On This Day in South Africa: What happened on 07 January?

Here’s a look at what happened on this day, 07 January, throughout world and South African history. We remember the news, events, and people that influenced the course of history forever.

ON THIS DAY: 07 JANUAR

1848 | A great gathering of Xhosa chiefs took place at King Williams Town, where Cape Governor Sir Harry Smith outlined his Eastern Frontier policy.

2015 | A car bomb exploded outside the police College in Yemen’s capital Sana’a, killing at least 38 people and injuring more than 63 others.

2012 | A hot air balloon crashed near Carterton, New Zealand, killing all 11 people on board.

1984 | Brunei became the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

2015 | Two gunmen carried out a massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, shooting twelve people in execution style, and wounding eleven others.

ALSO READ: What happened on 06 January?

BIRTHDAYS 

1973 | South African actress, Esta TerBlanche.

1991 | South African rugby union footballer, Bongi Mbonambi.

1980 | Australian rugby league player, Reece Simmonds. 

1987 | American actress, Lyndsy Fonseca. 

1991 | Australian footballer, Michael Walters. 

ON THIS DAY: DEATHS 

2013 | American journalist and author, Richard Ben Cramer, 63.

1998 | Croatian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate, Vladimir Prelog, 92.

2016 | American basketball player, John Johnson, 69.

2014 |English politician, Paul Goggins, 61.

2008 | South African academic and politician, Vice State President of South Africa, Alwyn Schlebusch, 91.

SPORTS

1959 | Indian cricket spin bowler Jasubhai Patel took 9-69 in Australia’s first innings for a score of 219 in the second Test at Kanpur on this day.

ENTERTAINMENT

1974 | Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather Part II”, one of the greatest films of all time, was released on this day.

AFRICA FACT

Nigeria launched its first military satellite into space on 22 December 2022