On his landmark exploration, the first voyage from Europe to India, Vasco da Gama and his Portuguese fleet arrive at Arab-controlled Mozambique Island, which is also the southern-most location visited by Arab traders of the Indian Ocean. Because he is unable to offer the Sultan of Mozambique a worthy gift, da Gama angers the local population, which insist that he leave. Sailing away, da Gama fires his ships’ cannons on the island in spite. He will commit acts of piracy, seizing the goods of Arabian trade ships, as he sails north toward Mombasa.

A major earthquake in Blinda, 50 km south of Algiers, kills 7,000 people and destroys the city. Blinda will be hit by another large earthquake in 1867.

The first surgery is performed in Nyasaland (Malawi). Dr. Robert Laws (pic) uses chloroform to render unconscious a Malawian patient. His operation to remove a cystic tumour is observed by the people of the patient’s village, who were impressed by the procedure and its successful results.

After exterminating the Italian army at the Battle of Adwa, the army of Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II enacts revenge against 800 captured Eritrean Ascari soldiers who fought for Italy, cutting off their hands.

The first aerial photograph of the Zambezi River waterfall Mosi-oa-Tunya  (Europeans call it Victoria Falls) is taken by South African Air Force Lt Quinton Brand. He is co-piloting the Silver Queen II, which is making the first flight from London to Cape Town.

A new aviation record is set as French aviator Marcel Goulette flies a return trip from Paris, France to Tananarive, Madagascar, flying a Farman F.304 tri-motor airplane.

Morocco officially becomes independent from France with the signing a joint declaration in Paris that replaces a 1912 “treaty” that Moroccan leaders of the earlier time were forced to sign, and which gave the country to France as a “protectorate.”

Under Prime Minister Ian Smith, Rhodesia declares itself a Republic. Since its unilateral declaration of independence in 1965, the white-minority government has continued to recognise Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and their Head of State, and has used “God Save the Queen” as Rhodesia’s national anthem. A referendum in 1969 calling for the cutting of all remaining ties with Britain passed in a white-only vote by a four to one majority.

The body of Kenyan human rights activist Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, a critic of the Jomo Kenyatta regime, is found in the wilderness of Ngong Hill, bearing signs of torture and apparently left there for the hyenas. A champion of the landless, the unemployed and the forgotten Mau Mau freedom fighters, he became a populist favorite with his slogan, “We do not want a Kenya of ten millionaires and ten million beggars”

For the first time, Algeria hosts the African Cup of Nations (17th edition). Consistent with the tradition of many host countries also winning the championship, Algeria’s national team wins the title, its first. Djamel Menad is the tournament’s Top Scorer, with four goals.

Guinea-Bissau President João Vieira is assassinated by soldiers loyal to the army’s chief of staff, whose death hours before in a bombing they blame on Vieira. The killing of another army chief of staff in 1998, also blamed on Vieira (who was a political rival of both men) sparked a civil war.