Today in Kimberley's History
October 13th
The first diamond is discovered in South Africa - 1867
South Africa’s first diamond, later called the Eureka, was discovered on the banks of the Orange River near Hopetown by 15-year-old Erasmus Jacobs. He was playing around on his father’s Northern Cape farm at the time and a pretty transparent rock caught his eye. It was a neighbour, Schalk van Niekerk, who identified this ‘rock’ as a diamond. You can read more about the heyday of diamond mining here.
South Africa’s first diamond, later called the Eureka, was discovered on the banks of the Orange River near Hopetown by 15-year-old Erasmus Jacobs. He was playing around on his father’s Northern Cape farm at the time and a pretty transparent rock caught his eye. It was a neighbour, Schalk van Niekerk, who identified this ‘rock’ as a diamond. You can read more about the heyday of diamond mining here.
First Newspaper in the Northern Cape published - 1870
The first newspaper, The Diamond Field, published at Barkly West, 1870
The first newspaper, The Diamond Field, published at Barkly West, 1870