This day in history: 24 December
Events worth remembering that occurred on 24 December.
1524 – Vasco da Gama, Portuguese seafarer who discovered a sea route from Europe to Asia around the southern point of Africa, died on his final voyage to India as Portuguese viceroy. He fell ill, probably of malaria, upon his arrival in Goa, India. His body was repatriated to Portugal for burial.
1651 – Jan van Riebeeck set off, accompanied by his wife and son, from Texel in the Netherlands for the Cape of Good Hope having been appointed on a five-year contract as an employee of the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
His task was to set up a refreshment station which could be used by VOC ships on their way to the spice-rich Far East.
1865 – The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was formed by a group of Confederate veterans in Tennesee. The KKK rapidly grew from a secret social fraternity to a paramilitary force bent on reversing the federal government’s progressive Reconstruction Era-activities in the South, especially policies that elevated the rights of the local African American population.
1901 – Drunken British soldiers desecrate and destroy the Taalmonument (language monument) in Burgersdorp, erected to commemorate legislation passed in 1882 giving equal status to Dutch and English in the Cape Colony.
1951 – Libya declares its independence as a constitutional and hereditary monarchy under King Idris I. It is the first country to achieve independence through the United Nations and one of the first former European possessions in Africa to gain independence.
Details: www.sahistory.org.za
