Gun to any onlookers, and manually fire the backup gun in case of some failure with the active gun. Notable events There have been few remarkable incidents involving the guns over the centuries. Perhaps the most notable one occurred many decades ago, in the days when horse-drawn traffic was commonplace. The rammer used to tamp the charge into the muzzle was inadvertently left in the bore of the cannon, and when the gun fired the rammer flew down into the city and killed a horse. One day in June 1895, the gun fired at 10:30 rather than 12:00 when a spider interfered with the relay used to remotely fire the gun. On Friday 7 January 2005, both the main gun and backup gun failed to fire owing to a technical difficulty. This was the first time in 200 years that the noon gun had not fired as scheduled. On 9 April 2013, a Twitter account was created for the Noon Gun that sends a single message reading "BANG!” everyday (except Sundays and public holidays). On 4 December 2020 both the main and backup guns fired in quick succession. On 23 May 2022, the gun fired exactly 5mins late at 12.05. Again, on 30 May 2022, the gun fired late. This time at 12:12. See also :Category:Time guns Smoke signal References External links Video of Noon Gun being fired, at Flickr Picture of Noon Gun being fired Signal Hill Gun twitter account Cape Town Time guns History of Cape Town Maritime history of South Africa Articles containing video clips Tourist attractions in Cape Town