The National Museum, Bloemfontein, is established in Free State, South Africa. Its collection of rarities from around the world will be made public with the museum’s official opening on 20 May 1878.

To meet the transportation needs of the great Witwatersrand gold rush, the Netherlands-South African Railway Company is given a concession by government to build a 25-km railway from Johannesburg to Boksburg.

The League of Nations grants international recognition of France and Britain’s joint possession of Togo (pic: the Port of Lomé), an arrangement made between the countries in 1916. The League gives Tanganyika to Britain to administer as a protectorate. The Africans whose lands are being brokered have no say in the administration of their countries.

After North Korean invades South Korea, the U.N. requests member states to militarily assist to secure the Korean peninsula. South Africa’s cabinet agrees to send Air Force pilots to Korea.

As U.N. peacekeepers arrive in the Democratic Republic of Congo to restore order, Ethiopia sends 460 soldiers of an eventual 3,000 (about 10% of the Ethiopian Army) to be deployed. Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria also send troops to help control the chaos in the DRC. The U.N. Operation in the Congo (ONUC) is the first U.N. peacekeeping mission to use military force to implement a decision of the Security Council, and the first to enforce an arms embargo and a no-fly zone.

The people of the newly-independent Somali Republic vote in a referendum to approve a new constitution. However, 60% of voters in the north (former British Somaliland) vote against the referendum. Southerners from the former Italian Somaliland will begin migrating in large numbers to the north, increasing tensions and leading to a failed revolt of British-trained military officers in the north.

The PanAfrican News Agency is founded, in Addis, Ababa, Ethiopia by the Organisation of African Unity. After assembling bureaus throughout Africa and hiring staff, PANA will begin reporting African news as covered by Africans rather than by the foreign press in 1983.

Somalia’s deadliest air disaster occurs when a Somali Airlines flight encounters bad weather after taking off from Mogadishu, and crashes near Balad, killing all 50 people on board.

Nelson Mandela makes his first state visit to a foreign country as President of South Africa, to the neighbouring country Mozambique (pic: with Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano)  .

The Nelson Mandela Bridge opens, and becomes an instant landmark in downtown Johannesburg. It is South Africa’s largest cable-sway bridge.

At meeting of the Confederation of African Football in Rabat, Morocco, the dates when the Africa Cup of Nations football championship is played are moved from January to June, and the number of teams in competition is expanded from 16 to 24.

A year after its completion as Kenya’s Tallest Building, Britam Towers opens to the public. The 195 metre-tall glass tower has been given a unique prism design that makes the building appear to change shape the higher it ascends. Wind turbines on the roof generate some of the building’s power.