wins World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona
• 2012-07-13 19-30 people are killed after a train collides with a truck in Malelane, South Africa
• 2012-08-16 South African police open fire on striking mine workers and kill at least 34 people
• 2012-09-10 10,000 miners demonstrate at Lonmin mines in Marikana, South Africa
• 2012-10-05 Anglo Platinum Limited fires 12,000 striking workers in South Africa
• 2013-01-31 300 people are injured in a train collision in Pretoria, South Africa
• 2013-02-14 Oscar Pistorius, a South African amputee sprinter, is charged with the murder of Reeva Steenkamp
• 2013-03-15 24 people die after a double decker bus veers of a pass in Cape Town, South Africa
• 2014-05-10 The African National Congress wins the 2014 South African General Election
• 2014-12-11 World's 1st penis transplant procedure by a team from Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa
• 2015-09-10 New human-like species - Homo Naledi announced by Scientists and a team of female archaeologists, found deep in caves in South Africa
• 2016-07-06 South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is sentenced to 6 years in jail for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013
• 2016-07-28 Earliest evidence of cancer found in 1.7 million-year-old toe fossil from Swartkrans Cave, South Africa, published in "South African Journal of Science"
• 2017-05-22 South Africa's Western Cape province declares a drought disaster - worst for 113 years
• 2017-07-22 South African golfer Branden Grace records lowest round for a men's major championship - 62 in 3rd round at British Open, Royal Birkdale, England
• 2017-08-08 South African President Jacob Zuma survives a no-confidence vote in parliament 198-177

• 2017-12-18 South Africa's ANC selects Cyril Ramaphosa as leader, to succeed President Jacob Zuma
• 2018-01-04 Truck hits a train near Kroonstad city, South Africa killing 19 passengers
• 2018-02-02 All 955 miners rescued from the Beatrix gold mine in Welkom town, South Africa, after 2 days underground
• 2018-02-13 South Africa declares a three-year drought a National Disaster, though pushes Cap Town's "Day Zero" to June 4
• 2018-02-13 South African President Jacob Zuma is ordered to step down by the A.N.C.

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