The Supreme Court of the United States of America rules that four million Africans enslaved in the U.S. are property, not human beings, and not citizens of the U.S. The court rules that an enslaved man, Dred Scott (pic), cannot sue for his freedom because as a black man he has no rights in law. The decision will incite greater anti-slavery activism, and lead to the American Civil War in 1861 that will conclude with the end of slavery.
Telegraph service begins between Cairo, Egypt and Bombay, India using the Suez-Aden undersea cable. (pic: laying the cable from the Gulf of Aden)
One of the most famous works of art from antiquity, a bust of Queen Nefertiti, is found by Egyptologists in El-Armana, Egypt. The bust provides visual proof for Nefertiti’s reputation as a timeless icon of female beauty.
Morocco’s largest stadium opens in Casablanca, with a seating capacity of 30,000. It is named Stade Marcel Cerdan, in honour of the French Boxer. The stadium’s name will change twice as renovations increase its seating capacity, and in 2022 is known as Stade Mohamed V.
Ghana is freed of colonial rule. The capital Accra is a scene of tumultuous celebration. The world notes the historical milestone as the first Sub-Saharan African country gains its independence. The national population is 6,069,000.
In Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), three rebels opposed to the white minority government are hanged, despite the mercy commuting of their sentences by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, who is legally Rhodesia’s Head of State. Britain, which holds that Rhodesia’s 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence is illegal and the ruling junta has no authority to carry out executions, leads international protests. The UN will impose sweeping sanctions against the Rhodesian regime. (pic: armed black soldier protecting white golfers is made to carry their golf clubs)
The transition from the oppression of apartheid to democracy has proved a perilous time: 11,000 South Africans have been killed in political violence since 1986, reports the Black Sash Repression Monitoring Group.
M-Pesa launches in Kenya as a mobile money platform, allowing money transfers and payments using a phone app. The service is offered by Safaricom. People without bank accounts now have access to financial services, and will be served by more than 600,000 agents as the platform expands into Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Forbes names Nigerian business magnate Aliko Dangote “Africa’s Most Powerful Man” for the first of six consecutive years. Forbes will name him to this position again in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Nigerian independence leader, in Ikenne, Western Region, British Nigeria. He shaped modern Nigeria with his progressive social legislation even as an opposition leader. As finance minister, he invented the name Naira for the national currency. He was the first person in the modern era to be named Asiwaju Awon Yoruba - the traditional leader of Nigeria’s Yoruba people.
Gambian poet and writer, in Serekunda, The Gambia. His first book of poetry, When Africa was a Young Woman, in 1980, received favourable reviews internationally. Critics hailed his “genius,” naming him one of the finest poets The Gambia has produced.
