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Tuesday 22 September 2015

Johannesburg

Johannesburg was named and established in 1886 following the discovery of gold on what had been a farm. Within ten years, Johannesburg's population was 100,000 inhabitants.

"Jameson's raiders," a group of British mercenaries and Bechuanaland policemen unsuccessfully tried to take over Johannesburg, the capital of Transvaal, over the New Year weekend of 1895–96. They failed, but it was an inciting factor in the Second Boer War and the Second Matabele War.

The Johannesburg Zoo was established in 1904, and historically, it has been owned and run by the city of Johannesburg. It houses the only two polar bears in Africa.

Mohandas Gandhi established a commune near Johannesburg based on Tolstoy's ideas, It was a farm of 1,100 acres where he pitched in with the manual work along with everyone else.

Nelson Mandela studied law at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and opened the nation's first black law firm in the city in 1952.

The first scheduled jet airliner passenger service began with a BOAC Comet flying between London and Johannesburg in 1952.

Johannesburg is the source of a large-scale gold and diamond trade, due to its location on the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills. The city is nicknamed Egoli, which means "place of gold."

Forty percent of all the gold ever mined in the world has been dug up from a 200 mile-long basin that includes the city of Johannesburg.

In 2011, the population of the city of Johannesburg was 4,434,827, making it the largest city in South Africa.

Johannesburg houses the tallest office block in Africa, the Carlton Centre (50 stories) and the tallest tower, the Hillbrow Tower (270 metres, or 90 stories).

In Johannesburg, the average car will be involved in an accident once every four years. 

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