Cape Town began as a vegetable garden.

1652

In 1652 the Dutch East India Company set up a station to supply passing ships with fresh vegetables and meat on the long voyage to Asia.

◍ Show on the globe

The event

• Founding of the Cape Colony1652 · Table Bay. Jan van Riebeeck set up a Dutch East India Company station at Table Bay to supply ships bound for Asia. The settlement at the Cape of Good Hope grew into Cape Town and the starting point of colonisation in South Africa.

17th century

More amazing facts

• 1644 In 17th-century Sweden a coin could weigh almost 20 kg. Copper plates were worth their weight in metal, so large payments went by cart.
• 1648 In 1648, as Europe signed the Peace of Westphalia, the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev became the first European to sail the strait between Asia and America — 80 years before Bering.
• 1652 · 1700 London’s 17th-century coffee houses were called “penny universities”: for a penny, the price of entry and a cup, you could listen to scholars and merchants for hours.
• 1653 · 1666 The first European account of Korea was written by a sailor chasing his back pay. Hendrick Hamel spent 13 years stuck in Korea and wrote his report to claim wages from the Dutch East India Company.
• 1653 · 1666 The Russian Church split over how many fingers to cross oneself with.
• 1661 · 1662 The last confirmed sighting of a dodo was in 1662 — just as Louis XIV was beginning to rebuild Versailles.

All amazing facts (1058) →