Nineteenth Century
1800AD Dr Somers utilizes the Barracks Theatre, opening with "Taste by Foote". A petition for a subscription public theatre from townspeople (Dutch and English). The African Theatre planned and building commences. Sir George Yonge launches Cape Town Gazette and Kaapsche Stads Courant and “The Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, Arts and Sciences”.
1801AD The African Theatre opens in Cape Town with a production of "Henry IV". Lady Anne Barnard writes “first review” in her letters. Sir George Yonge recalled to England to faces charges.
1802AD End of third border war
1803AD "De Papegay" by Kotzebue performed by Dutch Amateurs in Cape Town, and Voltaire’s "Zaire" also performed. First appearances by Charles Villet. “Tot Nut van’t Algemeen”, an Arts and Sciences Society founded in Cape Town. Cape reverts to Dutch rule (Batavian period) with De Mist as Commisioner General and Janssens as Governor. British occupy Delhi, but retain puppet Mughal emperors.
1804AD Pit added to the African Theatre.
1805AD Mohammed Ali becomes undisputed ruler of Egypt.
1806AD Kleist’s "The Broken Jug" Charles Boniface arrives in Cape Town General Janssens capitulates to British , who re-occupy the Cape
1807 AD Captain Frazer arrives in the Cape with the occupying forces and revitalizes the Garrison theatricals. “All the World’s a Stage” founded by Frazer and co. and perform "She Stoops to Conquer" in the African Theatre. The “French Theatre” erected in J.H.Berg’s store in Berg Street.
1808AD Dutch/French “Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense” founded under Boniface’s leadership. (?)
1809 AD “Tot Nut en Vermaak” founded in Cape Town
1810 AD
1811 AD First appearance of "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen.
1812 AD
1813 AD Het Beleg en Namen van Troyen a ballet-pantomime by C.E. Boniface produced at the African Theatre.
1814 AD Thomas Sheridan, son of the playwright, arrives in Cape Town as colonial treasurer. Sir Charles Somerset appointed governor.
1815AD Gas installed in Covent Garden. Wild Oats performed in Cape Town and Simon’s Town, with an occasional address written and spoken by Thomas Sheridan.
1815AD Gas installed in Covent Garden Wild Oats performed in Cape Town and Simon’s Town, with an occasional address written and spoken by Thomas Sheridan.
1816 AD
1817 AD
1818 AD Performers from the Royal Theatre Liverpool arrive and perform Tobin’s The Honeymoon at African Theatre, assisted by local amateurs, as their first show of a 10 play season. J.Suasso de Lima arrives in Cape Town
1819 AD
1820AD Russian serf Shchepkin freed to lead an acting troupe (Became mentor for Stanislavski). Kean and Macready active in London. The first 1820 settlers from England arrive in Delagoa Bay and are settled on farms on the eastern border
1823 AD De Dolzinnige (L’Enrage) by Boniface, tr. by De Lima, produced in Cape Town.
1825 AD De Burger Edelman (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme by Moliére, tr by Boniface) performed in Cape Town. With a choir and Turkish ballet!
1826 AD De Lima founds De Verzamelaar, a newspaper.
1830AD Madame Vestris becomes manager of the Olympic Theatre. Hugo’s Hernani sparks riots in Paris 1832AD Dunlap’s History of the Anerican Theatre published Boniface’s De Nieuwe Ridderorde, of De Temperantisten published. The "new ballet dance" Jack at the Cape, or All alive among the Hottentots! presented in Cape Town. Lovedale Mission School founded for Africans.
1835AD Buchner’s Danton’s Tod published. Boniface writes Cockincoz or The Pettifogging Lawyer’s Plot. 1836AD Gogol’s The Government Inspector. American Edwin Forrester performs in London
1840 AD Boniface founds De Natalier en Pietermaritzburgsche Trouwe Aantekenaar, a newspaper in Pietermaritzburg
1843AD Theatres Act rescinds power of the Patent Theatres. Macready’s first tour of the USA
1849AD Scribe’s Adrienne Lecouvreur
1850AD
1851AD Great Exhibition opens in the Crystal Palace, London. Charles Kean manages the Princess theatre. Ibsen appointed at the Bergen Theatre. Labiche’s The Italian Straw Hat. Napoleon III seizes power in France.
1852AD Dumas fils’s La Dame aux Cammelias Second Empire begins in France.
1853AD Exhibition of Zulu Kafirs opens in London The Lyceum Theatre opens in Port Elizabeth.
1854AD Dramatic Copyright law amended Start of the Crimean War
1855AD Sefton Parry first arrives in Cape Town, does performances with amateurs. Grey College founded in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State as a school for “Young Gentlemen” . Adams Mission School founded for Africans.
1856AD Bessemer develops his steel process.
1857AD Pasteur begins his studies of fermentation. Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. Free libraries open in England and Gerrmany. Sefton Parry returns to Cape Town with professionals and builds a wooden theatre in Harrington Street. Anglo-French war agains China ends.
1858AD Arrival of Mr J.E.H. English, a celebrated comic vocalist, who opened a Music Hall. A rederykerskamer called Thespis active in Paarl Battle of Vegkop between the burgers of the Orange Free State and the Basutu.
1859AD Darwin’s Origin of the Species. Boucicault’s The Octoroon
1860AD Victor Hugo’s Les Misrables. The Theatre Royal, Cape Town opened by Parry. Kingdom of Italy established.
1861AD Solvay’s soda-making process simplifies textile, glass and soap industry. Napoleon III attacks Mexico.
1862AD Prince Alfred’s Theatre in use by King William’s Town Dramatic Club. A rederykerskamer Aurora active in Paarl. Bismark becomes Minister-President in Prussia.
1863AD Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe. 1 April 1863 - First Tramway Company in Cape Town commences operations, with a horse-drawn service running on rails from the city to Green Point
1864AD Siemens&Martin’s open hearth prosees for steel. Garrison Theatre opens in Pietermaritzburg. Prussia declares war on Schleswig-Holstein.
1865AD Pres. Lincoln assassinated in Ford’s Theatre, Washington. Lister introduces atiseptic surgery. T.W.Robertson’s Society The Dramatic Hall opens in Pietermaritzburg. Door Yver Bloeit de Kunst resuscitated by J.C. Combrink, and lasts till 1910. 1866AD Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Dynamite patented by Nobel. First transatlantic cable laid. Chronegk joins the Meininger Co. as stage director. The rederykerskamer Aurora founded in Cape Town.
1867AD Siemens introduces dynamo. Marx’s Das Kapital, vol 1. Melt Brink's first performance for Aurora. 1868AD Willem Nel (a local Dutch play H.W. Teengs) performed in Paarl by Aurora.
1869AD Social Democratic Working Men’s Party founded in Germany. Suez Canal opened. Sarah Bernhardt in Le Passant Het Origineele Testament (Melt Brink's first play) performed by Aurora.
1870AD Start of Franco-Prussian war.
1871AD Stanley finds Livingstone in Africa. Zola’s Les Rougon-Macquart. Darwin’s Descent of Man. Verdi’s Aïda. Paris Commune seeks to set up government in Paris. German Empire and Third Republic in France founded.
1872AD
1873AD Maxwell’s study of electricity and magnetism. Spencer’s Study of Sociology. Emile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin Captain Disney Roebuck arrives in Cape Town.
1874AD Wundt’s Foundations of Physiological Psychology.
1875AD
1876AD Otto invents internal combustion engine. The new Theatre Royal opens, with Roebuck’s presentation of The Octoroon by Boucicault. Unie-Debatsvereniging founded. First edition of the Cape Times appears.
1877AD Rodin’s first exhibition in Paris. Russo-Turkish War begins.
1878AD Pasteur lectures on his Germ Theory in Paris. Cable communication is established between England and the Cape Congress of Berlin partitions Africa among European powers.
1879AD Ibsen’s A Doll’s House
1880AD Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. Pasteur identifies the Streptococcus bacteria. Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance Die Afrikaner Bond founded in the Cape Colony by “Onze Jan” Hofmeyr. Transvaal claims independence from Britain and declares itself a republic. The first Anglo-Boer war starts. Gladstone Prime Minister in Britain.
1881AD Billy the Kid killed by Sherrif Pat Garrett. Ibsen’s Ghosts, Zola’s Le Naturalisme au théâtre. Irving and Terry stars on London stage Boers defeat British at Laing’s Nek and Majuba. The Pretoria Convention recognizes the independence of the South African Republic (ZAR). Alexander II assassinated and Alexander III becomes Tsar in Russia. The French occupy Tunis, the British occupy Egypt. The Three Emperors Alliance formed by Germany, Austria and Russia.
1882AD Koch isolates bacillus of tuberculosis. Married Women’s Property Act in Britain. Daimler builds first petrol engine. Josef Breuer pioneers psycho-analysis in Vienna, by using hypnosis to cure hysteria. David Belasco arrives in New York. Wagner’s Parsifal. The Savoy Theatre, built by Richard D’Oyley-Carte, is first British building with electric illumination. Exiled Chief Chetswayo of the Zulu’s is taken to see The Fair One with the Golden Locks, a Roebuck pantomime in Cape Town. Republics of Stellaland and Goosen declared in Western Transvaal.H.E Bulwer becomes Lieutenant-Governor of Natal. British occupy Egypt. Triple Alliance (Italy, Germany and Austro-Hungary) formed. France and Britain establish dual control of Suez Canal.
1883AD Nietsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra. Orient Express begins to run between Paris and Constantinople. Ferdinand de Lesseps begins work on Panama Canal. Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Concession for a railway between Delagoa Bay and the Transvaal granted to a US firm by the Portuguese government. Paul Kruger becomes President of the ZAR. Germany begins settlement of South West Africa.
1884AD Trade Unions legalized in France. Parsons develops the steam turbine. Charles Parsons invents the first practical steam turbine engine. Cocaine used as an aneasthetic by New York surgeon Charles Halsted, who becomes an addict. Theatre Royal Cape Town burns down. Rebuilt. J.T. Jabavu founds the weekly Imvo Zabantsundu in King William’s Town. E.C. Williams first South African finalist at Wimbledon. Marianhill Mission School founded for Africans. Germany occupies South West Africa. Chetswayo dies and is succeeded as king of the Zulus by his son Dinizulu. Lucas Meyer and other Transvaal burghers found the New Republic at Vryheid.
1885AD Maxim invents machine gun. Pasteur administers first anti-rabies vaccine in France. The “Safety” bicycle introduced by the Rover Company in England. Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. Disney Roebuck dies after a performance of Called Back in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town. Bismark calls the Berlin Conference on Africa. Khartoum taken by the Mahdi and later recaptured by Kitchener. Congo State founded as personal possession of Belgian king Leopold II.
1886AD Aluminium made for first time. Kipling’s Departmental Ditties. Nietsche’s Beyond Good and Evil. Coca Cola goes on sale in Atlanta Georgia. Television pioneered by Nipkov in Germany. Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London. South Africa’s first Electric Trams rund between Adderley Street and Mowbray Hill, Cape Town. Gold discovered on the Witwatersrand. Burma annexed by British. Geronimo is captured in USA and Indian Wars end. Start of May Day workers celebrations, because of the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago.
1887AD
Luscombe Searelle begins his theatrical activities The rederykerskamer called Aurora ceases its activities for the duration fo Anglo-Boer War hostilities. The Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorwegmaatschappij is created to build a railway from Komatipoort to Johannesburg and Pretoria. 8 November 1887 - The Johannesburg Stock Exchange in established. Britain annexes Zululand, blocking the Transvaal’s attempts to find a route to the sea.
Strindberg writes The Father and publishes Miss Julie. André Antoine opens Théâtre Libre in Paris. First Colonial Conference in London. Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Esperanto devised by Lazarus Zamenhof In Warsaw. Electricity introduced in Japan. Edison invents the motor driven phonograph, using wx cylinders.
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