Enshrined within Algiers’s new Catholic Basilica Notre-Dame d’Afrique, the much-venerated image of Marian is ceremonially “crowned” by the Archbishop of Carthage (Libya), to fulfill a decree of Pope Pius IX.

The predecessor of the South African Navy, the Natal Naval Volunteers, is formed in Durban, to provide maritime security to Britain’s Natal Province of South Africa. A similar organisation will be formed in Cape Town in 1905.

International telegraph service finally arrives in South Africa with a submarine cable running 1,485 nautical miles and laid by the Eastern and Southern Africa Telegraph Company from Mossamedes, Angola to the South African ports of Nolloth and Cape Town. (pic: Cape Town Cable Office)

The Pan-African association Ligue Universelle pour la Defense de la Race Noire is formed in Paris. Founded by Kojo Tovalou Houénou, descendant of the last king of Dahomey (Benin), who has lately become radicalised in the anti-colonial movement, the group’s aim is to defend the rights of black people worldwide. Houénou will travel to the U.S. in August to establish ties between the organization and black empowerment groups serving the African Diaspora in in America.

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Africa's first and only (as of 2024) carillon - a collection of 37 bells that are rung using a keyboard - is inaugurated today at Cape Town City Hall. The first tune to be played is the hymn O God Our Help in Ages Past.

The Mena House Hotel (pic: in background, top), in Cairo, Egypt, offers guests guided trips to the top of the nearby Pyramids of Giza. The tours will be ended after World War II by Egypt’s government to preserve the ancient monuments.

Algerian President Ben Bella is awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union, at a time when both East and West Cold War powers seek his favour. Bella is more interested in championing liberation movements throughout the Third World, and he seeks to position Algeria as the leader of Third World countries. (pic: Bella, right, with Cuba's leader Fidel Castro, centre left, and Argentinian Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, top left)

The last State President of South Africa’s apartheid regime, F.W. de Klerk, who with Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress is transitioning the country from a racist white minority government to a multi-racial democracy, issues an apology for the crimes of apartheid: “It was not our intention to deprive people of their rights and to cause misery, but eventually apartheid led to just that. Insofar as to what occurred, we deeply regret it. Yes, we are sorry.”

The first international exhibit of Malian photographer Malick Sidibé (pic: self-portrait), opens in Paris at the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain. This is the first of many exhibits, books and films celebrating Sidibé’s work, which focused on the Bamako club scene of the 1960s and 1970s.

Zambia’s new main Roman Catholic Cathedral, the Child Jesus Cathedral in Lusaka, is dedicated on the site that was a vacant field when Pope John Paul II conduct a mass there in May 1989 to tens of thousands of Zambians.

A teenage schoolgirl from Limpopo Province, South Africa who has been repeatedly bullied at school, Lufuno Mavhunga, takes her own life after a video of her being assaulted by a girl schoolmate is posted on social media and “enjoyed” by her classmates. (pic: as she is about to be slapped in video). Her suicide sparks an international discussion on bullying, the misuse of social media, and the need to make schools sanctuaries for education and children’s growth, not brutality.