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88 unusual facts about Cape Town


1863 in South Africa

1 — The Cape Town and Green Point Tramway Company commences with the first horse-drawn trams in Cape Town from the foot of Adderley Street and out along Somerset Road to Green Point.

Alex Bell

Born in Cape Town, Cape Colony, to Scottish parents, Bell began his professional football career as a centre-forward with various clubs in Ayr, including Ayr Spring Vale, Ayr Westerlea and Ayr Parkhouse.

Alfred Hollins

In 1907, 1909 and 1916 he went to South Africa to give a series of concerts at Johannesburg and Cape Town, giving the opening recital for the organ at the new Town Hall in Cape Town.

Allan Webb

He was consecrated at Inverness Cathedral in Scotland and sailed for the Cape on 25 April 1871, arriving in Cape Town on 28 July.

In 1883, on the advice of the Archbishop of Canterbury (Benson) and of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Town (West Jones), Webb accepted his unanimous election as the Bishop of Grahamstown.

Anders Erikson Sparrman

After the voyage he returned to Cape Town in July 1775 and practiced medicine, earning enough to finance a journey into the interior.

Anthony Aristar

Anthony Manuel Rodrigues Aristar (born in Cape Town, South Africa, 1948) is a linguist, the founder of the LINGUIST List, an important linguistic resource on the web, and a professor emeritus of linguistics at Eastern Michigan University.

Belmonte Calabro

Belmonte was in the news on 5 December 1930, when the English aviators Winifred Spooner and Captain Edwards were forced by mechanical breakdown to ditch into the sea whilst en route from London to Cape Town, South Africa, in what had been planned as a 5 days and nights record breaking attempt.

Benjamin Pringle

Pringle was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 judge of the court of arbitration in Cape Town (in what is now South Africa) under the treaty with Great Britain of April 7, 1862 for the suppression of the African slave trade.

Bernard Kilkeary

Twelve hours later, they themselves were rescued by the schooner, Lioness, of Cape Town.

Booth Memorial Hospital

The Salvation Army Booth Memorial Hospital, at 32 Prince Street, Oranjezicht, Cape Town, South Africa was formerly a Maternity Home but longer operates as such.

Brian Victor Beck

Beck was licensed, prior to ordination, as a Sub-deacon at St Michael and All Angels, an Anglo-Catholic parish in Observatory, Cape Town.

Charles Tyler

His continued service brought more honours, including command of the Cape of Good Hope squadron based in Cape Town, a role which was followed by post-war promotion to rear admiral.

Conradi Peak

It was discovered in January 1930 by the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) under Mawson, who named it after a prominent member of the South African government who, in 1929, rendered much help to BANZARE during the stay of the Discovery at Cape Town.

Craig-y-Nos Castle

It was said that his family were cursed thanks to their bloodline relationship with the Dutch Overbeek family of Calcutta and Cape Town, with cholera taking his younger son in 1851, and the deaths of his wife and younger daughter before he died in 1862.

CRY 104.0FM

Former broadcasters on CRY who have moved onto national broadcasting include Derek Kiely, Will Downing and Oisin Langan while Thomas Breathnach moved to South Africa to work with Cape Town station Heart 104.9.

Culemborg

Roelof de Man (1634 - 1663), bookkeeper and second-in-charge to Jan van Riebeeck at founding of Cape Town (South Africa)

Cynanchum ellipticum

It occurs in coastal scrub from Cape Town as far north as Mozambique and further inland up to 1300 m, and may be found on flats or moderate slopes, in sand or between rocks, in indigenous forests and along forest margins and thickets, frequently occurring in disturbed habitats.

De Havilland DH.14 Okapi

The aircraft did attempt the first flight between London and Cape Town in February 1920, but it only got as far as Italy, where it force-landed near Messina.

De Havilland Puss Moth

His wife Amy Johnson made record flights between England and Cape Town using G-ACAB, "Desert Cloud" in 1932.

Donald B. Beary

Mount Vernon was in the Atlantic Ocean as part of a convoy steaming from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, bound for Cape Town, South Africa, when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, brought the United States into World War II on 7 December 1941.

Edward Woore

After Parsons' death on 30 September 1934, Woore took over and completed many of Parsons' commissions, such as the north transept window of St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town.

English cricket team in South Africa in 1888–89

Monty Bowden became England's youngest ever Test captain aged 23 years 144 days in the Second Test at Newlands, Cape Town, replacing an injured Smith in Bowden's second and final Test.

Erica turgida

This Erica used to grow naturally in the area that is now beneath the Cape Town suburbs of Rondebosch, Kenilworth and Wynberg.

Fairbairn College

The deputy principal and secretary were temporarily accommodated in the board room of the Parow School Board until completion of the administrative section of the College in January 1977.

Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove

Kirra is sent to stay with Gus in his run-down amusement park in Cape Town after her father was hospitalized for six weeks.

Fritz Kolbe

He was employed as a mid-level diplomat by the German foreign ministry before World War II and had postings to Madrid and Cape Town, but his refusal to join the Nazi Party led him to be assigned lowly clerical work in Berlin from 1939.

George Fowlds

Fowlds emigrated to South Africa in 1882 and lived in Cape Town, Beaufort West, and Bultfontein.

German auxiliary cruiser Stier

On 27 September 1942 Stier encountered the Liberty ship Stephen Hopkins en route from Cape Town to Paramaribo.

Gerrit de Heere

There, in 1695, he married the 26-year younger Johanna Maria van Riebeeck (1679-1759), daughter of Abraham van Riebeeck and granddaughter of Jan van Riebeeck, the founder of Cape Town.

Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff

En route to Batavia, Van Imhoff visited the Dutch colony in Cape Town, in the Cape Colony, where he discovered that Dutch settlers were penetrating increasingly further into the interior, and were losing contact with the VOC.

Hannah Morris

Originally from Vermont, United States, she spent more than five years in Stellenbosch and Cape Town, South Africa, completing postgraduate studies in visual arts at the Stellenbosch University fine arts department, focusing on picture books in South Africa.

Harry Hands

He was a member of the legislative assembly of the Cape Colony from 1912–1913 and 1916-1918 he served as mayor of Cape Town.

Haviside's dolphin

Sightings are often recorded from major population centres such as Cape Town and towns such as Walvis Bay.

International Association of Wagner Societies

Wagner societies can be found in all parts of the world, including Venice, Great Britain, Shanghai, Tokyo, Lisbon, Melbourne, Adelaide, Ankara, New York, Toronto, Cape Town, Bangkok, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.

Irish National Invincibles

Carey was shot dead on board the Melrose Castle off Cape Town, South Africa, on 29 July 1883, by Donegal man Patrick O Donnell, for giving evidence against his former comrades.

J. Paul Getty

They were picking up Sutton Place phones and placing calls to girlfriends in Geneva or Georgia and to aunts, uncles and third cousins twice-removed in Caracas and Cape Town.

Jack Lohman

In 2000 He was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Iziko Museums of Cape Town, South Africa, an organization consisting of fifteen national museums including the South African Museum, the South African Maritime Museum and the South African National Gallery where he led the creation of a new museum institution and the transformation of the national museum sector.

Jacob Letterstedt

He arrived at Cape Town in 1820, where he made his fortune in grain trade.

Japan during World War I

Two of the four cruisers of the First Special Squadron at Singapore were sent to Cape Town, South Africa, and four destroyers were sent to the Mediterranean Sea for basing out of Malta.

Japanese cruiser Asama

On 21 August 1920, it made a training voyage to Hong Kong, Singapore, Columbo, Durban, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Valparaíso, Tahiti, Truk and Saipan, thus circumnavigating the globe east to west.

Japanese cruiser Tsushima

From mid-1915 to 1918, Tsushima and her sister ship Niitaka were permanently based at the Cape Town, assisting the Royal Navy in patrolling the sea lanes linking Europe to the east.

John Harfield Tredgold

Tredgold married Elizabeth Merrington in Cape Town on New Year's Day 1825 in St Georges Cathedral before it was rebuilt.

John King Davis

Davis's formal education, at Colet Court, London, and at Burford Grammar School, Oxfordshire, ended in 1900, when he and his father left London for Cape Town, South Africa.

Johnston Drummond

By the age of fifteen he was making collections of native seeds for sale at Cape Town, and he also sold a collection of seeds to George Fletcher Moore, who sent them on to James Mangles.

Jordan Gysberts

Gysberts was named best on ground for the AFL/AIS Under 18 team during its 2009 Cape Town match against the South Africa national Australian rules football team.

Just Nuisance

Although the exact date of Just Nuisance's birth is not known, it is usually stated that he was born on 1 April 1937 in Rondebosch, a suburb of Cape Town.

Kenneth Martin Willett

While en route from Cape Town, South Africa to Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, his freighter was attacked on September 27, 1942 by two enemy surface raiders.

Kjetil Siem

Siem started in 1994 the Soccer against crime project in Cape Town, South Africa and has since been involved in helping deprived communities.

Lamar Crowson

He was appointed a music professor at UCT in 1980 from which he received an honorary doctorate in 1996.

Leon Bosch

Born in Cape Town, though now a British citizen, Bosch graduated from the University of Cape Town before continuing his studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Leslie French

In 1955 he helped to establish the open air Maynardville Theatre in Cape Town, South Africa which had multi-racial casts performing to multi-racial audiences.

Lucy Lloyd

After living at first in New Street, the Bleek family moved to The Hill in Mowbray.

Manchester United Premier Cup

The regional tournaments served to whittle down the competing teams from over 2,500 to just 12 for the finals tournament in Cape Town, South Africa.

Marvin Breckinridge Patterson

She traveled extensively and published photographs from her world travels in magazines such as Vogue, National Geographic, Look, Life, Town & Country, and Harper's Bazaar, especially a 1932 Africa trip from Cape Town to Cairo.

Moore Embayment

Admiral Sir Arthur Moore, Naval Commander-in-Chief at Cape Town, placed the resources of the naval dockyard at Cape Town at the disposal of the Discovery for much-needed repairs before the ship proceeded to New Zealand and the Antarctic.

Netherlands at the 2008 UCI Road World Championships

The Netherlands competed at the 2008 UCI Road World Championships in Varese, Italy, from 23 September to 28 September 2009 and at the 2008 UCI Juniors Road World Championships in Cape Town, South Africa from 18 July to 20 July 2008.

Niitaka-class cruiser

It was subsequently assigned to Cape Town, where she assisted its sister ship Niitaka in patrol of shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean.

Nina Frances Layard

Her father was first cousin (on his father's side) of Sir Austen Henry Layard (excavator of Nineveh and Nimrud), Edgar Leopold Layard (Curator of the South Africa Museum at Cape Town, and Governor of Fiji), and of Lady Charlotte Guest (Translator of the Mabinogion and collector of ceramics).

North of the Yukon

Scrooge refuses, saying that if more people knew that he was the Richest Duck in the World, "every chisler from Cape Town to Nome would be waylaying me!"

Overberg branch line

The Overberg branch line is a railway line in the Western Cape, South Africa, that runs from Cape Town through Somerset West and Caledon to Bredasdorp.

The line branches from the BellvilleStellenbosch line at Eerste River, from which it runs through Faure and Firgrove to Somerset West.

Pan Africanist Congress of Azania

People gathered in Sharpeville and Langa and Sobukwe and other top leaders were arrested and later convicted for incitement.

Pinelands railway station

Central Line trains travel from Cape Town through Pinelands and Langa to Mitchell's Plain, Khayelitsha and Bellville.

Cape Flats Line trains travel from Cape Town through Pinelands and Athlone to Retreat.

Reggae

Reggae bands play regularly at community centres such as the Zolani center in Nyanga.

Regiment Boland

However, the 1st Battalion fought to regain their original name and this succeeded in 1974, when the two battalions became independent units - the 1st Battalion became Regiment Westelike Provincie and was headquartered in Cape Town, while the 2nd Battalion retained the designation Regiment Boland.

Richard Rive

Rive went to St Mark's Primary School and Trafalgar High School, both in District Six, and then to Hewat College of Education in Athlone, where he qualified as a teacher.

Roodezand Pass

Roodezand Pass was constructed to allow access eastward from Cape Town across the Obiqua Mountains into the valley where the present-day town of Tulbagh is located.

Roslyn Sulcas

She grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, and studied English literature at university, receiving post-graduate degrees from the University of Cape Town and Paris VII (Jussieu).

SA Metal Group

In 1970, the restored body of a World War II Spitfire aircraft was mounted at the company’s Salt River, Cape Town premises where it became a world-famous landmark.

Saltoblattella montistabularis

Saltoblattella montistabularis or leaproach is a new species of cockroach, from the Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, discovered in 2009.

Southern Cross Drive

'Southern Cross Drive' is also the name of an important arterial road in Cape Town, South Africa, on the eastern side of Table Mountain.

SS Maori

She went aground a few kilometres south of the suburb of Llandudno.

Stephan Ekbergh

He has lived in Llandudno Cape Town with his wife Annette and their four children since 2004.

Streptocarpus

In 1884, seed was collected in the mountains of the Transvaal gold fields, and sent to Kew by Mr E. G. Dunn of Claremont, Cape Town.

Strike Back: Vengeance

In one such instance locals portrayed a group of rioters in the township of Langa in Cape Town.

The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey

The Admiral asks Aubrey if he can take Miller on board with him to take up a new position in Cape Town.

The Return of Tarzan

Afterwords, Tarzan sails for Cape Town and strikes up a shipboard acquaintance with Hazel Strong, a friend of Jane's.

The TNT Punch

The story starts with Steve Costigan and his dog Mike ashore in Cape Town, South Africa, and penniless after having to pay a fine for Mike biting a policeman.

Thomas Möller

Möller's extravagant lifestyle in South Africa, where he lived in a seaside property in Llandudno close to Cape Town became the source of scrutiny from Swedish and South African authorities.

Thomas Upington

He was accused of propounding Parnellite principles and denounced by British politicians in Cape Town as a “Fenian” whose "offence is rank", and who "has been fraternising with Mynheer Van Dunk instead of sticking with John Bull".

Tim Harrell

Timothy Allen Harrell (born 31 October 1975 in Mowbray, Cape Town) is a South African professional baseball player.

Tokaj

Tokai, a region of Cape Town, is named after the nearby mountains' resemblance to the hills of Tokaj-Hegyalja.

Triumph Herald

In late 1958, prototype cars embarked on a test-run from Cape Town to Tangiers.

USCG Activities Europe

• There are over 6,500 miles between two of ACTEUR's regular inspection locations; Bergen, Norway, and Cape Town, South Africa.

Valkenberg Hospital

It is situated in the suburb of Observatory between the banks of the Liesbeeck and Black Rivers, overlooking Devil's Peak in the distance.

Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II

Youth (or Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II) (2002) is a semi-fictionalised autobiographical novel by J. M. Coetzee, recounting his struggles in 1960s London after fleeing the political unrest of Cape Town.


A Guide to the Old Buildings of the Cape

A Guide to the Old Buildings of the Cape is a book by Hans Fransen, subtitled A survey of extant architecture from before c. 1910 in the area of Cape TownCalviniaColesbergUitenhage.

Aeras

Aeras has approximately 160 employees, with offices in Rockville, Maryland; Cape Town, South Africa; and Beijing, China.

AllAfrica.com

It is available in both English and French and produced by AllAfrica Global Media, which has offices in Cape Town, Dakar, Lagos, Monrovia, Nairobi, and Washington, D.C..

Amy Biehl Foundation Trust

The Amy Biehl Foundation Trust is a not-for-profit organization based in Cape Town, set up to commemorate Amy Biehl, an American anti-apartheid activist who was killed during racial violence in South Africa in 1993.

Argyrosomus japonicus

The case was dropped until there was a public outcry and the department of public prosecution in Cape Town had decided to reopen the case.

Cape Dutch architecture

Most Cape Dutch buildings in Cape Town have been lost to new developments – particularly to high-rises in the City Bowl during the 1960s.

Dark Tide

Production began in July 2010 in False Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, and shot for six weeks on a small boat with real great white sharks.

Elsa Joubert

She has three children, two daughters and one son, and lives in Oranjezicht, Cape Town.

Felix du Plessis

Felix made his debut on 16 July 1949 for South Africa as a lock in the first test match at Newlands Stadium, Cape Town against the touring All Blacks, led by Fred Allen.

Good Hope Centre

The Good Hope Centre in Cape Town, South Africa (1976) by Pier Luigi Nervi, is an exhibition hall and conference centre, with the exhibition hall comprising an arch with tie-beam on each of the four vertical facades and two diagonal arches supporting two intersecting barrel-like roofs which in turn were constructed from pre-cast concrete triangular coffers with in-situ concrete beams on the edges.

Heinz-Wilhelm Eck

The operation to sink the rafts and wreckage was not hugely successful, but the submarine was able to evade pursuit, and managed to sink the British cargo ship SS Dahomian off Cape Town on 1 April, this time hastily leaving the scene rather than pausing.

Hendrik Swellengrebel

Hendrik Swellengrebel (Cape Town, 20 September 1700 - Utrecht, 26 December 1760) was the first and only Dutch East India Company governor of the Dutch Cape Colony who was born in the Cape.

John Witherston Rickards

Bishop Robert Gray of Cape Town visited St Cyprian's Marylebone on St Cyprian's Day 1870 and it is surmised that his sermon and call for recruits to the church in South Africa had inspired Rickards.

Kristine Kershul

She moved to Cape Town, South Africa and spent the next six years traveling around the world.

Lympne

In the 1930s it was the starting point for several long distance record flights, including a solo one to Cape Town by Amy Johnson in 1932, and also ones by her later-to-be husband Jim Mollison.

Masiphumelele High School

Masiphumelele High School is a publicly owned secondary school (grades 8-12) in Masiphumelele, Cape Town, in the Western Cape region of South Africa.

Mountain Records

Mountain Records is a record label started in Cape Town, South Africa in 1980 by Patrick Lee-Thorp.

Mutual railway station

Mutual is a particularly busy station because it is the junction at which the Central Line towards Mitchell's Plain and Khayelitsha diverges from the Northern Line main line to Bellville.

Norman Garstin

He then travelled to South Africa where he befriended Cecil Rhodes, worked as a journalist and was involved in government in Cape Town.

Nyanga, Cape Town

Nyanga is situated 26 kilometres from Cape Town along N2 highway, close to the Cape Town International Airport and next to the townships of Gugulethu and Crossroads.

Oloff Johannes Truter

Oloff Johannes Truter (Cape Town, 7 August 1829 – Koblenz, Germany, 29 August 1881) was a South African civil servant in the Orange Free State, miner, Landdrost and Acting Government Secretary.

Peter Tregloan

In 2001 a bad bench press led to a third place finish in Cape Town although in December of that year in Amberg he set the world record for the Masters age category in Deadlift, Squat and Total.

Principles for Responsible Investment

The PRI Initiative has a Secretariat of around 50 staff based mostly in London, with staff based in New York, as well regional offices in Seoul, Sao Paulo, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Cape Town.

Richard Rive

Rive was born on 1 March 1931 in Caledon Street in the working-class coloured District Six of Cape Town.

South African Archaeological Society

Branches of the Society were established and currently exist in Gauteng, Cape Town, Durban/Pietermaritzburg and Bloemfontein/Kimberley.

South African Light Horse

The relief effort was dispatched from Cape Town under the command of General Sir Redvers Buller and by early December 1899 this 20,000 strong relieving army was arriving just south of the river Tugela.

SS City of Cairo

Her last voyage, under the command of her Master, William A. Rogerson, was to take her from Bombay, which she departed on 1 October 1942 to the UK, via Durban, Cape Town and Pernambuco, Brazil.

The Rhodes Colossus

Rhodes measures with the telegraphic line the distance from Cape Town (at his right foot) in South Africa to Cairo (at his left foot) in Egypt, illustrating his broader "Cape to Cairo" concept for British domination of Africa.

Wenceslas Lauret

He has also been selected to play for the French national team, he made his debut against South Africa in Cape Town on 12 June 2010.

Wilhelm Langschmidt

Wilhelm Heinrich Franz Ludwig Langschmidt, or Willem Langschmidt, (10 January 1805 Grabow, Gustrow - 5 October 1866 Caledon) was a German-born South African painter and drawing master of 59 Long Street, Cape Town.

William de Villiers

Andries William de Villiers (born 9 July 1957 in Nairobi) is a South African author who wrote Messengers, Watchmen and Stewards, a biographical register of clergymen licensed, ordained for service, or otherwise active, in the Anglican diocese of Cape Town prior to the death of Archbishop William West Jones on 21 May 1908 (1998).

William Sudell

According to this account Sudell became a successful rugby journalist, dying from pneumonia on 5 August 1911 in Cape Town.