The quagga, a subspecies of the plains zebra with stripes only on the front half of its body, lived in the grasslands of South Africa's Karoo. Dutch settlers shot it for meat and hides and to keep it from competing with livestock, and it was extinct in the wild by the 1870s. The last captive, a mare at Artis Zoo in Amsterdam, died on 12 August 1883. In the 1980s, DNA from a preserved skin gave the first genetic material of an extinct animal, and the Quagga Project in South Africa has used selective breeding to recreate a similar striping pattern.
Before and after
- 5 June 1883Birth of John Maynard Keynes
- 15 June 1883Bismarck introduces the first national health insurance
- 3 July 1883Birth of Franz Kafka
- 29 July 1883Birth of Benito Mussolini
- 12 August 1883The last quagga dies in Amsterdam
- 19 August 1883Birth of Coco Chanel
- 14 November 1883Publication of Treasure Island
- 1884Car
- 1884Founding of Leicester City F.C.
More in Evolution & life
- 1811Mary Anning finds the first complete ichthyosaur skeleton
- 1824William Buckland describes Megalosaurus, the first dinosaur to be named
- 3 June 1844The last great auks are killed
- August 1856Discovery of Neanderthal 1
- 1861The first Archaeopteryx skeleton is found
- 30 August 1909Charles Walcott discovers the Burgess Shale
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.