Important Advances Made in South Africa
- 1.5 Mya - Earliest evidence of controlled use of fire by humans at Swartkrans
- 1882, 1 September - Kimberley becomes the first city in the Southern Hemisphere and in Africa to have electric street lights.
- 1920 - Hendrik van der Bijl publishes The thermionic vacuum tube and its applications. The standard textbook on the subject of vacuum tubes for more than 20 years.
- 1937 - The 17-D Yellow Fever vaccine is announced by Max Theiler
- 1945 - Council for Scientific and Industrial Research was founded
- 1955 - SASOL produces its first automotive fuel from coal
- 1959 - Trevor Wadley invented the Tellurometer, the first successful microwave distance measurement device.
- 1962 - SANAE I, the first South African Antarctic base is built.
- 1963 - The Dolos was developed in East London
- 1965, 18 March - SAFARI-1, the first nuclear reactor on the African continent, goes critical
- 1967, 3 December - The first successful human-to-human heart transplant was performed by Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital
- 1974 - The first automated pool cleaner, the Kreepy Krauly, was introduced by Ferdinand Chauvier
- 1975 - Development is started on a helmet mounted sight system and the South African Air Force later become the first country to deploy these during combat.
- 1978 - SAR Class 6E1 (No. E1525) sets the narrow gauge land speed record for rail vehicles at 245 km/h (152 mph).
- 1995 - Mark Shuttleworth founded Thawte, an early Internet security company which is now the second largest certificate authority on the internet.
- 1995 - The Natal Sharks Board starts marketing of the Shark POD, a personal device to deter sharks.
- 1999, 23 February - SUNSAT, the first South African produced satellite was put in orbit by an American Delta II launch vehicle.
Read more about this topic: Science And Technology In South Africa
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