Abdallah of Morocco is proclaimed Sultan of Morocco. He will be deposed five times in plots against him, but each time he will escape to safety. With each return to the throne, he will be proclaimed Sultan of the country five times. His longest reign will be nine uninterrupted years, ending when he dies on the throne in 1757.
Lagos is declared a British colony. The rest of Nigeria will be seized by Britain by 1867.
The first airplane to fly over Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) lands at Bulawayo Racecourse. The South African Air Force’s Silver Queen II is on the first flight from London to Cape Town. Newspapers will report that people are alerted to the plane’s approach by police shooting off their guns, and “Work practically ceased throughout the town, as almost the whole population, black and white, assembled at the landing ground.”
As part of national independence celebrations, the Ghana National Museum opens, in Accra. In 2024, it will be the largest and oldest of six museums operated by the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board.
A statue of Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah is unveiled before Parliament House in Accra. The artwork seeks to be a symbol of national pride and not as part of a cult of personality. Nevertheless, anti-Nkrumah group will bomb the statue in 1961, and the repaired statue will be toppled by a mob when his regime, which will become dictatorial, is overthrown in 1966.
The first Lufthansa Airlines flight to Africa departs from Frankford, Germany, and flies to Lagos, Nigeria. The flight uses a Boeing 707 jet.
The national airlines of Somalia, Somali Airways, is founded. Its first flights will take off in July.
The eighth African Cup of Nations is held in Cameroon, the first time the country has hosted Africa’s supreme football championship. The Republic of Congo wins its first title. (pic: Congo’s team the Red Devils)
Ethiopian forces recapture the military garrison at Jijiga from Somalia, reversing early Somali victories in the Ogaden War fought for control of the Ethiopian province largely inhabited by Somalis.
Despite intense international pressure to disinvest from apartheid South Africa, which has resulted in consumer boycotts of products and services of companies that continue to do business in South Africa, 177 U.K. companies, 143 German companies and 123 U.S. companies continue operations in the country, reports the Investor Responsibility Research Centre. (pic: Johannesburg)
Tsotsi, a South African dramadirected by Gavin Hood (on right in pic, with Tsotsi star Presley Chweneyagae in centre), receives the Best International Film Oscar at the 77th Academy Awards.
Suicides have shown a steady increase over the past century in African countries, as an individual's support from traditional family life finds no replacement in the loneliness and anonymity of high-pressure Western-inspired life. A World Health Organisation survey finds that Lesotho has the highest suicide rate in the world: 87.5 suicides per 100,000 people, and another small landlocked Southern Africa kingdom Eswatini holds the #3 position with 40.5 suicides per 100,000 people. (pic: a suicidal man in Kenya is rescued before he can leap from a mosque minaret)
Egyptian dancer and actress, in Beni Suef, Egypt. Flashy and exuberant, and the first dancer to wear high heels on stage in the conservative country, she was declared by King Farouk in 1949 to be “the national dancer of Egypt.” Her film acting included 1950s hits with her husband Rushdy Abaza, one of Egypt’s top movie stars.
Cabo Verde singer and “King of Mona,” the island nation’s sultry and dramatic singing style, in Mindelo, Cabo Verde. Over 214cm (seven feet) tall, he worked as bodyguard for legendary Cabo Verde singer B. Leza, who discovered his singing talent and taught him Mona music. He made his first album in Senegal in 1962, then moved to Europe where he was seen as an ambassador of Cabo Verde music. He returned to Cabo Verde when the country achieved independence from Portugal.
Nigeria Head of State (1976-1979), when he oversaw Nigeria’s transition to representative democracy, and President of Nigeria (1999-2007), in Western Region, British Nigeria. He was considered one of the most effective of the second generation of Africa’s post-colonial leaders.
