Date: 25 December, 1487

Portuguese seafarer Bartolomeu Dias enters the wide bay now known as Lüderitz Bay after sailing for three weeks along the arid Namib coast of south west Africa.

On the same day exactly 10 years later, on 25 December 1497, Dias's compatriot Vasco da Gama gave the name Terra do Natal to the coast around the Kei River. The name was later extended to cover the coast up to Durban.

To read more about Da Gama's voyage of 'discovery' around the Cape of Good Hope, see our This Week in History entry for 4 November 1497.

References:

1. Wallis, F. (2000). Nuusdagboek: feite en fratse oor 1000 jaar, Kaapstad: Human & Rousseau;
2. Muller, C.F.J. (ed)(1981). Five Hundred years: a history of South Africa; 3rd rev. ed., Pretoria: Academica, pp. 6, 10.)