1850

• Convict ship dispatched from Cape to Van Diemen's Land as a result of local anti-convict agitation.
• Heerengracht renamed Adderley Street, after British M.P. Mr Adderley, who championed agitation against importation of convicts to the Cape Colony.

1851

• First oranges exported to England; made possible by steamship service.

1852

• No. 1 Reservoir built below Camp Street.

1854

• First Cape Parliament sat in The Lodge de Goede Hoop, Cape Town, on 30th June.
• Gold discovered in Transvaal.
• Cape Commercial Bank opened.

1855

• South African Museum reconstituted.

1856

• Open canal in Adderley Street covered.
• Wood street-paving introduced.

1857

• Earthquake in Cape Town on 14 August.
• Vlei on Green Point Common used for boating and model boat races.
• Monthly mail service to England undertaken by Union Steamship Company; voyage took 42 days.
• St Mary's Cathedral in Roeland Street completed.

1858

• Strand Street macadamized.

1859

• Construction commenced of Library and Museum Building - now the S A Library - in the Company's Gardens.
• Construction on first railway, from Cape Town to Wellington, started.

1860

• Visit of Prince Alfred to the Cape. This was the first royal visit to the Colony.
• first barrow of soil tipped by Prince Alfred for the construction of Table Bay Docks on 17 July.
• No. 2 Reservoir built below Camp Street.
• Penny postage introduced for letters within the City.
• First telegraph service, a privately owned line, introduced from Cape Town to Simonstown.

1861

• First horsetram service introduced between Cape Town and Sea Point.

1862

• First sod turned for the railway between Cape Town and Wynberg.

1863

• Visit of the privateer Alabama to Cape Town.
• Old Synagogue built in St. John's Street, Gardens.

1864

• Railway between Cape Town and Wynberg opened.
• Noonday gun first fired by electricity.

1865

• Sixty people died and 18 ships lost in Table Bay in the great gale on the night of 17 May.
• Lighthouse on Robben Island lit for the first time.
• Statue of Sir George Grey -- -the first statue in Cape Town --- erected in the Botanic Gardens.

1867

• First diamond discovered at Hopetown.
• Second visit of Prince Alfred to the Cape.
• First Mayor of Cape Town installed.
• Severe drought in Cape Town; it did not affect the growth of this tree.

1869

• The steamship Great Eastern in Table Bay. A token penny issued by local firm, Marsh & Sons, to mark the event.
• Public executions abolished.

1870

• Streets lit by gas during winter.
• Tinned meats exported experimentally from the Cape.
• Alfred Docks opened on 17 May.

1872

• Responsible government granted to the Cape Colony.

1873

• University of Cape of Good Hope, the fore-runner of University of South Africa, founded.
• Visit of HMS Challenger to Cape Town during marine research expedition around the world.

1874

• Foundation stone laid of present Houses of Parliament.
• Construction of Molteno Reservoir commenced.

1877

• Fist South African International Exhibition held in Cape Town.

1878

• Arrival of first telephones.

1879

• Metropolitan Church built on Greenmarket Square.

1880

• Pillar boxes introduced in Cape Town.

1881

• Bursting of newly completed Molteno Reservoir floods Cape Town.

1882

• Robinson Graving Dock constructed.

1883

• Standard Bank Building in Adderley Street opened.

1884

• First exhibition of South African products and manufactured goods held in Cape Town.

1885

• Telephone exchange opened in Cape Town.
  Simonstown Docks taken over by British Admiralty.

1886

• First masonry building ,the Colonial Mutual Building, with the first lift erected in Cape Town.
• Present Houses of Parliament opened.
• Malay cemetries closed on Signal Hill, under protest.

1887

• Jubilee of Queen Victoria celebrated and her statue erected in the garden of the Houses of Parliament.

1889

• First submarine cable to England was laid.

1890

• Railway station (on the present Golden Acre site) rebuilt and extended.

1892

• Botanic Gardens ceded to Cape Town Municipality as Public Gardens. Municipal electricity scheme inaugurated.

1893

• Commercial Exchange, on site of present OK Bazaars Building in Adderley Street, demolished.
• Opening of Opera House on 31 August.

1895

• Earthquake in Cape Town on 7 September.
• De Waal park, formerly Jubilee Park, laid out.

1896

• Streets lit by electricity.
  SS `Pieter Faure', Cape Government Marine Survey vessel, commissioned.

1897

• First electric-tram service introduced.
• South African Museum Building opened on present site.
• Old General Post Office---the biggest building in South Africa at the time---opened in Adderley Street, on site of present OK Bazaars Building.
• First motor car arrived in Cape Town; driven by J. P. Hess and known as `Coffeepot'.
• Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee celebrated.

1898

• New Street, formerly Thuyn Street, renamed Queen Victoria Street.

1899

• Coat-of-arms, granted to Cape Town by Commissioner-General de Mist in 1804, confirmed by letters-patent.
• Fresh-produce marked opened in Sir Lowry Road.
• Mount Nelson Hotel opened.
• Outbreak of Anglo-Boer War.

1900

• City Hall foundation stone laid.
• Balloon ascent from Rosebank showgrounds. Aeronaut dropped in Molteno Reservoir, and was drowned.

1901

• Visit of Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary).
• Foundation stone of new St George's Cathedral laid by Duke of Cornwall and York.
• General mourning of Queen Victoria's death.
• Last toll gate, in Woodstock, abolished.

1902

• Scenic tram service to Camps Bay, via Clifton and Kloof Neck, introduced.

1903

• Death of Cecil John Rhodes.
• Memorial tablet erected by S A Philosophical Society on site of De la Caille's Observatory in Strand Street.

1904

• New Synagogue built in St John's Street, Gardens.

1905

• City Hall completed.

1906

• First service held in crypt of new St George's Cathedral.

1906/7

• First aeroplane demonstrated at the Cape.

1908

• First silent cinematography film shown in the Good Hope Hall.

1910

• Act of Union of South Africa.
• Historical Pageant staged at Cape Town.
• Death of King Edward VII.
• Pageant, depicting South Africa's history, staged in Cape Town.

1911

• Construction of a 300-metres long pier commenced at foot of Adderley Street.

1912

• Aerial record established by Mr Driver, by flying over Table Mountain; in a monoplane with Gnome engine and wing membrane of silk.

1913

• Koopmans de Wet House opened as a cultural history annexe of the South African Museum.
• Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens opened.
• Pier opened by Sir Frederick de Waal, Administrator of the Cape Province.
• Greater Cape Town formed by amalgamation of the suburban municipalities, with the exception Wynberg, with Cape Town Municipality.

1914

• Municipal Orchestra (later Cape Town Symphony Orchestra) founded.
• Captain Scott died in the Antarctic. (Cape Town was the refit station for his expedition's ships). (Argosy monument at lower end of Adderley Street.)

1916

• The Slave Tree, an old fir-tree on Church Square, removed.

1917

• The Michaelis Collection in the Old Town House, officially opened.

1920

• The Government's Fisheries Survey vessel, SS Pickle, commissioned. Death of Olive Schreiner in Cape Town.

1922

• First wireless broadcast in Cape Town by Mr Streeter.

1923

• Carrilon installed in City Hall.
• First Union coinage in Cape Town.

1924

• First official broadcast by Cape Town Broadcasting Company, from Argus Building.

1925

• Visit of Prince of Wales to South Africa; laid foundation stone of new buildings of University of Cape Town, in Rondebosch.
• Afrikaans declared an official language.

1926

• Capt. Scott's ship Discovery, reconditioned for research on whales and Antarctic marine biology, visited the Cape.

1927

• African Broadcasting Company founded.

1928

• First `talkie' film shown in the Astoria, Woodstock.
• Wynberg Municipality amalgamated with Greater Cape Town.

1929

• Table Mountain Cableway opened.
• The `great depression'.

1930

• Camps Bay scenic tram route closed.
• RRS Discovery II, whaling and Antarctic research ship, refitted in Cape Town.
• S A National Gallery opened.
• Delville Wood memorial and garden in Company's Garden opened.

1931

• The Government's Fisheries vessel, RV Africana, commissioned.

1932

• New wing of S A Museum, housing Ethnology and Mammal galleries, opened.

1934

• Cape Archives transferred to former university building in Queen Victoria Street.

1936

• Death of king George V.
• Present South African Broadcasting Corporation founded.

1937

• Opera House closed on 7 January and demolished to make way for present General Post Office.
• Coronation of King George VI.

1938

• Pier demolished for reclamation of Rogge Bay and construction of Duncan Docks.

1939

• Tramcars replaced by trackless trams.
• The S A Mutual Building, in Darling Street, and the General Post Office, Cape Town's tallest buildings for the next 20 years, nearing completion.
• Outbreak of World War II.

TREE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, FELLED AND REMOVED.