Granville Town, a settlement in Sierra Leone, is established with the arrival of 400 formerly enslaved Africans who are now free men in Britain, where public sentiment has run toward the resettlement in Africa of Africans living in England. They are accompanied by 60 white settlers, but of the 460 original arrivals, only 64 will be alive in one year, as most will perish from disease, conflict with the local people who object to the invasion of their country, and capture by slave traders. Additional settlers will arrive in 1792 and establish a permanent colony.

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The Malian city Hamdullahi falls to the forces of Omar Saidou Tall, Emperor of West Africa’s Toucouleur Empire. Now in control of the entire Middle Niger area, Tall attacks Timbuktu. However, he will be repulsed by the united forces of Fulas, Moors and Tauregs in 1863.

The Budja people of the Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo) agree to be photographed for pictures to be used for post cards in Europe. These images will prove valuable to anthropologists and future historians because they record rituals like this funeral dance for a fallen warrior.

The first issue of the Pan-Africanist newspaper Les Continents is published in Paris. The mouthpiece of the new Pan-African association the Ligue Universelle pour la Defense de la Race Noire, it is founded by Kojo Tovalou Houénou (pic), descendant of the last king of Dahomey (Benin), who has lately become prominent in the anti-colonial movement. The newspaper reports developments in France’s African colonies, and news from the global African diaspora, but will be forced to close by French authorities in December after they deport Houénou.

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The day after the new state of Israel is proclaimed, the Royal Egyptian Air force attacks the capital Tel Aviv. The Israeli Air Force retaliates, striking Arab troops near Samakh, Egypt.

The father of Kenyan trade unionism and founder of Kenya’s first labour union, Makhan Singh, is arrested for having spoken out against British colonial rule three weeks ago (23 April). He will be acquitted at trial. Unhappy with the judgment, Kenya Colony Governor Sir Philip Mitchell will order Singh’s indefinite detention. Singh will not be released until 20 October 1961 (pic), eleven years from now.

German airline Lufthansa begins direct flights from Frankford, Germany to Khartoum, Sudan, increasing air travel into East Africa.

The new Ellis Park sports stadium (pic: under construction) opens in Johannesburg, replacing an earlier stadium built in 1928. Government marks the return of South Africa’s prestige sports venue with a commemorative postage stamp. After international sports and culture boycotts are lifted with the end South Africa’s apartheid state, Ellis Park will host major international sports events and concerts from the 1990s onward.

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Taking advantage of an insurgency challenging the Somali Republic’s military regime, Somaliland politicians resolve to make the territory independent from the Somali Republic, which it joined in 1960. The decision is made at an independence conference in Bureo. While the breakaway republic will remain stable and relatively prosperous as civil war rages in the south for more than 20 years, in 2023 Somaliland will not have received international recognition as an independent state.

“Whenever an old man dies, it is as though a library were burning down,” said Malian writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ, one of the towering figures of 20th century African literature, who dies today at age 90. He championed respect for and preservation of the tradition of oral storytelling.

South Africa is named host country for the 2010 FIFA World Cup football championship. Because the World Cup has never been held in Africa, only African countries were permitted to submit bids to host. Egypt and Morocco were strong contenders.

Perhaps Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène’s most important film, Moolaadé, premieres at the Cannes Film Festival in France. The drama about female genital mutilation was co-produced by Senegal, France, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Morocco, and Tunisia, and filmed in Burkina Faso.

The Gambia dictator Yahya Jammeh tells all gay men and women to leave the country or face execution. He specifies that they will be beheaded.

Mali’s national airline Compagnie Aérienne du Mali (CAM) changes its name to Air Mali. Operations will be suspended with the outbreak of hostilities in northern Mali in 2012.

The release of Timbuktu, the most globally well-received film ever from Mauritania, directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. Dramatising the plight of a herder endangered by Islamic militants, this will be the first film from Africa to be nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar) in an African language that is also the language actually spoken by the film's director.

Egypt’s President el-Sisi opens the Rod el Farag Axis Bridge. The Guinness World Record holder for the world’s widest cable-sway bridge, it is an instant tourist attraction, offering pedestrian walkways with spectacular views of Cairo. Glass floors provide the sensation of “walking on the Nile.”