1857 in South Africa

List of events

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1857
in
South Africa

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Decades:

Incumbents

January

6 – Marthinus Wessel Pretorius becomes the first President of the Executive Council of the South African Republic (Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek).^[4]

June

29 – Act no. 10 of 29 June 1857 grants the Cape Town Railway and Dock Company approval to construct a 57-mile long (92-kilometre) railway between Cape Town and Wellington.^[5]

Unknown date

Robert Moffat completes Old Testament Bible translation into Setswana.
About 157 Irish women arrive on the ship Lady Kennaway and settle in British Kaffraria.
The first Legislative Council is selected in the Natal Colony.
The Union Steam Ship Company wins the first mail contract for regular mail service between Great Britain and South Africa.
The Cape Point Lighthouse at Cape Point is built.
Building of the Roman Rock Lighthouse at the entrance to Simon's Town starts and only completed in 1861.

2 October – Martinus Theunis Steyn, lawyer, politician and statesman, last president of the independent Orange Free State. (d. 1916)

15 December – Anna Maria Truter, Cape Colony botanical artist and wife of Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet. (b. 1777)

^ "Sir George Grey (1812–1898)". Grey, Sir George (1812–1898). National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 23 March 2016. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^ World Statesmen: Botswana (Accessed on 14 April 2017)
^ Archontology.org: A Guide for Study of Historical Offices, Orange Free State: Heads of State: 1854-1902 (Accessed on 14 April 2017)^{[permanent dead link]}
^ ^a ^b Archontology.org: A Guide for Study of Historical Offices, South African Republic (Transvaal): Heads of State: 1857-1877 (Accessed on 14 April 2017)
^ Espitalier, T.J.; Day, W.A.J. (1943). The Locomotive in South Africa - A Brief History of Railway Development. Chapter I - The Period of the 4 ft. 8½ in. Gauge. South African Railways and Harbours Magazine, June 1943. pp. 437-440.