Anti-Christian riots flare in Alexandria, Egypt, as part of a nationalists uprising against government’s close ties with Britain and France. British and French navies respond by bombarding the city, reducing large sections to rubble. The uprising is used as an excuse for a British military takeover of Egypt, which will last until the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.
Armed conflict between Britain and Portugal over Southern Africa is prevented with the signing of the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty. The treaty declares the Pungwe River (pic), which flows from British-held areas in the interior to the Indian Ocean at Portuguese Mozambique, is an international waterway to be used by anyone. The treaty also sets a 3% customs duty that Mozambique can collect on goods arriving at its ports that are then transshipped into the interior, and calls for the construction of a railroad into the interior.
Having earned the reputation as “one of the prettiest towns in West Africa,” Lomé in Togoland now has a population of 7,042 Togolese and 194 Germans.
Census taken in British East Africa (Kenya) finds a population of 2,376,000. The non-Africans consist of 22,822 Indians, 10,102 Arabs and 9,651 Europeans. The largest town, the port of Mombasa (pic), has 32,000 residents.
The first black superhero appears in popular culture, an as African, Prince Lothar of the fictional Kingdom of the Seven Nations, is featured for the first time today in U.S. newspapers in the comic strip Mandrake the Magician. Mandrake seeks Prince Lothar's assistance fighting criminals and dictators. Lothar can lift cars and elephants, and is too strong to be harmed by knives, spears and bullets -- four years before Superman will be created in comic books. Identified as Mandrake’s “servant” in the first stories, they function as partners.
The South African Air Force fights its first air battle of World War II. The SAAF’s 12 Squadron flying Ju 86 aircraft engage the Italian army’s Regia Aeronautica in the skies above Ethiopia, while lending air support to British and Allied soldiers fighting on the ground.
The last Italian-controlled port on the Red Sea, Assab in Eritrea, surrenders to British forces and troops from Africa and India during World War II.
A smallpox outbreak in Nigeria raises fears of an epidemic. The World Health Organisation mounts a massive nationwide vaccination programme financed by the U.S. The programme will see 90% of Nigerians vaccinated. Some outbreaks will occur in 1967 among religious groups that refuse vaccinations.
The U.S. turns over its air base in Tripoli to Libya’s military junta led by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, although the agreement to do so was made with King Idris I before he was overthrown by Gaddafi in September 1969.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup opens in Johannesburg, South Africa. The 19th FIFA World Cup championship for men’s national associations of football teams is the first to be held in Africa. Games will be played throughout South Africa, to widely enthusiastic crowds. (pic: South Africa's team dancing on the pitch)
South African geologist, in Thurso, Scotland. A road engineer – he built eight mountain roads that vastly expanded transportation in the 19th century, he became fascinated with rock formations as he worked. Awarded £200 (equal to £26,000 in 2022) by the British government in 1845 for research, he created the first comprehensive geological map of South Africa, published by the Geological Society of London in 1856.
South African novelists, actor and director who is considered South Africa’s greatest playwright, in Middelburg, Eastern Cape, South Africa. His defiance of the racially-segregated theatre of apartheid South Africa led him to explore anti-apartheid and pro-humanistic themes in his plays.
Nigerian feminist activist, in Liverpool, England. She has worked in several organisations and institutions dedicated to women’s rights and women’s advancement, and in 2001 was co-founder of African Women’s Development Fund. Among the more than 6,000 women across Africa trained by the fund, most went on to occupy senior executive positions in their countries as Ministers, Members of Parliaments, university administrators and civil society leaders.
