Kimberley Club Opens Ladies' Annexe, with rear access from Currey Street – 1937

The Ladies' Annexe was completed by the end of April 1937 and formally opened with a banquet on 12 May 1937, the day of King George VI's coronation. This was an important change, but women had not yet become members of the Kimberley Club. They remained guests of male members, who were responsible for them and for any expenses they incurred. Nevertheless, the success of the Ladies’ Annexe marked a significant first step in dismantling the Club’s long-standing exclusion of women.

Z.K. Matthews dies - 1968

On 12 May 1968, South African academic, African National Congress (ANC) politician, and Botswana's first ambassador to the USA and envoy to the UN, Zachariah Keodirelang (ZK) Matthews, died in Washington, USA. He was buried in Gaborone, Botswana.  "Bridging the gap between the old guard and the more militant younger members of the African National Congress in the late 1940s and 1950s, Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews exercised a major guiding and moderating influence on African political history in its most crucial period. He was at the same time South Africa's, and perhaps the continent's, most distinguished African intellectual".

​Matthews was born in Kimberley in 1901.

International Nurses Day – 1974

International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world every year on 12 May, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth in 1820, who is considered the founder of modern nursing. She made many improvements in nursing and played an important role in reducing the death rate of soldiers during the Crimean War, which took place between October 1853 and February 1856. In 1974, the International Council of Nurses marked 12 May as International Nurses Day.

Florence Nightingale was born on 12 May 1820 in Florence, Italy. From an early age, she felt it was her calling to become a nurse, but because of class and gender prejudices, Nightingale trained only when she was thirty-one years old. Nightingale led a group of nurses working at a military hospital during the Crimean War at Scutari, Turkey. She was appalled by the conditions in the hospital and began gathering extensive statistics about the health of the soldiers she treated. She often worked around the clock and visited her patients late at night, carrying a lamp for light. This resulted in her nickname 'the lady with the lamp' .

Nightingale began fighting to improve hospital conditions, which met with much resistance. Eventually, however, thanks to her contacts at The Times, Nightingale was given the task of improving sanitation in the military hospital. She was therefore able to dramatically reduce the death rate of her patients, and this began a lifelong effort to improve health by improving the treatment environment. To share her views on health reform, Nightingale published two books, Notes on Hospitals (1859) and Notes on Nursing (1859). With support, Nightingale raised £59,000 to improve the quality of nursing. In 1860, she used this money to found the Nightingale School & Home for Nurses at St. Thomas's Hospital. She also became involved in training nurses for employment in the workhouses established by the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act.

Nightingale also held strong opinions on women's rights. In her book Suggestions for Thought to Searchers after Religious Truths (1859), she argued strongly for removing restrictions that prevented women from having careers. Later in life, Nightingale suffered from poor health and went blind in 1895. A statistician and epidemiologist, she died on 13 August 1910.

Today, International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world every 12 May, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth. Nightingale made a significant contribution to nursing internationally by raising the status of nursing as a desirable occupation, raising educational standards for nurses and improving health care standards in general. International Nurses Day is celebrated to remember all of the valuable contributions nurses make to society. Even today, nurses in South Africa still undertake to honour the oath of Florence Nightingale