The worst earthquake of the 6th century destroys Tripoli (Libya). The quake, centered in Beirut, generates a tsunami that devastates North Africa’s coastal areas.

Two years after agreeing to allow the Buganda Kingdom to become a British Protectorate as a condition to remain in power, 29 year-old King Mwanga II seeks to re-established total control over governance, and declares war on Britain. His forces will be defeated in battle in two weeks (20 July) and he will flee to German East Africa. There he will be arrested, but in January he will escape and attempt to reclaim his country. When he is captured, he will be permanently exiled to Seychelles, where he will die at age 34.

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Established as the British Central Africa Protectorate 14 years earlier, the territory that will later be Malawi has its name changed to Nyasaland Protectorate.

The first motion picture with sound is shown in Africa, in Johannesburg, South Africa: a British short film Mr. Smith Wakes Up, starring Elsa Lanchester. Full-length sound films arrive in September 1929. (pic: a typically ornate “movie palace” of the 1920s, in Johannesburg)

The Siege of Saïo ends with a major World War II victory for Free Belgian Forces allied with Britain seeking to expel fascist Italy from Ethiopia, which Italy seized in 1935. 6,435 Italian troops are taken prisoner. (pic: Ethiopian soldiers fighting with the Allied forces against Italian occupiers)

South Africa’s Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act goes into effect as the apartheid government seeks to stop the growth of black informal settlements. The harsh law gives local authorities and landowners sweeping powers to remove the homes of impoverished squatters using practices condemned internationally as human rights abuses.

In preparation of its national independence from Britain and Egypt in December, Sudan issues its first money. The reverse of the banknotes shows a postman delivering the mail armed with a rifle and riding a camel.

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Malawi achieves national independence, from Britain. The capital is Lilongwe. The national population is 4,032,000. (pic: first Malawian president Hastings Banda)

For the first time an African head of state who loses a free multiparty election peacefully transfers power to his successor, as the term of Somalia’s first president Aden Adde (pic: left) ends and new president Adborashid Shermarke (pic: right) is sworn into office.

The head of Nigeria’s military government Yakubu Gowon declares war on the breakaway Republic of Biafra, beginning the Nigerian Civil War. The conflict will be characterised by crimes against humanity that will see up to two million Biafran civilians die of starvation.

The trial in Seychelles of six mercenaries from South Africa and Zimbabwe for the 1981 attempted coup d’état against Prime Minister France-Albert René finds all defendants guilty of treason. Four are sentenced to death. However, none of the men will be punished. They will be returned to South Africa after the South African government bribes René with US$3 million.

South Africa launches its first rocket, from Overberg. The satellite launching rocket RSA-3 has been developed with assistance from Israel. Fears are raised that it can be used by the apartheid regime as a weapon. The rocket project will be canceled as “commercially unviable” in 1994, when South Africa is democratised.

A campaign of bombings carried out by South African right-wing groups opposed to democratic reforms and an end to apartheid continues with a bombing at the Johannesburg taxi terminal, which injures 27.

The Injaka Bridge collapses while under construction in Bushbuckridge, South Africa. Among the 19 killed are design and consulting engineers inspecting the bridge. Human error, incompetence and negligence are found to be at fault. The ruins will be replaced by a new bridge that will open in 2000.

Tunisia’s 60,000-seat Stade 7 November opens, in Tunis. Named in honour of the day when Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali took power in 1987, the stadium will have its name changed to Stade Olympique Hammadi Agrebi in honour of the star midfielder of Tunisia’s national football team.

Burundi and Rwanda join the East African Community Customs Union, with simultaneous celebrations in the capitals Bujumbura and Kigali to mark their economies’ integration into the regional body.

A nationwide mystery grips Ghana when “highlife” musician Castro disappears along with his girlfriend. They might have had a jet ski accident at Ghana’s Ada Estuary, but an intensive search fails to find their bodies. Castro will be declared legally dead on 6 July 2021.

After the South Africa Supreme Court of Appeal overturns celebrity paralympian Oscar Pistorius’ conviction of culpable homicide, and rules he is guilty of murdering his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp in the infamous 2013 “Valentine’s Day Killing,” he is sentenced to six years in prison. The sentence will later be lengthened to 15 years, the minimum term for murder under South African law. Gender rights activists have protested his previous light sentence.