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91 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.

2014 Gay Games

During its annual meeting in Cape Town on 28 October 2008, the FGG announced that four cities made the deadline and were thus in the running to host the games: Boston, Cleveland, Miami, and Washington, DC.

AIMS International

The decision to change the association's name to AIMS International was taken by the General Assembly at the Annual General Meeting in Cape Town in 2008.

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.

Amandla Development

Currently, Amandla is engaging stakeholders in the Philippi, Cape Town area.

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.

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.

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.

C. R. Deare

Deare stood with Robert Warton, whose Test umpiring career was limited to this Test and the 2nd Test at Cape Town two weeks later.

Clifford Lincoln

After studying insurance on the island and in Cape Town, South Africa, he immigrated to Canada in 1958 settling in Vancouver and then Montreal where he eventually became an insurance company executive.

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.

Culemborg

Jan van Riebeeck (1619–1677), colonial administrator and founder of Cape Town (South Africa)

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.

David Stanley Evans

At this time Evans had become chief assistant at the Royal Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa.

De Havilland DH.50

Cobham flew the aircraft on a 16,000 mi (25,750 km) flight from Croydon Airport to Cape Town between November 1925 and February 1926.

Dominic Cervi

In 2010, he was named in the US squad that defeated South Africa 1-0 on November 17 in Cape Town.

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 Griffith Colpoys

He left three sons, two of whom served in the Navy and one of which died just a few weeks after his father while stationed at Cape Town, and a daughter.

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.

Emil Holub

Inspired to visit Africa by the diaries of David Livingstone, Holub travelled to Cape Town, South Africa shortly after graduation and eventually settled near Kimberley to practise medicine.

Ernest Glanville

Ernest Glanville (born 5 May 1855 in Wynberg, South Africa—died 6 September 1925 in Rondebosch, South Africa) was a South African author, known especially for his short stories which are widely read and taught in South Africa.

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.

Falling Mirror

Falling Mirror was an alternative rock band from Cape Town, South Africa founded in 1978 by cousins Allan Faull and Nielen Marais.

Fireworks nudibranch

This species has to date only been found off South Africa, near Vulcan Rock, south of Hout Bay, off Cape Town in at least 18m of water.

Fraser Russell

Born at St Andrew's Church, Somerset Road, Cape Town to the Reverend JM Russell and his wife Nancy, Russell attended Normal College, Merchiston Castle School, Scotland, the South African College, Cape Town.

George Thomas Napier

The town of Napier, Western Cape, is named for Sir George Thomas Napier as is Napier House at Fairbairn College, Goodwood, Cape Town.

Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi

Fraser-Moleketi matriculated from Livingstone High School in Claremont which had a history of providing its pupils with alternative perspective on South African history and socio-political issues.

German auxiliary cruiser Stier

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

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.

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.

Individual Television Experience

Ericsson has outlined the multi-platform service future in a series of Televisionary Roadshows, including in Sydney, Moscow and Cape Town.

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.

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.

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.

John T. Robinson

In 1956 he published what is arguably his most important work, a monograph titled The Dentition of the Australopithecinae after which the University of Cape Town awarded him a Doctor of Science degree.

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.

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.

Karbonkelberg

Karbonkelberg is a small peak forming part of the Table Mountain National Park in Cape Town, South Africa.

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.

Lamar Crowson

In 1963 Crowson travelled to Cape Town as an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and lectured at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town from 1965 to 1968.

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

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.

Liédson

He lost his place to Hugo Almeida for the following match, but both found the net in the 7–0 routing of North Korea on 21 June 2010, in Cape Town.

Losiny Ostrov National Park

It is located in Moscow and Moscow Oblast and is the third largest forest in a city of comparable size, after Table Mountain National Park (Cape Town) and Pedra Branca State Park (Rio de Janeiro).

Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg

He took part with the French army in a battle against British troops in Cape Town.

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.

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.

Michaelis School of Fine Art

Michaelis School of Fine Art was founded in 1925, and is the Fine Arts department of the University of Cape Town.

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.

Moraea aristata

Consequently it is critically endangered and naturally survives only in the grounds of the South African Astronomical Observatory in the suburb of Observatory near the foot of Devil's Peak.

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.

New Loud Rockets

New Loud Rockets were an indie band from Cape Town, South Africa.

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.

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.

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!"

Owen McCann

Archbishop of Cape Town from 1951 to 1984, he was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965.

Pierre Antoine Delalande

Their collection included 288 mammals, 2205 birds, 322 reptiles, 265 fish, 3875 shellfish, and various human skulls and skeletons from a Cape Town cemetery and from the 22 April 1819 Battle of Grahamstown between the British forces under Colonel Willshire and the Xhosa under Nxele.

Reggae

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

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.

Robert Priday

Robert Priday (born 29 March 1925 in Cape Town, South Africa) was a South African footballer who played as a midfielder for Liverpool F.C. in The Football League.

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.

Sizwe Banzi Is Dead

Its world première occurred on 8 October 1972 at the Space Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa.

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.

Sri Lankan cricket team in South Africa in 2011–12

South Africa won the first Test in Centurion and Sri Lanka won the second in Durban, before South Africa won the third and deciding Test at Newlands, Cape Town, played from 3 to 6 January 2012.

SS Athenic

On 13 February 1902, she sailed into London on her maiden voyage to Wellington via the Canary Islands, Cape Town and Hobart.

Stephan Ekbergh

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

Strike Back: Vengeance

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

Symphony of Fire

The fireworks are choreographed to music, and are presented at English Bay in Vancouver, at the Lake Ontario waterfront of the Ontario Place theme park in Toronto, and in Victoria & Alfred waterfront in Cape Town.

The Crown of the Russian Empire, or Once Again the Elusive Avengers

Duc's minions, led by Perov, hijack a ship to pick up Ovechkin and carry the crown to 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.

Thomas Upington

However his life-long health problems worsened and on 10 December 1898, Upington died in Wynberg, Cape Town, aged only 54.

Tim Harrell

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

Tom Campbell Black

Boomerang did not live up to her name and in a near fatal accident over Africa the Comet was written off and Campbell Black's aspirations of flying from Firbeck to the Cape and back in a weekend came to an end.

Trevor Boris

He has been nominated twice for the "Best Stand-up Newcomer" Canadian Comedy Award, and has performed at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, as well as the CBC Winnipeg, Halifax, and Vancouver Comedy Festivals and at the 2006 Cape Town Comedy Festival in South Africa.

Triumph Herald

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

Two Oceans Marathon

The race starts in Newlands, and follows a more or less circular route through Muizenberg, Fish Hoek, over Chapman's Peak and Constantia Nek, and eventually finishes at the University of Cape Town campus.

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.

Western Cape Provincial Parliament

It is located in the Provincial Government Building at 7 Wale Street, Cape Town.

William Vere Reeve King-Fane

William Dashwood Fane was the son of Willam Fane of Calcutta and Cape Town and grandson of the Hon Henry Fane of Fulbeck Hall.


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..

Amanda Strydom

She also began performing as a solo cabaret artist, at Garbo's in Cape Town and at Club 58 in Hillbrow.

Bevan Fransman

Bevan Fransman (born 31 October 1983 in Cape Town, Western Cape) is a South African footballer, currently playing as a centre back for SuperSport United and the South African national team.

Big Fellas

The film was shot on various locations that range from Cape Town to Cango Caves to Johannesburg.

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.

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.

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.

Edwin Percy Phillips

Edwin Percy Phillips (18 February 1884 Sea Point, Cape Town - 12 April 1967 Cape Town), was a South African botanist and taxonomist, noted for his monumental work The Genera of South African Flowering Plants first published in 1926.

Erica turgida

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jean Grae

Grae was born in Cape Town, South Africa on November 26, 1976, the daughter of South African jazz musicians Sathima Bea Benjamin and Abdullah Ibrahim.

Johnny Wardle

In the second Test at Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town, he took 7 for 36 to dismiss South Africa for 72, and may have taken more than 26 Test wickets but for injury.

Joseph McMaster

He was selected for an under-strength England team that toured South Africa in 1888/9 and was selected as a bowler in the second and final Test match, in Cape Town, starting on 25 March 1889.

Kristine Kershul

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

Lionel Bastos

In May 2010, Bastos and radio host Doug Anderson organized a concert at which a number of notable South African artists (incl. Farryl Purkiss, Merseystate, and Wendy Oldfield) performed to benefit victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, at the Baxter Concert Hall in Cape Town.

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.

Molteno Dam

Still in service, it was established in 1877 and is now located in the suburb of Oranjezicht, Cape Town.

Mountain Records

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

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.

Overberg branch line

Metrorail services of the Northern Line operate from Cape Town through Bellville to Strand; the rest of the line has no regular passenger service.

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.

Ramatlabama

It is also the location where the Cape TownBulawayo railway line enters Botswana; north of Ramatlabama the railway is the main line of Botswana Railways, while to the south it is part of the network of Transnet Freight Rail.

Richard Rive

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

Ronald K. McMullen

Other overseas assignments include serving as Deputy Principal Officer in Cape Town, South Africa; Economic Officer in Libreville, Gabon; Political Officer in Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Vice Consul in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Saltoblattella montistabularis

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

The Return of Tarzan

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

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".

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 Lutley Sclater

The couple were married at St. George's Cathedral in London on 1 February 1896 at St. George, shortly after which they moved to Cape Town, South Africa.

Yolanda Foster

After she signed with Ford, she modeled all over the world, modelling internationally in Paris, Milan, Sydney, Cape Town, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles and Hamburg.