This Day in Southern African History: Apr 18, 1994: Ken Oosterbroek is killed

Ken Oosterbroek (February 14, 1963^[1][2] - April 18, 1994), was a South African photojournalist and member of The Bang-Bang Club. He worked for The Star in Johannesburg, which was South Africa's biggest daily broadsheet. He won numerous photography awards for his work.



Ken Oosterbroek initially struggled to get his start in photography, going from paper to paper trying to get a job based on photos he'd taken illegally of fellow conscripts during his military service in southern Angola. Years later, in 1989, he achieved his first success, winning the Ilford Award (South African Press Photographer of the Year). In reference to this, he wrote: 'And then in the morning this kind of emptiness or what-now feeling and it just wasn't so important anymore. I've got it, it's history, it's on record and now my head is free of a single-minded one-stop goal. Now I can really let it rip. Will somebody please give me a gap to let it rip? BUT, give me a break to shoot the real thing. Real, happening, life. Relevant work. Something to get the adrenaline up and the eyes peeled, the brain rolling over with possibilities and the potential for powerhouse pictures. I am a photographer. Set me free.' ^[3] He would be named South African Press Photographer of the Year again by 1991, and in August of that year he was chief photographer at The Star.

Oosterbroek was killed by friendly fire in Thokoza township, about 25 km east of Johannesburg, on April 18 - days prior to the 1994 elections in South Africa, the country's first all-race elections. He and other photographers were covering a clash between peacekeepers and the African National Congress when the peacekeepers opened fire and shot Oosterbroek and fellow Bang-Bang Club member Greg Marinovich.^[4][5][6]

In July 1995, South Africa began a fifteen-month-long inquest into Oosterbroek's death. Despite overwhelming evidence and ballistics proving that only the peacekeepers were close enough to have shot and killed him, the magistrate ruled that no one could be found responsible for Oosterbroek's death. However, in January 1999, fellow photographer Greg Marinovich, a close friend of Ken's, had a chance meeting with one of the peacekeepers who had been fighting in Thokoza the day of Oosterbroek's death, Brian Mkhize. Although Mkhize initially claimed it must have been Inkatha supporters shooting from the hostel that were responsible, on February 14, 1999, he admitted that out of fear and panic, the peacekeepers had unthinkingly opened fire. He stated: "I think, somewhere, somehow... I think somewhere, one of us, the bullet that killed your brother - it came from us." ^[7]
Kevin Carter wrote about Ken Oosterbroek in his suicide note, "[...]I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky."


Ken Oosterbroek's life and photographs are recorded in The Invisible Line: The life and photography of Ken Oosterbroek by Mike Nicol (Kwela Books & Random House 1998).

References

1. ^ Marinovich and Silva, 38. 'Lots' replied Ken, who had been born on Valentine's Day.
2. ^ Marinovich and Silva, 223. Ken would have turned 36 that day. in a meeting that took place in 1999.
3. ^ The Bang Bang Club: Snapshots From a Hidden War, page 37.
4. ^ Marinovich and Silva, 155
5. ^ Marinovich and Silva, 161.
6. ^ The Invisible Line: The life and history of Ken Oosterbroek by Mike Nicol
7. ^ The Bang Bang Club: Snapshots From a Hidden War, page 225.

 Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Oosterbroek [18.04.12]

This Day in History: Apr 18, 1775: Revere and Dawes warn of British attack

On this day in 1775, British troops march out of Boston on a mission to confiscate the American arsenal at Concord and to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, known to be hiding at Lexington. As the British departed, Boston Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes set out on horseback from the city to warn Adams and Hancock and rouse the Minutemen.

By 1775, tensions between the American colonies and the British government had approached the breaking point, especially in Massachusetts, where Patriot leaders formed a shadow revolutionary government and trained militias to prepare for armed conflict with the British troops occupying Boston. In the spring of 1775, General Thomas Gage, the British governor of Massachusetts, received instructions from Great Britain to seize all stores of weapons and gunpowder accessible to the American insurgents. On April 18, he ordered British troops to march against Concord and Lexington.



The Boston Patriots had been preparing for such a British military action for some time, and, upon learning of the British plan, Revere and Dawes set off across the Massachusetts countryside. They took separate routes in case one of them was captured: Dawes left the city via the Boston Neck peninsula and Revere crossed the Charles River to Charlestown by boat. As the two couriers made their way, Patriots in Charlestown waited for a signal from Boston informing them of the British troop movement. As previously agreed, one lantern would be hung in the steeple of Boston's Old North Church, the highest point in the city, if the British were marching out of the city by Boston Neck, and two lanterns would be hung if they were crossing the Charles River to Cambridge. Two lanterns were hung, and the armed Patriots set out for Lexington and Concord accordingly. Along the way, Revere and Dawes roused hundreds of Minutemen, who armed themselves and set out to oppose the British.

Revere arrived in Lexington shortly before Dawes, but together they warned Adams and Hancock and then set out for Concord. Along the way, they were joined by Samuel Prescott, a young Patriot who had been riding home after visiting a lady friend. Early on the morning of April 19, a British patrol captured Revere, and Dawes lost his horse, forcing him to walk back to Lexington on foot. However, Prescott escaped and rode on to Concord to warn the Patriots there. After being roughly questioned for an hour or two, Revere was released when the patrol heard Minutemen alarm guns being fired on their approach to Lexington.

About 5 a.m. on April 19, 700 British troops under Major John Pitcairn arrived at the town to find a 77-man-strong colonial militia under Captain John Parker waiting for them on Lexington's common green. Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment's hesitation, the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, the "shot heard around the world" was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead and 10 others were wounded; only one British soldier was injured. The American Revolution had begun.

Taken from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history [18.04.12]

This Day in History: Apr 18, 1906: The Great San Francisco Earthquake

At 5:13 a.m., an earthquake estimated at close to 8.0 on the Richter scale strikes San Francisco, California, killing hundreds of people as it topples numerous buildings. The quake was caused by a slip of the San Andreas Fault over a segment about 275 miles long, and shock waves could be felt from southern Oregon down to Los Angeles.



San Francisco's brick buildings and wooden Victorian structures were especially devastated. Fires immediately broke out and--because broken water mains prevented firefighters from stopping them--firestorms soon developed citywide. At 7 a.m., U.S. Army troops from Fort Mason reported to the Hall of Justice, and San Francisco Mayor E.E. Schmitz called for the enforcement of a dusk-to-dawn curfew and authorized soldiers to shoot-to-kill anyone found looting. Meanwhile, in the face of significant aftershocks, firefighters and U.S. troops fought desperately to control the ongoing fire, often dynamiting whole city blocks to create firewalls. On April 20, 20,000 refugees trapped by the massive fire were evacuated from the foot of Van Ness Avenue onto the USS Chicago.

By April 23, most fires were extinguished, and authorities commenced the task of rebuilding the devastated metropolis. It was estimated that some 3,000 people died as a result of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and the devastating fires it inflicted upon the city. Almost 30,000 buildings were destroyed, including most of the city's homes and nearly all the central business district.



Taken From:  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history {18.04.12}