On humankind’s first voyage that circumnavigates the globe, the Spanish ship Victoria rounds the southern tip of Africa, sailing east to west past the Cape of Good Hope. Of the five ships that departed Spain in 1519 on the expedition of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, only the Victoria remains, and only 30 of the expedition's original 270 seamen are still alive. Magellan himself was killed during the voyage.

The first telegraph line in Southern Africa opens for commercial business. Operating from an unusually-shaped office in Cape Town, the Cape of Good Hope Telegraph Company provides service all the way to Simonstown, 45-km to the south.

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The entire European community – all 75 of them – of Blantyre, Nyasaland (Malawi) gathers to pose for a photograph. In 2022, the population of Blantyre will reach one million.

With the assistance of locally-recruited soldiers, the British capture Kigali. This is a major World War I victory in the East African Campaign's goal of seizing the German colony Ruanda-Urundi (Rwanda and Burundi).

The Exposition Coloniale Internationale opens in Paris with pavilions representing France’s African possessions. The six-month World’s Fair sees many Africans exported to Paris to dance and sing in semi-nakedness. The criticisms of African intellectuals against colonialism and the crimes committed against Africans are not given a platform during France’s celebration of colonialism. (pic: a reconstruction in Paris of the Great Mosque of Timbuktu)

Nigeria conducts its first modern, nation-wide scientific census. In addition to the south, Northern Nigeria is now being counted. The West will be counted in December, the Mid-West in January 1953, and East from May to August, 1953. Just shy of ten million people (9,998,314) will be recorded.

In the lead-up to its independence, the Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville) adopts a national flag, which will be flown on Independence Day in 1960: green represents forests and agriculture, yellow the friendship & nobility of the Congolese, and red to conform to the colours of Pan African movement.

Nairobi, Kenya is advertising itself as “the healthiest city in Africa.” In a visitor’s brochure, colonial mayor Harold Travis boasts, “Although Nairobi is only a hundred miles south of the Equator, its height above sea level gives it a near-perfect climate.”

Newly democratised South Africa establishes diplomatic ties with Ghana, Mali and Senegal, which for decades have been enemies of South Africa’s apartheid state. (pic: South Africa President Nelson Mandela with Ghana President Jerry Rawlings on right)

Ansar Dine Islamist rebels begin the destruction of Timbuktu’s ancient shrines, including the mausoleum of Muslim scholar and Sufi saint Sidi Mahmoud (pic). All are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The stunning Kigali International Convention Centre is fully completed, and hosts its first major event today with the opening of the World Economic Forum on Africa 2016. The 32,200 m2 centre that seats 5,000 convention participants is an instant landmark with its huge dome that swirls with an unending variety of coloured lights.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front, founded as a paramilitary force in 1975 seeking autonomy for the Tigray in Ethiopia, is designated a terrorist organisation by Ethiopia’s parliament.