British warships arrive at Cape Town to begin battling Bavarian forces. Bavaria, a vassal state of France, controls the Cape colony. Britain is engaged in the Napoleonic Wars with France, and South Africa becomes the most distant arena of conflict.
The Cairo Opera opens with the first performance of Aida, which Giuseppe Verdi composed specifically for this occasion. What will become a classic opera retells the legend of ancient Egyptian general, Radames, who is so captivated by Aida, an Ethiopian Princess captured in his conquests, that he refuses to wed the Pharaoh’s daughter, with tragic consequences.
The Ethiopian city Dire Dawa is founded today when the construction of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway reaches this location. Construction is now halted until 1907, and this allows Dire Dawa, as the temporary end of the line, to grow rapidly as a trading centre.
The first issue is published of O Brado Africano (The African Shout) in Lourenço Marques (Maputo). By next year, the newspaper will claimed to have the highest circulation in Mozambique. The newspaper will continue in various forms and names until 1975, when all newspapers are banned by Mozambique’s Marxist government.
The Treetops Hotel, a two-room guest lodge near Nyeri, British Kenya, welcomes its first holiday visitors. Built atop a giant, 300 year-old fig tree, the hotel is designed as a viewing platform overlooking a watering hole used by a large variety of animals. It will be while staying here in 1952 that Princess Elizabeth will learn of her father’s death, which will make her England’s queen.
The first Christmas Season at the new flagship store of the Antsey’s Department Store, South Africa, brings its busiest day at the newly completed Antsey Building in downtown Johannesburg. The stunning Art Deco tower will remain the city’s tallest building for 30 years, and hosts residential apartments on upper floors.
Libya achieves national independence, from Italy, as ordered by the U.N. The U.N. also appoints influential religious leader King Idris as head of government. The United Kingdom of Libya is a federation comprised of the traditional states of Cyrenaica in the east, Tripolitania in the Northwest and Fezzan in the Southwest. Tripoli and Benghazi become joint capital cities, with parliament moving between them.
The Central Market in Casablanca, Morocco is bombed in protest of the exile of Sultan Muhammad V and the royal family, which was ordered by France. Nationalist leader Muhammad Zarqtuni supervised the bombing.
In a cruel mockery of the holiday season, Equatorial Guinea dictator Francisco Nguema has his political opponents executed at Malabo Stadium by a firing squad dressed in Santa Claus costumes, while 1969 pop music hit Those Were the Days is played over the stadium’s speakers.
Egypt’s deadliest terrorist attack occurs as men waving Islamic State flags mount a military-style assault on the Al-Rawda Mosque in the Sinai Peninsula. Detonating trucks to block escape, and machine-gunning emergency vehicles that arrive, they attack the mosque with rocket-propelled grenades, and shoot worshipers as they flee, killing 311 people, including 27 children.
The Rwanda Agricultural Board is partnering with the Rwanda Water and Forestry Department to use national forests for honey production. Because of pesticides and diminishing natural habitats, Rwanda’s bee population has decreased in recent years.
Algerian writer and political activist, in Taguemount El Djedid, French Algeria. Active in Algeria’s independence movement, he specialised in Tamazight culture and was considered the “spiritual father” of Berberism. His 1963 account of his experiences fighting in the Algerian War for Independence targeted him for murder by President Ahmed Ben Bella, who was exposed in the book. Campaigning for Berber nationalism from France, he was exiled from there also due to diplomatic pressure from Algeria.
South African jazz musician and composer, in Somerset West, Union of South Africa. His life’s work was in pursuit of a synthesis of South African black traditional music and black American jazz.
Nigerian businesswoman and motivational speaker, in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. By founding a furniture-making company and nurturing it into a major business, she drew attention to her entrepreneurial skills, and was invited to sit on other company boards. The first woman to be appointed chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria, she also founded Afterschool Graduate Development Centre in 2011.d
