In 1952, this day was the deadline for the South African government to repeal the Suppression of Communism Act and the Bantu Authorities Act. Their failure to do so eventually led to the African National Congress and the South African Indian Congress to launch a joint campaign of Defiance. This was to be instrumental in the launch of the armed struggle, the imprisonment of several apartheid-activists, and eventually, the establishment of the current democratic government.
 
In 1752, an expedition of seventy-one men, under the leadership of August F. Beutler, left the Castle at the Cape with eleven wagons and thirty-seven soldiers to explore the interior of the eastern Cape. After an eight-month expedition, they returned, and this eventually led to the expansion of the Cape Colony into the interior.
 
Finally, in 1988, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was arrested outside parliament while leading one of many protest marches against the death sentence of the 'Sharpeville Six', who were convicted of the 1984 mob murder of Sharpeville deputy mayor, Jacob Khuzwayo Dhlamini. The six men were convicted and sentenced to death on the doctrine of common purpose. The outcry and attention focused on their sentence by these marches led to several stays of execution, and they were eventually freed in 1991, with the release of all political prisoners in the country. This is just one of the events which cemented the legacy of Tutu as one the country's foremost fighters for justice.