Commemorations

At 05:30 on the morning of 11 November 1918, in a railway coach standing at a remote railway siding in the heart of the forest of Compiègne, Germany signed the Armistice Agreement that brought the war to an end.

Soon after, telegraph wires were humming with the message: “Hostilities will cease at 11.00 today November 11. Troops will stand fast on the line reached at that hour...”.

Thus, at 11:00 on 11 November 1918 the guns on the Western Front in France and Flanders fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare, warfare that had witnessed the most horrific casualties – such as when on a single day in the Battle of the Somme, there were more than 60,000 casualties.

So ended the First World War, at that time although officially known as the Great War it was usually known in the common vernacular as ‘the war to end all wars’! Regretfully the common vernacular got it terribly wrong as apart from a number of local wars being fought continuously in various places in the world, two months short of 21 years later world war was again started and what we know as the Second World War commenced on the 3rd of September 1939.

Most people today are aware of the Act of Remembrance, which when possible is held annually at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

A ceremony that is carried out in many places in many countries, when people come together to...

While a number of dates could compete for the honour, the one generally accepted as the day to celebrate Johannesburg's birthday is the 4th October. This was the date set out in President Kruger's famous Proclamation of the 8th September 1886 (repeated on the 15th September) which reads as follows (translated with our emphasis addded):

Proclamation by His Honour the State President

WHEREAS it has become apparent to the Government of the South African Republic that is desirable to proclaim the farms named DRIEFONTEIN, ELANDSFONTEIN, Southern portion of DOORNFONTEIN, TURFFONTEIN, Government farm RANTJESLAAGTE, LANGLAAGTE, PAARDEKRAAL, VOGELSTRUISFONTEIN and ROODEPOORT, all situated in Witwatersrand, district Heidelberg, as public diggings.

Therefore I, STEPHANUS JOHANNES PAULUS KRUGER, State President of the South African Republic, on the advice and with the consent of the Executive Council, in terms of section 5 of Law No. 8 of 1885, as amended, proclaim the above-named areas as a PUBLIC DIGGING in the following sequence and as from the following dates, respectively, to wit: -

The farms DRIEFONTEIN and ELANDSFONTEIN, on Monday the 20th September, 1886;

The southern portion of the farm DOORNFONTEIN and the farm TURFFONTEIN, on Monday the 27th September, 1886;

The piece of Government ground named RANTJESLAAGTE and the farm named LANGLAAGTE, on Monday the 4th October 1886;

The farms named PAARDEKRAAL, VOGELSTRUISFONTEIN and ROODEPOORT, on Monday the 11th October 1886;

Insofar as they have not been beaconed off by owners or lessees for Mijnpachtbrieven, or, under Law No. 8 of 1885, as amended, reserved...