Jameson Raid starts

Leander Starr Jameson led a group of about six hundred men of the Mashonaland Mounted Police from Bechuanaland (now Botswana) over the border of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (also called Republic of Transvaal). The group was under the command of Lt-Col. Henry F. White and bearing small arms, six Maxims and a 12½ pounder field gun. They were heading for Johannesburg in an effort to facilitate a rebellion by Uitlanders - a cosmopolitan group of foreigners who had flocked to the gold fields - and to further the ambition of Cecil John Rhodes for a united South Africa under British rule. Jameson was under the impression that by a sudden advance he would reach Johannesburg before Boer forces could be mobilised to stop him. He was proven wrong and had to surrender to General Cronje on 2 January 1896, leaving seventeen of his men killed, fifty-five wounded and thirty-five missing. Click here to read more on the Jameson Raid.